BEYOND BELONGING

From the totalitarian surveillance states of Eastern Europe with their planned economies there is no straight path to democracy and prosperity for one and all. In most societies the change of system has widened the gulf between poor and rich; the countries in which turbo-capitalism has swelled the ranks of the middle classes are the exception rather than the rule. And contrary to the assurances given by apologists of neo-capitalism, the economic reforms have not automatically led to stable democracies, either. The resultant situation seems all the more brutal when compared with utopian socialist visions – no matter how remote such visions were from being turned into reality. Running under the title “Socialism – Utopia Revisited”, this year’s Beyond Belonging looks at post-communist blueprints for identity, at the dark side of neo-liberal social orders, and the impoverishment of large sectors of the population. The programmed films deal with the specific worlds of work and life in the post-communist era; they show labour struggles, the ideological “re-coding” of the way a society sees itself, the struggle of the “small man” against corruption and other evils.
Open to diverse styles and forms, Beyond Belonging includes fiction films and documentaries, feature-length films and shorts as well as current video works.
Beyond Belonging – exploring new perspectives.