Having languished under his bed for nearly 50 years, Karpo Godina’s earliest 8mm shorts are a revelation: films that explode with movement as he attempts to pin down life and unify it through a kind of ferocious montage and a soupçon of joyous eroticism. It is as if Godina, happily oblivious to the “rules” of filmmaking—and at 20 years, one of the youngest members of Ljubljana’s cine-club Odsev (Reflection)—is trying to reinvent cinema in the spirit of the 1920s avant-gardists. Universal Sun and Sunday Picnic are transitional works, still black and white and romantic in tenor, but already showing hints of Godina’s satirical politics and the monumental static camerawork of his feature films. Entire program without dialogue.
Program 47 min.
Pes (Dog). 1965. Yugoslavia. Directed by Karpo Godina, Mario Uršić. 35mm. 8 min.
Print restored from the original 8mm reversal print by the Slovenian Cinematheque in cooperation with the Austrian Film Museum and Österreichische Filmgalerie.
Divjad (Game/Wildlife). 1965. Yugoslavia. Directed by Karpo Godina, Jure Pervanje. 35mm. 6 min.
Print restored from the original 8mm reversal print by the Slovenian Cinematheque in cooperation with the Austrian Film Museum and Österreichische Filmgalerie.
A.P. (Anno Passato). 1966. Yugoslavia. Directed by Karpo Godina. 35mm. 5 min.
Print restored from the original 8mm reversal print by the Slovenian Cinematheque in cooperation with the Austrian Film Museum and Österreichische Filmgalerie.
Sonce, vsesplošno sonce (Universal Sun). 1967. Yugoslavia. Directed by Karpo Godina. 35mm. 14 min.
Courtesy the Slovenian Cinematheque.
Piknik v nedeljo (Sunday Picnic). 1967. Yugoslavia. Directed by Karpo Godina. 35mm. 14 min.
Courtesy the Slovenian Cinematheque.