Research Assistant, PhD
+386(0)1/4706346
manca.filak@zrc-sazu.si
Manca Filak, born in Novo mesto (1991), obtained her master’s degree in 2016 from the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana. She conducted fieldwork for her master’s thesis during a one-year study exchange and Basileus Mundus scholarship in Skopje, for which she received the Prešeren Award from the University of Ljubljana. After completing her studies, in 2017 she undertook a three-month study placement at the Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAS) within the Erasmus+ programme. In 2022, as part of the Trans-Making project, she participated in a one-month residency with the organisation Crvena in Sarajevo.
Since 2012, she has been active in visual anthropology as the author of ethnographic and documentary films (see filmography), which have been screened and awarded at numerous international film festivals, and presented in museum exhibitions, research projects, and the Slovenian Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage. With her camera, she has documented various aspects of everyday life in Slovenia, as well as in Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
She further developed her fieldwork experience as a young researcher by theoretically exploring epistemological and methodological questions within visual ethnography. She completed her doctoral studies at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, University of Ljubljana, with a dissertation titled Visual Ethnography of Housewives' Everyday Life in Slovenia.
As the head of the Audiovisual Laboratory, she co-organises the international Days of Ethnographic Film festival, works as a film mentor at the Summer School of Visual Ethnography, manages the AVL Film Collection, and leads the infrastructural project Digitisation of the Archival Film Collection of the Institute of Slovenian Ethnology ZRC SAZU.
She is a member of the Executive Board of the Slovenian Ethnological Society and of its working group for ethnographic film. Together with the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology and the Arctic University of Tromsø, she is involved in the bilateral project Addressing Human–Environment Relations through Multimodal Ethnography.
Selected publications:
2023 Gospodinje, matere in učiteljice: Upravljanje s časom pri družinah, ki svoje otroke šolajo na domu. Etnolog 33: 39–59.
2022 (Ne)občutenje mesta: Spremembe skopskega vsakdanjika pod vplivom projekta Skopje 2014. V: Rajko Muršič, Blaž Bajič in Sandi Abram (ur.), Občutki mest: antropologija, umetnost, čutne transformacije. Ljubljana: Univerza v Ljubljani, 219–238.
2022 Reprezentacija gospodinjskega dela, dvojnega bremena in materinstva v (vizualni) antropologiji in etnografskem filmu. Glasnik slovenskega etnološkega društva 61 (1): 95–107.
2022 Transhumance and tourism on Bjelašnica Mountain (BIH): A long term (visual) ethnography in a Bosnian village. V: Letizia Bindi (ur.), Grazing Communities: Pastoralism on the Move and Biocultural Heritage Frictions. New York in Oxford: Berghahn Books.
2020 Terensko delo s kamero: Snemanje enot iz slovenskega Registra nesnovne kulturne dediščine. V: Svetel, Ana (ur.), Nesnovna dediščina med prakso in registri: 15. vzporednice med slovensko in hrvaško etnologijo. Ljubljana: Knjižnica Glasnika Slovenskega etnološkega društva 53, 85–101.
2019 A long term visual ethnography in a Bosnian village: Tracking epistemological and methodological issues. EthnoAnthropoZoom 16 (16): 51–303.
2019 On the fields of tobacco: changing perspectives and expanding methodologies through visual ethnography. Entanglements: experiments in multimodal ethnography 2 (2): 101–110. 2018 Makedonska kulturna dediščina kot predmet politične manipulacije skozi prizmo arhitekturno-političnega projekta Skopje 2014. Etnolog 28: 141–158.
2015 “Making and presenting” ethnographic films: Practical and ethical dilemmas in visual anthropology. EthnoAnthropoZoom 12: 97–117.
Selected filmography (ethnographic and documentary films):
2012 Odnesel te bom na morje / I will carry you to the seaside: Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2013), Asterfest International Film Festival Strumica (MK, 2013).
