Freshly restored copy of the movie Red Boogie or What’s Wrong, Little Girl? by director Karpo Godina
At the third symposium East / West: Border through Film and History, which explores life along the Slovenian-Italian border through moving images, on May 7 at 8:30 p.m. in the House of Film in Gorizia, an exceptional film experience is promised. A freshly restored copy of the film Red Boogie or What’s Wrong, Little Girl? by director Karpo Godina from 1982 will be shown. On this occasion, we are hosting the director.
The film is set in the time after the Second World War, when the socialist five-year plan is underway. The radio station sends a group of young musicians to the field - to the workplaces of work brigades, to agricultural cooperatives and to construction sites. Their job is to raise morale among people. While trying to please the masses with their music, the young musicians themselves find themselves in an unusual situation: they have to re-educate themselves into conscious youth, as their jazz and boogie music genre is branded as imperialistic. The leader of the group is Maks, an experienced heartbreaker whose future depends on the success of the tour.
The film takes us on a journey in a rickety bus while revealing the tragicomic dynamics between art, politics and everyday life in post-war society. The restored copy of the film was prepared by the Slovenian Cinematheque in cooperation with the Slovenian Film Archive at the Archives of the Republic of Slovenia and the Slovenian Film Center.
The special feature of this event is that the author of the film was the recipient of the Darko Bratina award in 2012 at the cross-border film festival Tribute to a Vision. He received the award for the integrity of his original work as a director and director of photography and for his pedagogical work in the field of training new film generations. His oeuvre is distinguished by stylistic subtlety and bold experimentation, which always emphasizes the connection between the poetic and political levels and expresses both ironic distance and sincere compassion for people in a multicultural space.
Both the film Red Boogie or What’s Wrong, Little Girl?, as well as the entire life work of Karpo Godina, are important contributions to the formation of a critical and philanthropic consciousness, which encourages the pursuit of a free and plural society both within the framework of the Yugoslav cinematographic space and in Slovenian film.
On May 23, 2024, the Slovenian Cinematheque will open an exhibition entitled Karpo Godina: Film Imaginary, which will be on display until December 22. "Karpo Godina is surprisingly aesthetically perfect as an artist, always subversive but not cynical, as a humanist he is witty and consistently curious, as a craftsman he is a master, and as a man he is always committed to researching and admiring the world around him. /.../ The exhibition deals with the combination of all of the above, carefully framed through the eyepiece of the camera, within the limits of the static frame," they wrote.