hello.
my name is
srđan keča
I work in moving image and sound.
Recently my work has explored more deeply the corporeal reaction to our built environment - a kind of science of fragility, that has taken me to Asia. Another strand of what I do is based in the Balkans and tries to extract the universal from the convoluted historical narratives.
I've recently completed my MA at the National Film and Television School, prior to which I studied at the Ateliers Varan. My former background is in physics, the precision of which I try to bring into my artistic practice.
Get in touch
→ In London
→ sk@skeca.com / +44 (0)7506386522
→ For screenings/exhibitions: studio@skeca.com
→ Follow @skeca
→ I am available for freelance work/commissions. (Past clients include Tate Gallery, Farley and UCA. Connect on LinkedIn.)
News
- Mirage was awarded Best Short Documentary at the 2012 London Short Film Festival and was featured in Sight & Sound as one of their top picks from the festival.
- A Letter to Dad is screening in the International Documentary Competition at the 23rd Trieste Film Festival.
- "The Long Take and the Long Now" is posted here for your enjoyment.
- A Letter to Dad had its International Premiere at IDFA and was nominated for the Silver Eye award for best mid-length documentary. Previously it won the Best Balkan Documentary award at Dokufest. Pamela Cohn wrote this beautiful hearfelt review of the film.
- Mirage won the Cottbus Discovery Award at Cottbus Film Festival and the main award at Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo. It also screened at Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam and Branchage Film Festival.
- The Real Social Network, a feature-length documentary I co-directed with Isis Thompson and Ludovica Fales, is being previewed at univeristies and occupations accross the world in November and December.
Selected Work
Mirage (42', 2011) documentary/installation
Best Short Documentary, London Short Film Festival 2012
Cottbus Discovery Award, Cottbus Film Festival 2011
Winner, Pravo Ljudski Film Festival 2011
Best City Film - Special Mention, Open City London Film Festival 2011
"a sumptuous visual exploration" - Sight & Sound
At the edge of a city growing from the desert, a man plays alone on a golf course. Another, sleepless, sends a letter from a labour camp to his wife in Kenya. A sand storm hits a construction site, and the locals hold a strange celebration.
Dubai, usually seen either as miracle of development or failed gimmick, here becomes a set for a visual exploration of displacement, longing and desire. In three chapters the city, the surrounding desert and their inhabitants slowly uncover some of the darker aspects of contemporary society, while the ongoing economic meltdown spells the end of an era.
Directed, produced and filmed by: Srđan Keča
Editing: Simon Bullen
Sound postproduction: Tom Drew
Original music by: Jon Wygens
Colorist: Belgin Kaplan
A Letter to Dad (48', 2011) documentary
Official Selection - IDFA 2011
Best Balkan Documentary, Dokufest 2011
Silver Eye Award 2011 Nominee
Official Selection - Trieste Film Festival 2012
"A gripping narrative with an intricate and carefully planned structure." - Christopher Hird
"Hey Dad, you died suddenly." The filmmaker, trying to make sense of the way his father chose to die, opens several boxes, all that is left behind. The forgotten photos, letters and home videos take the film back to 1970s Yugoslavia, when his parents became lovers. But the journey through the years, to family members, lost friends and places, reveals the lingering horrors of the recent Balkan wars still tearing people and families apart.
A film that, in the most immediate way, questions the individual responsibility of ordinary people caught in the winds of war.
Directed, produced and filmed by: Srđan Keča
Editing: Katherine Lee
Sound postproduction: Tudor Petre
Original music by: Alcyona Mick
Colorist: Belgin Kaplan
The Vineyard (in development) fiction
Project in development. Supported by the City of Pancevo (Serbia) and Synchro Film GmbH (Austria).
A hot, dry August. A younger and an older soldier are guarding supplies of petrol in a solitary house, to which a vineyard is attached. The owners had disappeared. Waiting for any news, orders, troops, anything, in silence the two men confront their generations, world views, choices, and characters. Someone else’s objects stare at them, and remind them.
The vineyard, ripening in front of them, slowly becomes the third participant of this quiet emotional destruction. The unbearable August heat is interrupted by dark clouds and a powerful hale storm. The destruction of the vineyard releases and redeems the suffering of the two men, and pushes them to the edge, between total surrender and a new beginning.
The Real Social Network (76', 2012) documentary
Release: Spring 2012
A feature documentary following 6 months of the biggest student movement in the UK since the 1960s. Not a film about activists, but a film showing people becoming activists, getting radicalized by witnessing and experiencing the response of the government and mainstream media to peaceful protest.
This is a collaborative project that uses live action footage, television archive, YouTube clips and animation to highlight the use of modern technology in organising protest.
Directed by: Srđan Keča, Isis Thompson, Ludovica Fales
Editor: Adelina Bichis
Produced by: Gavin Humphries and Anna Higgs for Quark Films
The Secret Life of Objects (28', 2011) documentary/commercial
Commissioned by Farley, this is a look at the antiques and props that make the film sets of virtually all of the UK film industry and a large portion of Hollywood productions. Featuring the props themselves (who wake up at night and have a party) and interviews with key designers and set decorators such as Stephenie McMillan (Harry Potter, The English Patient) and Peter Young (Superman, Batman, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory).
Directed and produced by: Srđan Keča
Cinematographer: Stil Williams
Sound recording: Xan Márquez Caneda
After the War (46', 2006) documentary
Grand Prix, Mediterraneo Video Festival 2007
Sony Best Student Film, Astra Film Festival 2007
Audience Award, DokumentART 2006
Golden Black Box, Balkan Black Box Festival 2006
High up in the mountains of Kosovo live the Gorani, a small Islamic people of Slavic origin, with no country of their own. The Kosovo war of '99 brought unrest into these fable-like parts and lives of the people, pushing them away in search of a new life. The ones who remain tell their stories -- before the winds carry them away.
Director, camera: Srđan Keča
Producers: Srđan Keča and David Solomon
Production company: Atelier Varan Belgrade