Manca Filak is a researcher in ethnology and cultural anthropology, specialising in visual anthropology and ethnographic film. She completed her studies at the University of Ljubljana, where she received the Prešeren Award, and earned her PhD with a dissertation on the everyday lives of housewives in Slovenia. She further developed her expertise at research institutions in Skopje, Sofia, Sarajevo, and Tromsø.
She presents her research at international conferences, in academic publications, and at ethnographic film festivals, where her work has also received awards. As head of the Audiovisual Laboratory, she actively contributes to international scholarly and professional networks and advances visual research methodologies.
Filak’s research is situated within visual anthropology, ethnology, and cultural anthropology. She focuses on visual ethnography and ethnographic film, exploring everyday life, particularly domestic labour, motherhood, and human–environment interactions. Her work combines camera-based field research with theoretical reflection on the methodological and epistemological dimensions of visual approaches.
Among her key achievements are scholarly publications and a body of ethnographic and documentary films produced since 2012, screened at more than 50 international festivals, receiving multiple awards, and featured in museum exhibitions, research projects, and the Slovenian Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Her films document diverse aspects of everyday life in Slovenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, and Bulgaria.
As head of the Audiovisual Laboratory, she co-organises the Days of Ethnographic Film festival, part of the international CAFFE network, and mentors at the Summer School of Visual Ethnography. She leads the AVL Archive and contributes to the digitisation of the ISN ZRC SAZU archival film collection. She is also an active member of professional organisations in the field of ethnographic film. Her future research focuses on developing multimodal approaches in anthropology.
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.
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.
Selected filmography
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), DEF (Ljubljana, 2026), FNF (Ljubljana, 2026), Visualista (Cardiff, 2026).
- Culturality: CULTUral heritage in RurAL remote areas for creative tourism and sustainabiliTY (fundamental research project • April 1, 2024 - March 31, 2028)
- 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)
- Second prize, the silver horseshoe at Asterfest International Film Festival in Strumica (Northern Macedonia, 2013) for ethnographic film I will carry you to the seaside (2012). The film is part of the permanent exhibition I, we and others: Images of my world (Slovene Ethnographic museum)
- Special mention at the International Film Festival Etnofilm Rovinj (Croatia, 2016) for ethnographic film Zvonko and Ivanka (2015)
- Prešeren prize from the University of Ljubljana for the master thesis Skopje 2014 Project: The influence of city renovation on the identity of the city, social memory and national consciousness (2017).
- First prize for the best film of the festival (from the jury and the audience) at the Jamnarkult Film Festival (SI, 2018) for documentary Young Hopefuls (2016)
- Manfred Kruger Student Award at the Göttingen International Ethnographic Film Festival (Germany, 2020) for ethnographic film Lukomir, my home (2018)
- Third place at SEFF - Student Ethnographic Film Festival (Zadar, Croatia, 2021) for ethnographic film Tobacco memories (2020).
- Ethnologist behind the camera award at Ethnofilm festival Čadca (Slovakia, 2022) for ethnographic film Tobacco memories (2020)
- Junior Scholar Award at 10th InASEA Congress: Visual Cultures in Southeast Europe: Globalisation, Gender, Power, and Resistance, (Graz, Austria, 2022)
- Member of the Executive Committee of the Slovenian Ethnological Society and the Working Group on Ethnographic Film
- Member of the international professional association NAFA
- Member of the international professional association SIEF
- Member of the international professional association EASA
- Member of the editorial board of the Bulletin of the Slovenian Ethnological Society