ANEM's first documentary film "Head down, hands on the back" (2003), realized in co-production with B92, is the sequel of the hour-and-a-half program De Profundis, created by the Radio Belgrade Second Program crew (today's ANEM and B92), which investigated the existence of the prison camps in Begejci, near Zrenjanin in Vojvodina. It is the story about the destiny of war prisoners in one of prisoners' camps on the territory of Serbia. It consists of the radio program (shorter version 15' in duration, longer version 30') and a 40-minutes TV film, which was aired In TV B92 program "Truth, responsibility, reconciliation". Both radio and TV versions were also aired on ANEM member radio and TV stations.
Two documentary three-part series, "Why People Whisper in Church" (2004-2005) and "Serbia and Europe" (2005) explore two important issues for the Serbian society today: the role of the Serbian Orthodox Church and its relationship with the modern Serbian state and incompatibility of conception and principles of local political, economical, religious and cultural elite with the systems of value and standards set as prerequisite for integration into the European Union. Both documentary series represent the example how certain burning social issues could be treated and analyzed in the media, which is very important for small communities in Serbia and at the same time very valuable contribution to the democratization and development of the civil society, which inspires free and public discussion of issues important for the future of this country.
Other attention-grabbing social issues are treated in documentary films "Gun Cult with Serbs" (2005), which explores the affection with the firearms and speculates whether such worship is a myth or a fact, and "Sub-Serbia" (2005), which shows the ideology and structure of certain sub-cultural groups in Serbia such as graffiti makers and squatters.
The topic of the documentary film "How We Were Banned" (2004) is the closing of ANEM member stations in Serbia during the last decade of the twentieth century. The film presents the dramatic testimony of more than fifteen journalists, editors, managers and owners of radio and television stations in outsmarting the then government.
The documentary film "Happy People" (2005) deals with the issues concerning discrimination of Roma population in Serbia, with the emphasis on less extreme ways of discrimination. The documentary was filmed on locations in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Nis, Pancevo, Paracin and Šabac and abounds with interesting and picturesque shots and original music.
Documentary film "Children above East and West" (2005) presents four twenty-year-old people who had never crossed the borders of Serbia. The cameras followed them to Zagreb, Vukovar and Ovcara, with the aim to tackle the issue of nationalism and intolerant attitude of the youth. The film also elaborates whether young people in Serbia today know the reasons for those wars, who they think is to blame and how to go on from there.
Similar issues are treated in the most recent ANEM documentary film "Balkan Footnote" (2006), which follows rather unique event: exchange of high school students from the territory of former Yugoslavia - Republic of Srpska, Serbia and Croatia. The students visited each other with one task - to present their country and their school the best they can to their fellow students in the neighboring countries. ANEM was the media partner of the Young Researchers Serbia on this regional project of the South East European Youth Network (SEEYN).
More about films:
Head down, hands on the back (2003)
Why People Whisper in Church (2004-2005)
