The project draws on a little-known archive of militant and solidarity footage filmed by former Yugoslav newsreel cameramen during the decolonisation of Africa and the rise of the Non-Aligned Movement, whose first summit took place in Belgrade in 1961, launching a dense infrastructure of solidarity between Yugoslavia and newly independent countries such as Tanzania that extended into cinema.
This research forms the first phase of a new two-channel video installation, beginning with the identification, digitisation, and preparation of Tanzanian archival material, alongside a silent-screening workshop in Dar es Salaam bringing together artists, researchers, archivists, filmmakers, and people whose lives intersect with Tanzanian socialism, liberation movements, and non-aligned internationalism.
Access to the footage is time-sensitive: the archive remains fragile, under-inventoried, and only partially accessible. Furthermore, 2027 marks the sixtieth anniversary of the Arusha Declaration, Nyerere’s foundational statement on socialism and self-reliance, which is likely to bring renewed attention to this history in Tanzania.
Mila Turajlic is a documentary filmmaker, visual artist, and archive scholar born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
