Research Assistant
+386(0)1/4706346
manca.filak@zrc-sazu.si
Manca Filak was born in Novo mesto (1991). She completed her postgraduate studies at the Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology. She was awarded the Prešeren Prize of the University of Ljubljana for her master's thesis. The fieldwork for this thesis was part of a one-year study exchange and scholarship from Basileus Mundus in Skopje. After graduation, she received an Erasmus+ scholarship for a three-month study exchange at the Center for Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences (BAN). In 2022, she completed a secondment in Sarajevo (as part of the Trans-making project).
Since 2012, she has been working in the field of visual anthropology as an author of ethnographic films and documentaries, which have been shown and awarded at various film festivals, are part of research projects, museum exhibitions and the Slovenian Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage (see filmography). She has filmed and edited various aspects of everyday life of people in Slovenia, but also in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Macedonia and Bulgaria. As a young researcher, she is expanding her previous experience with theoretical insights into epistemological and methodological issues of visual anthropology. She is preparing a PhD thesis entitled Visual Ethnography of Housewives' Everyday Life in Slovenia. As part of the Audiovisual Laboratory, she participates in the organization of the international film festival Days of ethnographic film, as a film mentor at the Summer School of Visual Ethnography, manages the AVL Film Archive and leads the infrastructure project Digitisation of the archival film collection ISN ZRC SAZU. She is a member of the executive committee of the Slovenian Ethnological Society and the working group for ethnographic film.
Selected publications:
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).
All films (COBISS)