Journal of Film Preservation - FIAF

Vladimir Pogacic
(1919 - 1999)
In Memoriam
Text received by courtesy of Aleksandar Perovic
Vladimir Pogacic (23 September 1919-13 September 1999) studied the
history of art at the University of Zagreb where, soon after his arrival he
founded the student theatre and directed Irving Shaw’s play “Bury the
Dead!” as well as the premiere of Miroslav Krleza’s “Maskerata”
(Masquerade). From 1945 he worked as playwright and director at
Radio Zagreb. In the newly-founded student theatre he directed plays by
Anton Chekhov, as well as Bertolt Brecht’s “Die Gewehre der Frau
Carrar” (The rifles of Madam Carrar; the first Brecht play to be translated
into Serbo-Croatian). At the beginning of 1947 he entered the Film
School in Belgrade, and after participating for one month in the making
of G. Gavrik’s film “Zivot je nas” (Life is Ours) he was sent, on December
1, to the production company Zvezdafilm to direct “Prica o fabrici”
(Story of a Factory), a film about “accomplished workers”, which earned
him the Award of the Federal Government. Thereafter he made the spy
film “Poslednji dan” (The Next Day), followed by “Nevjera”
(Unfaithfulness, from Ivo Vojnovic’s play “Ekvinocijo”, 1953) which in
1955 was pronounced the best film of the first decade of Yugoslavian
cinematography. After this came “Anikina vremena” (Anika’s times) from
a novel by Ivo Andric and the documentary “Svedocanstvo o Tesli”
(Tribute to Tesla, 1955), which won an award in Pula, and “Veliki i mali”
(Great and Small, 1956) which earnt him the first prize for direction (ex
aequo with Andrzej Munck) at the 1957 Karlovy Vary Film Festival and
which became his most successful film internationally. In the same year
he made “Subotom uvece” (Saturday Evening, which received an award
in Pula). In 1959 he made two films: “Sam” (Alone) and “Pukotina raja”
(Shattering Paradise), and in 1961 the English-French-Yugoslavian
coproduction “Karolina Rijecka” (Caroline from Rijeka). In 1963 he
filmed “Covek sa fotografije” (Man from the Photograph) which was
awarded at the Pezara festival. His last film was the documentary
“Kosmaj i Kosmajci” (Kosmaj and its Inhabitants, 1981), a tribute to a
small village near Belgrade where he had a summer residence.
In December 1, 1954 he became director of the Jugoslovenska kinoteka
(Yugoslavian Film Archive) and in 1955 a member of the FIAF Executive
Committee. In New York, 1961, he was elected vice-president and, in
Bucharest in 1972, president of the Federation. In Lausanne in 1982,
upon his own wish, he was deposed from this duty and elected vicepresident.
After resigning from the position of director of the Yugoslavian
Film Archive in 1979, he was elected, in Oaxtepec, Mexico (1982), as
lifelong honorary member of FIAF. From 1972 to 1987 he was vicepresident
of Unesco’s International Council for Film, Television and
Audiovisual communication (CICT).
72 Journal of Film Preservation / 58/59 / 1999