An American in Belgrade: Independent Work in Arts and Culture of Eastern Europe

This presentation will explore the specifics of functioning as an independent worker in the fields of art and culture in the Eastern European region. Topics to be covered include academic research and writing, film festival and exhibition organizing, and general strategies for successfully navigating a precarious professional lifestyle. The politics of living and working in Southeastern Europe, outside of the European Union but still inside the continent, will also be of key concern. The presentation will close with an open discussion on the passage from graduate to postgraduate studies, with a specific emphasis on cinema and media studies and emerging trends in the discipline.  

Greg de Cuir Jr is the selector for Alternative Film/Video in Belgrade (Serbia). He has organized moving image programs for Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Los Angeles Filmforum, Slovenian Kinoteka, Experiments in Cinema in Albuquerque, and many other institutions. His writing has been published in Cineaste, Jump Cut, Festivalists, Art Margins, La Furia Umana, Politika, and other journals and volumes. He is the managing editor of the journal NECSUS and the series editor of Eastern European Screen Cultures, both published by Amsterdam University Press. In 2018 he was the inaugural curator-in-residence at the Black Film Center/Archive at Indiana University. In 2018 he will be the selector for the 64th Robert Flaherty Film Seminar. De Cuir received his d.phil. from the Faculty of Dramatic Arts at University of Arts in Belgrade. He lives and works in Belgrade as an independent curator, writer, and translator.