Colony

2006 | 33mins | Colour
Project Director: Michelle Williams Gamaker
Directed by Mieke Bal, Gary Ward, Zen Marie and Thomas Sykora

Genre: Documentary
Multi-lingual with English subtitles

Can paternalism survive a globalised economy?

This film explores multinational shoe company Bata’s impact on individual lives and their surroundings. The film’s aesthetic, shifting from site to site and shot to shot, offers pockets as a visual version of the bubble that was the Bata colony itself. The characters are all connected to that past. They guide the viewers through the merging of past and present in memory. The film’s colouration also evokes this mixture.

The idyll of living and working together is obsolete. This is a tale of colonisation, hierarchy, and the politics surrounding the work of individuals whose lives became entwined in a global vision. Tensions between parties in labor conflicts come to the surface. In a highly globalised world, the paternalistic idea of a company that provides workers with not only the monetary means to support themselves, but also with a “village” that combines housing, education, health care, and leisure facilities, seems positively utopian and quaint.

Film festivals include:

  • “Stories from Places and Times Distantly Close.” Contemporary Art Society, Vancouver, Canada, November 21, 2009 – January 16, 2010
  • “Anti-Ekonomija Života” film program, Belgrade, Serbia, July 16–21, 2007
  • Bucharest Biennale 3. In “Dis-economy of Life” program. Bucharest, Romania, June 21–25, 2007
  • “Novas Imagens Urbanas.” In “Art-e-conomy” program. Incrivel Club, Lisbon, Portugal, March 8–10, 2007
  • In “Art-e-conomy” program, Moderna galerija, Ljubljana, Slovenia, February 12, 2007
  • Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa. In “Art-e-conomy” program. Venice, Italy, February 7, 2007
  • Artpool Art Research Center, Budapest, Hungary, November 15, 2006
  • Vtape, Toronto, Canada, November 5, 2006
  • Studio Dauhaus, Sofia, Bulgaria, November 4, 2006
  • Miroslav Kraljevic Gallery, Zagreb, Croatia, October 27 – November 9, 2006

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