Ekran, Magazine for Film and Television

Ekran, Magazine for Film and Television was established in 1962 and is by far the most important Slovene film magazine of all time and also the one with the longest tradition. Throughout its history it has been a home for many generations of Slovene film critics as well as open towards foreign writers. Ekran is neither an academic magazine nor a commercially oriented popular magazine. In certain periods its orientation has slightly changed – from more academic to more popular – but Ekran has mostly retained its focus on providing a general overview of both the contemporary world film production – not only on "auteur" and independent cinema but also on mainstream cinema – and the recent developments in the film industry. Furthermore it has always watchfully followed current tendencies in film criticism, analysis and debates and in its most successful period – when Slavoj Žižek, Mladen Dolar, Zdenko Vrdlovec, and others introduced Lacanian concepts into film theory – it also promoted new ones.

Historical overview

Despite the fact that Ekran was not the first Slovene film magazine to appear after the Second World War (before it the Film Gazette and Film Magazine were published) at the time of its establishing, writing about cinema was at its beginning. That is why the young team of cinefiles (V. Musek, T. Tršar, B. Šomen) who in 1962 took over the new film magazine had to lean mostly on translated texts to introduce Slovene readers to the then current situation in world cinema. On the other hand they were among the first to promote new tendencies in the Yugoslav cinema of that time, influenced by the European new waves, mostly the so-called black film (B. Hladnik, J. Pogačnik and Ž. Pavlović in Slovenia, A. Patrović, D. Makavejev and Ž. Žilnik in other parts of former Yugoslavia) – on the home front and internationally.

The next important period in the history of Ekran were the 1980s when under the strong influence of the modern French film theory Ekran's writers (S. Žižek, M. Dolar, Z. Vrdlovec, S. Furlan, S. Pelko, A. Zupančič, etc.) started to merge high theory and popular culture – Lacan and Hollywood films. Their original approach to film studies triggered the golden period of Ekran as its reputation considerably grew as at home as internationally. At that time Ekran, with S. Furlan as editor in chief, made a big step forward also in regard to its organisational structure. It was published regularly on a bimonthly basis, it introduced a book collection – Imago, dedicated to film theory (later it was integrated into the publishing activity of Slovenian Cinematheque) – and an international colloquium of film theory called Autumn Film School.

In the mid-1990s Ekran's situation radically changed as it sunk into an editorial crisis and for a year it stopped being published. Towards the end of the decade when Ekran got a new publisher (Slovenian Cinematheque, in 1997) and Simon Popek took over the position of the editor in chief the situation slowly improved. It started to emphasise its cinephile orientation by following film festivals and world cinema and calling to attention the overlooked chapters of film history. In 2005 another editorial turn followed as N. Bohinc, the new editor in chief, not only decided for a more popular approach to cinema also gave the magazine a distinctive international character. The most recent change in its editorial policy came in 2009 when G. Trušnovec took over as editor. Ekran is now once again a monthly magazine (with a double summer issue) that brings a general overview on contemporary film production (mainstream and independent) while also giving greater attention to Slovene film production. Despite these positive elements, a feeling of regret still lingers among some: first of all the loss of the Autumn Film School as it always brought interesting international guests and opened a space for a vivid discussions on different film topics but also the loss of the Ekran "'Nursery' School of the Gaze" as it gave a chance for the youngest cinefiles to meet and learn new things.

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Ekran, Magazine for Film and Television

Historical overview

See also

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