About us

The KINO! Society for Expanding Film Culture was founded at the end of 2006 with the intent stated clearly in the society’s name. We want to emphasise that we understand the concept of film culture in the broadest possible terms. Both in the sense that film or audiovisual culture represents one of the most effective instruments of human expression and the means of discerning and making sense of the world and in the spirit of Serge Daney’s famous slogan that cinephilia is not just a special relationship to cinema; it is a relationship to the world through cinema.

The fundamental mission of the KINO! Society for Expanding Film Culture is publishing the KINO! newspaper/magazine/journal, which is devoted to film theory, politics and poetry. Due to the lack of quality cinema-related specialized literature in Slovenian, we try to fill this void by publishing the film-theoretical magazine KINO!, the fundamental translations of key works and selected monographs. With our planned and continual publishing of the magazine, we contribute to a broader development of the cultural activity of publishing.

Some of the more important books we have published are: one of the first Slovenian books on the theory and practice of animated films – Šola risanega filma (The School of Animated Film, Dovinković), Evidenca filma (The Evidence of Film and the Presence of the World, Nancy) and a number of fundamental works in the field of film theory: Kaj je film (What is Cinema, Bazin), O filmu (On Film, Brecht), Kinematografska pripoved (Film Fables, Rancière), Prizorišče odpora: Sodobni dokumentarni film (The Area of Resistance: Contemporary Documentary Film, Šprah; The Zlata Ptica Award), and  Film proti spektaklu (Cinema Against Spectacle: Technique and Ideology Revisited, Comolli).

In 2011, the Ministry of Culture granted the society the status of a public interest association: “The society contributes to the development of film culture and the promotion of cinema by publishing the KINO! magazine, critical film-theoretical works, translations and other publications from this field. It also expands its activities to film-related fields and helps promote them.”

With the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Sport and the Ministry of Health, we have prepared a handbook of selected cultural contents entitled Skozi umetnost o zdravju (Through Art About Health), while, with the National Education Institute Slovenia, the Ministry of Education and Sport and the Ministry of Culture, we have published a handbook on animated films in kindergartens and schools entitled Animirajmo! (Let’s Animate!). In 2017, as part of the Kamera (Camera) series, we published Vzgoja za film: razprava o poučevanju filma v šolah in drugih okoljih (The Cinema Hypothesis. Teaching Cinema in the Classroom and Beyond), a fundamental work on film education by A. Bergala. When the book was published, the French film theorist and educator hosted a seminar at the Slovenian Cinematheque and Kinodvor. In the Camera series, we also published the breakthrough study Camera politica (Barot).

Since 2013, we have been running a film education programme for children and youth entitled Sharpening the Gaze.