In March 2017, the Center hosted two visiting artists Zana Marjanović and Emir Kapetanović for 10 days as part of the Southeast Europe: After the Wars programming.
About the Artists:
Zana Marjanović is a Bosnian actress best known for her role as ‘Alma’ in the 2008 film Snow and a member of the Bosnian House of Representatives. In her acting career, Zana was cast as a lead in 2010 in Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut film: In the Land of Blood and Honey (2011). She has also played Cobra in East West Theatre Company’s production of Class Enemy directed by Haris Pašović. After attending the prestigious Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts in New York City, Zana graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo.
In her political career, Zana has been a member of the House of Representatives, the upper house of the Parliament of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina since September 2014. Given the problems artists face in Bosnia and Herzegovina, her top priorities are legislative and financial reforms, which will help regulate employment and employment status of artists and other cultural workers. Zana has also become a member of the multi-party parliamentary Women’s Caucus of the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which focuses on ensuring that gender equality issues are mainstreamed across the work of the parliament.
Emir Kapetanović is a director and writer from Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. He graduated with a degree in film and theatre directing from the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo. In his career, he has written and directed short movies, cabarets, plays, documentaries, web series, TV shows, stand-up comedy shows, music videos, and street performances. From 2010 – 2014 he was Artistic Director of Magacin Kabare, a Bosnian NGO that promotes art and social activism through art, where he wrote and directed more than twenty cabarets.
He has written and directed 30 episodes of sketch comedy shows dealing with Bosnian social issues for the national television of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BHT). In 2013. in partnership with Jolie Pitt Foundation, Kapetanović wrote and directed the first Bosnian web-series “Patriot” using comedy and satire to deal with discrimination in Bosnian society. He is based in Sarajevo where he is now the Executive Director of Magacin Kabare. He often works on a projects dealing with children and people with disabilities as well as young people of Bosnia and Herzegovina supported by the American Embassy in Sarajevo, Unicef and the Jolie Pitt Foundation.
Gainesville Activities
Hippodrome Workshop
Zana and Emir led a multiple-day workshop at the Hippodrome Theatre with members of the teen ensemble group and the Spring Break camp on acting techniques and theory. The workshop resulted in a series of short performances by students in the Teen Ensemble at the 352Creates in the Park event in Depot Park.
Talk & Film Screening
In addition to working with local Gainesville youths, Zana gave a talk on March 22nd in the Political Science Department entitled “Women & Politics,” in which she discussed her experiences as a female parliamentarian in the Bosnian House of Representatives. Notably, her talk was well-attended by young Bosnian women working on their bachelor’s degrees at UF who are planning on getting involved in local politics upon their return to Bosnia & Herzegovina after college.
On the following day, March 23rd, the Center hosted a screening of Emir’s most recent film Children of Peace, which examines the milieu of post-war Bosnian from the perspective of the first generation of Bosnians born after the war. Following the film screening, Emir participated in a Q&A session on the making of the film, its reception and his future projects.
