We've been Canoned (IMPORTANT UPDATE)
Thanks to Mr. Sanjin Kenjic, a marketing manager at Canon we can strikeout the item - SHOOTING THE SCENE IN SARAJEVO - from our budget breakdown (please scroll down to see what we need to finalize our project.) Canon will take a part in our project by giving us equipment required to shoot a scene at the Psychiatric Clinic in Sarajevo. Thanks for you SUPPORT!
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Important UPDATE
Mr. Zarko Kalaba, film editor and Mr. Srdjan Radakovic, sound designer, offered us (and we gladly accepted) their professional services for free, not only as their good will, but as their desire to be a part of our project, which means that God's People campaign is boosted for at least 20%. However, it's not all about the money, the greatest value is in the priceless talents and creativity of Mr. Kalaba and Mr. Radakovic that will enrich our movie and lift it to a higher level. All editing and sound designing process will be done at the Studio of Academy of Arts in Banja Luka - so we can strikeout VIDEO AND AUDIO EDITING from our campaign pitch. (Please note that we still need funds for shooting the scene in Sarajevo, DCP conversion, juridical costs for the license to show the movie on film festivals.) For more information please scroll down to the section that describes what we need to Finalize the project.
Short Summary
In early 2013, Vojislav Erceg, a senior student of film and television directing at the Academy of Arts in Banja Luka, and Duško Stanivuk, an audio and visual artist, theater director and screenwriter, have started their work on a documentary film Benjamin, which is also Vojislav Erceg’s undergraduate thesis. In early 2014 they were forced to stop with the production because of insufficient funding. However, that have not abounded it. Parallel with editing the material made so far, they have also been working on budgeting and fundraising.
Story
In 2009, a horrible crime shocked the citizens of Velika Kladuša when a mental health patient (T.P.) had committed a patricide. He had spent three years at the Psychiatric Ward of the Clinical Centre in Sarajevo, after which he was discharged.
The news of this act had been published in the crime columns of local and regional newspapers with sensational titles, which caused the outcry of society and condemnation of the mentally ill T.P. to the verbal guillotine, in spite of the fact that he had committed this heinous act as the consequence of untreated schizophrenia, unaware and in the state of utter insanity. His story has made an impact on the authors of this film as a disturbing cry of epiphany. The authors of the film have known the T.P. personally as a calm pacifist, erudite, and a poet who created several extremely valuable poems in three books of poetry published in Novi Sad.
“This one time, T.P. and I were sitting in a bohemian café in Novi Sad called “Kod kuma”, when a flower girl came to our table and tried to sell us a rose. T.P. asked the girl to wait for a moment, as he walked to a near-by florist shop and returned shortly with a colorful bouquet. He gave it to the girl saying: ‘Is one flower or one religion more beautiful than a bouquet of flowers, several religions? The bouquet is more beautiful, isn’t it?’ I was fascinated by that, and I decided to print his first poetry collection. He did buy a rose after all. (Laughter).” (R. Nisevic; transcript from the unedited film material).
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Director’s and Screenwriter’s Explication
The process of making the movie Benjamin (working title) started in 2013 with the research phase. Vojislav Erceg and Duško Stanivuk closely worked with experts from the field of neuropsychiatry; as well as writers from Banja Luka and Novi Sad (Ranko Pavlović, Zdravko Kecman, Saša Ilić, Berislav Blagojević, Goran Dakić, Rale Nišavić and Nikola Strajinić) to find pathways through T.P’s poetry labyrinth. A young violinist, Stojana Kučuk, composed music based on his poetry.
The making of the movie lasted for twenty three days; we were shooting at locations in Velika Kladuša, Bihać, Novi Sad, Belgrade and Banja Luka.
“We are faced with such a problem that sometimes feels like it is swallowing us: a poet-patricide, a mental health patient, his attitude towards his surroundings; the attitude of his surroundings towards him; an unmotivated murder; and finally meeting Benjamin, T.P.’s son –an existence that hits the wall, law and order of a disease within the disorder of a state such is Bosnia and Herzegovina; T.P.’s and Benjamin’s obsession with religion, God and soul. God’s People are doomed to live on the margins… This is not the process of creative work, but responsibility towards reality.
(…)
Naturally, parallel to all of the above, we have been examining where does the poetic imagination start and where does it end!?... And finally, we have attempted to document on the film how reality tempts and tests the mentally ill protagonists of our film – T.P. and his son Benjamin. We hope that we have confronted this colossal theme with the highest level of responsibility! The only way possible to make this movie has been with the magic of DOGME 95.” (Taken from the interview with Vojislav Erceg and Duško Stanivuk.)
To finalize the project…
…we need funds for the following:
Shooting the scene in Sarajevo (at the psychiatric ward of the Clinical Centre Sarajevo) (please take look at Important UPDATE at the top of the page);
Video and audio editing (please take look at Important UPDATE at the top of the page);
Video and audio post-production;
Video conversion to DCP format;
Distribution costs;
Translation (subtitling) costs, DVD burning costs, production of posters and other promotional material, postage and office costs; portable HDD for showing the film at foreign and local festivals.
(Note: Please be informed that we still do not have the authorization to show the characters presented in the film; the names of real persons have been listed as initials; and therefore the settling of legal costs is also included in the film’s budget plan.)
The Future of God’s People
The film God’s People (working title: Benjamin) has no commercial interest; after showing it for a year at film festivals, it is planned to distribute it to TV stations free of charge (only the donators will be able to see it online). Our belief is that this is the best way to raise awareness about the problem that is the main topic of the movie.
PERKS
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Thanks to our sponsor MARINER SOFTWARE we are now in position to offer you
two great Apple apps: Montage (screenplay writing app) and Marine Write (alternative to Microsoft Word).
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Our Benefactors So Far
The film God’s People has been supported by: Mrs. Sanda Karat, Mr. Uwe Merkel, photography director from Germany; “online” presence at the address www.benjaminmovie.com of our project was made possible by AVALON PREMIUM HOSTING from Bosnia and Herzegovina and GRAFIT DIZAJN.
STARDBIRD PRODUCTION, POND5 and SPOTTED FROG PRODUCTION have provided a very important segment, so-called “B-ROLL” footage, which helped us to significantly decrease production costs. Our special thanks go to the staff of STUDIO HRG for their unselfish help and support, as well as to the Mr. Mike Wray from MARINER SOFTWARE company (for the software package Montage) and the creators of Ulysses III application (THE SOULMAN).
We would like to mention Mrs. Cristina Sandru - from Literary Encyclopaedia and Mrs. Christine Buske, from Mekentosj company, for providing us great research application - Papers3.
Artists who support us
Dane Komljen
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Dejan Andrić
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Đurica Štula
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Mladen Miljanović
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Mladen Đukić
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Predrag Solomun
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Saša Hajduković
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Thank you ALL!