Ciné-Guerrillas: Scenes from the Labudović Reels

In an unexplored vault in Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia, lies a collection of films known as “the Labudović Reels.” On them are images of African and Asian liberation movements and revolutionary leaders that defined the era of the 1960s. How is it that the archive of these revolutions lies on another continent, forgotten in a film archive? The answer to this question takes us into the story behind the images, on an intimate voyage with the man who filmed them.

As the cameraman of Yugoslav president Tito, Stevan Labudović captured an era of politics, personality and promise, filming the birth of the Non-Aligned Movement. Sent on missions by the President to film liberation wars, he would play a key role in the information battles that defined the era of decolonization. Together with Non-Aligned, this film diptych examines the legacy of these extraordinary archives, seeking to project their political vision forward.

Ciné-guerrillas plunges us into the media battle that played out during the Algerian war for independence where cinema was mobilized as a weapon of political struggle against colonialism.