The News Belongs to Us!

The contribution discusses the exhibition at the 57th Venice Biennial, where Slovenia was represented by Nika Autor, who in cooperation with the Newsreel Front collective created the multi-media project The News Belongs to Us! / Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows. As a co-participant in the exhibition, I examine both the book part of the project, that is, the collection of papers entitled The News Belongs to Us!, and its film part, Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows. Based on a video of refugees in the undercarriage of a train on the Belgrade–Ljubljana line that was filmed on a mobile phone, the main emphasis is the discussion of the relation between cinema, trains, migrations and a search for a better, more decent life. The contribution presents a few insights into the processes of the project’s creation, operation and potential impact in the current sphere of contemporary art, committed filmmaking and reflection. It also considers the relation between Newsreel 63 – The Train of Shadows and similar contemporary endeavours to revitalise the newsreel as a committed film representation of current social and political confrontations in various hotspots of the world.

The integral version of this article can be found in the printed KINO!