2021
Grants approved – June 2021
Number of grants: 12
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1. Autonomous Festival of Women and Freedom Has No Price, Novi Sad
- RSD: 288.000
- Project title: Autonomous Festival of Women – AFŽ 2
Autonomous Festival of Women emerged in Novi Sad in 2020 with the aim of regrouping the activist feminist forces in Novi Sad and Serbia, as a street promotion of culture of non-violence through cross-political and media approaches. The first edition of festival has brought us the Protest choir. The organizers take the “AFŽ” acronym of the Women’s Antifascist Front of Yugoslavia as a sign of understanding the historical work of women on whose historical and political continuity they work. Reconstruction Women’s Fund supports the second edition of the festival, focused on the thematic framework of Women’s collectives, wishing to contribute to feminist conquering of public spaces, further articulation of local and wider feminist organizing and collaboration, as well as preserving the continuity of memory of progressive women’s initiatives.
2. Centre for supporting local community Mome, Pirot
- RSD: 258.000
- Project title: Struggle for rivers – women’s angle
The project implies filming a documentary up to 30 minutes long, devoted to women who wholeheartedly and loudly objected to building mini-hydropowerplants on the rivers of Stara planina, where they were growing up, after their years-long struggles for political and economic women’s rights. Their life stories differ but they are connected by their consciousness of common goods and bravery to oppose its abduction, as well as their firm belief that it is worthy of fighting. By supporting this project, Reconstruction Women’s Fund wishes to contribute to the wider contextualization and articulation of previous emancipatory actions that have shaped the ecology struggles led by women today.
3. Genero: journal of feminist theory and studies of culture, Belgrade
- RSD: 199.500
- Project title: 3. Genero: journal of feminist theory and studies of culture (25/21)
Genero: journal of feminist theory and studies of culture is the only journal in Serbia that specifically focuses on feminist theory and production of feminist knowledge. Although directed at the field of academic knowledge, with its political engagement, publishing articles pointing at the significance and importance of feminist research and critiques, the journal makes the feminist work visible both in the academic world and society as a whole. Besides the printed edition, all the texts from the journal are available on journal’s web page where they can be downloaded for free. Supporting the publishing of the new edition of the journal. RWF aims to contribute to the continuity of production and dissemination of feminist knowledge.
4. Hleb theatre, Belgrade
- RSD: 300.000
- Project title: Stage play “Marija Ručara”
Unfairly forgotten piece of Serbia surrealist poets Dušan Matić and Aleksandar Vučo “Marija Ručara” makes an inspirational material for creating a stage play that today speaks loudly about the position of women, worker and a single mother, now in the jaws of neoliberal capitalism, and represents a clear scream of a woman deprived of her rights, of all the Marijas then and now. RWF supports the development of this stage play that promises a layered reading of women’s position in diverse historical contexts and entices to learning.
5. Out of the Circle Niš
- RSD: 300.000
- Project title: Supported, empowered and independent
The aims of the project are empowering and supporting women with disabilities living alone, whether this is their own decision or they remained alone due to circumstances. The project will be conducted in the territory of Niš. Supporting women with disabilities will imply field and online work, with women experts engaged in the organization Out of the Circle Niš will provide women with disabilities essential information about the available social services, their rights, provide them with psychological support in the process of establishing their independence or adjusting to new living circumstances and overcoming crisis, and give them some practical advice on running a home adjusted to their type of disability, physical and intellectual possibilities. RWF supports the named activities within its wider goal of supporting independent living of women with disabilities.
6. Le Studio, Belgrade
- RSD: 300.000
- Project title: Princesses with an attitude
The project “Princesses with an attitude” is devised with the goal of developing critical thinking and self-consciousness among children aged 7 to 14 who live in suburban areas and smaller places. The project implies designing and performing an interactive stage play using shadow theatre techniques which will be based on the idea of new readings of old fairytales – analyzing traditional fairytales through the prism of gender equality with a special critical attention to traditional narratives promoting patriarchal schemes, authoritarianism and hierarchy. Creating an innovative content will be conducted during creative workshops that will include the participation of elementary school pupils on a residency in Cultural centre in Rumenka, while the stage play will premiere at the festival “Do you believe in fairytales?” in Cultural centre in Rumenka. RWF supports the goals of this project to work around questioning the patriarchal norms and promote gender equality since an early age.
