Subversive Festival is a unique platform where theory and activism converge, where dialogue is established, and where pluralism and a critical approach to society are fostered. Within our conference and film programs, during nine years of our existence, we have hosted contemporary intellectuals such as Oliver Stone, Slavoj Žižek, Terry Eagleton, Yanis Varoufakis, Tariq Ali, Gayatri Spivak and many others.
This year's Festival will take place 1 - 16 May 2016, in Europa Cinema, Tuškanac Cinema and MM Center, Zagreb, Croatia.
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CALL TO ACTION!
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INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Since its foundation eight years ago, the International Conference within the Subversive Festival has soon become an unavoidable place for critical theory not only in Croatia and wider East European region, but also worldwide. Zagreb has become a traditional meeting point for leading philosophers, economists, theorists and feminists from around the globe, such as Slavoj Žižek, Gayatri Spivak, Chantal Mouffe, Tariq Ali, Zygmunt Bauman, David Harvey, Antonio Negri, Michael Hardt, Gianni Vattimo, Renata Salecl and many others. The Large Hall in Cinema Europe is often too small to accommodate the whole of the interested public, while we get extensive news coverage in regional, but also European media of lectures and discussions taking place in Zagreb. In the first three years the conference was dedicated to different anniversaries (’68, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, the Non-Aligned Movement), while the last five festival editions (2011-2015) covered contemporary themes such as the Arab Spring and the Future of Europe and have hosted the architect Remo Koolhaas, economists Yanis Varoufakis, Costas Lapavitsas, and Steve Keen, the theorists Naomi Klein and Judith Butler, the anthropologist David Graeber, the green activist Vandana Shiva, LGBT pioneer Boris Dittrich and many others. The topics which the conference covers year after year include the defence of the commons, workers' solidarity, the idea of Europe, heterodox economy, intercultural bonds, green economy etc.
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SUBVERSIVE FORUM
Subversive Forum is the activist part of the Subversive Festival, fostering discussion and debate, which complements the International Conference. While the conference takes place in the evening, in the form of keynote lectures or round tables, the idea behind Subversive Forum is to provide space for dynamic discussion with the audience, and not only between speakers. With the average attendance of 70-150 visitors per debate, and being the Festival's „youngest child“, Subversive Forum has in a very short time become a platform for theory and activism recognised by the World Social Forum. Moreover, Subversive Forum is involved with other European mobilisation fronts such as the European Altersummit or Firenza 10 + 10. It has also established partnerships and long-term collaboration with the European Transform Network for alternative thinking and political dialogue, CADTM (Committee for the Abolition of the Third World Debt), Eurozine (the network of 80 European magazines), Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung, Heinrich Böll Stiftung and other active participants conceptualizing the program, panels and debates. One of the most important parts of Subversive Forum is Balkan Forum, which gathers 40 different organizations from the Balkans. As from this year, we have also launched the Mediterranean Forum which will deal with the important topics of the region.
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Subversive Film Festival
Since its foundation in 2008, Subversive Film Festival has proven to be an interdisciplinary, hypertextual and political attempt at demystification of visual taboos, analysing the most powerful art forms of today and criticising the existing value system and institutions in the context of science, philosophy and modern art. Within the Film Festival we have screened hundreds of activist and artistic feature, documentary and short films, as well as masterpieces by renowned film directors.
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WHAT WE NEED & WHAT YOU GET
This year's festival runs under the topic of Politics of Friendship, and in order to keep it going, we need your help. This is because Subversive Festival doesn't work with sponsors, but is dependent on The City of Zagreb and Croatian Ministry of Culture's financial support, which was severely cut this year not only for our festival, but for other civil and activist non-profit organizations and associations as well, due to the change in political paradigm. We have thus decided to show it will not stop us from holding the 9th edition of the festival, uniting with other solidary individuals and associations, and keeping the festival going.
Help us reach the goal of $9,000 to make Subversive Festival take place this year in its largely free admission form, despite the deep cuts in funding by the city and state institutions.
The raised money will cover venue fees, travel and accommodation costs for our visiting lecturers, the building and maintenance of the festival website, printing and marketing expenses, and other operating costs.
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In return, besides knowing you supported a worthy cause, we've prepared these thank you treats for our contributors: a film festival pass, meeting our guests, dinner with our keynote speakers... Some of these are available only during the Festival, ie. 1 - 16 May 2016, so hurry up!
*If you don't feel like choosing a perk, you can define the sum yourself and donate :)
Or donate directly to the White Wave Association's account (Ilca 203A, 10000 Zagreb, Zagreba?ka banka): HR3923600001101515081 (state it's “for crowdfunding”).
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