2013 Kapitan in njegov Petek / Captain and His Friday: Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2014), Festival of Ethnological Film Belgrade (SRB, 2014), Ethnographic Film Festival Kratovo (MK, 2013).
2015 Zvonko in Ivanka / Zvonko and Ivanka: Etnofilm Festival Rovinj (HR, 2016) – POSEBNA OMEMBA, Festival of Ethnological Film Belgrade (SRB, 2016), Ethnographic Film Festival Kratovo (MK, 2016), Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2017).
2016 MLADA NADA / Young Hopefuls: Grossmann Fantastic Film and Wine Festival Ljutomer (SI, 2016), DOKUDOC International Documentary Film Festival Maribor (SI, 2016), Festival of independent film Ljubljana (SI, 2016), DORF Documentary festival of rock film (CRO, 2017), Jamnarkult Motavun (SI, 2018).
2017 Заграбване на земята / Land Grabbing: Sjón International Film Festival Copenhagen (Denmark, 2018), International conference ORGANIC FARMING IN BULGARIA: MORE INNOVATIONS FOR BETTER RESULTS (Bulgaria, 2018), Sofia Biting Docs (Bulgaria, 2019).
2018 Lukomir, moj dom / Lukomir, my home: Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2018), SEFF International Ethnographic Film Festival (CRO, 2018), NAFA Nordic Anthropological Film Association (ROM, 2018), Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival (USA, 2018), European Association of Social Anthropologists (Biennial Conference: Staying, Moving, Settling) (SWE, 2018), International festival of ethnological film (SRB, 2018), Kratovo ethnographic film festival (MK, 2018), Festival Gorniškega filma (SI, 2019), World Film Festival (EST, 2019), International Society for Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF): Track Changes: Reflecting on a Transforming World (ES, 2019), 7th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association (APA) (PORT, 2019); ETNOFF (MK, 2019), Kathmandu Mountain Film Festival (NEPAL, 2019), GIEFF (GER, 2020); Golden Tree International Documentary Film Festival (Beijing – Paris 2021).
2020 Tobačni spomini / Tobacco memories: Days of Ethnographic Film Ljubljana (SI, 2021); Rising Gardens Film Festival (Asia 2021); SIEF2021: BREAKING THE RULES? POWER, PARTICIPATION, TRANSGRESSION; SEFF Student Ethnographic Film Festival (CRO, 2021); 8th International Degrowth Conference (NL, 2021) – “Feminist and Decolonial Naturecultures”; Cinema and You International Film Festival (UKR, 2021); Kratovo Ethnographic Film Festival (MK, 2021); International festival of ethnological film Belgrade (SRB, 2021); ETNOFF Skopje (MK, 2021); Vizantrop engaged ethnographic film festival (SRB, 2021) Serbia; Society for Visual Anthropology Film and Media Festival (US, 2021); IUAES 2021 Yucatan Congress: INDIGENOUS AND ETHNOGRAPHIC FILM EXHIBITION (Mexico, 2021); The International Ethnographic Film Festival of Quebec (Canada, 2022); Festival neodvisnega filma (SI, 2022); EASA2022: Transformation, Hope and the Commons (Belfast, 2022); 8th Congress of the Portuguese Anthropological Association APA (2022); KIEFF - Korea International Ethnographic Film Festival (2022); ETNOFILM ČADCA (Slovakia, 2022).
2025 Šola za življenje / School for life ETNOFF (Skopje, 2025).
All films (COBISS)
AlpTextyles - Collaborative solutions for a heritage & consumer sensitive relocalization of sustainable, circular, and innovative Alpine textile value chains (applied project • November 1, 2022 - October 31, 2025)
Alpfoodway: a cross-disciplinary, transnational and participative approach to Alpine food cultural heritage (INTERREG • November 1, 2016 - October 31, 2019)
Wellbeing on the farms: strengthening resources and skills (December 1, 2024 - November 30, 2026)
TiCToC: Times in Crisis, Times of Crisis: The Temporalities of Europe in Polycrisis (March 1, 2025 - February 29, 2028)