7. Push-back Mapping Collective, Belgrade/trans-national collective
- RSD: 300.000
- Project title: Push-back mapping
Push-back Mapping is a trans-national project of online documenting and discovering systemic violence and push-backs on inner, outer and externalized borders of the European Union. The aim of this map is increasing the visibility of systemic deterioration of human rights, practices of illegal throw-outs and disabling the approach to the procedure of asylum seeking and getting international protection, as well as exposing migrants to psychological and physical violence, and death. RWF supports this project as an embodiment of trans-national solidarity in the efforts to contribute to support to people on the move, informing media, civil society and wider public about the violence against people on the move, as well as to contribute to ending such practices.
8. Citizens’ association Hora, Belgrade
- RSD: 198.670
- Project title: Documentary “Boro/Ramiz”
“Boro/Ramiz” documentary focuses on the story of the Palace of youth and sports in Priština, once a sports and cultural centre “Boro and Ramiz”. Its destiny corresponds with the history of this region, from former Yugoslavia to creating new national identities, working as a lens for observing the layered questions relating to collective and personal memory and relationship with cultural and ideological heritage. The director establishes a dialogue with several generations of Priština’s citizens, aiming to preserve memories of a relevant public space and the history of the building before the announced reconstruction. She involves her personal experience with the building and the specific female perspective. RWF supports the author in preparation phases of the film’s development which promises an explorative, critical, emotional but also thoughtful treatment of cultural and political memorialization.
9. Worker’s commune Links, Belgrade
- RSD: 120.000
- Project title: COUNTER-STRIKE: Restricted freedom of speech and political manipulation in media in Serbia – the Ugričić example (phase III)
To understand the intention of the project, it is necessary to structurally describe the politics and the time the project will deal with. The years is 2012, amd the pre-electoral media campaign for the presidential elections which Boris Tadić will lose is launched. This campaign was marked by an affair revolving around the intellectual Sreten Ugričić, then the director of the National Library of Serbia. The behavior of politicians, the usurpation of media, rapid shrinking of freedoms and pursuing intellectuals represent a model of ruling which only progressed in Serbia through the years. A team of experts has explored diverse aspects of this event and written a series of texts published in the book “Sreten Ugričić: writer, astronomer, terrorist”. With this grant, RWF supports WK Links and the authors’ team in further promotion of their work so far and presenting the Serbian, regional and international public the case study typical of failed or prevented reform of Serbia as a defeated, robbed post-conflict pre-democratic society and regression (political, cultural, moral) of such society into a tribal authoritarian populism.
10. Non-formal artistic group, Sevdljulje Ramadan and Božidar Stojkov, Novi Sad
- RSD: 260.000
- Project title: The invisible baby
A short documentary “The invisible baby” brings the story of pregnant young Roma woman, whose family was obliged to find another home due to the war circumstances in Kosovo in 1999. They are currently living in Veliki Rit, a non-formal Roma settlement in Novi Sad. The aim of this project is to make the internally displaced people who haven’t managed to solve their legal status more visible, since their status makes them invisible, as they live on the very margin of our society. RWF supports the development of this documentary because of an authentic authors’ perspective and clear intentions of demasking systemic, decades-long racism and marginalization of Roma.
11. Volunteering Centre of Vojvodina, Novi Sad
- RSD: 151.000
- Project title: Volunteering-study camp “Stručica”
The core idea of the project is gathering a group of young women and girls with and without activist experience around the activities of volunteering and studying program within the thematic framework of fascism and antifascism historically and now. Volunteering-study camp will be organized in Beočin: the working part of the camp will be devoted to improving the space around the abandoned monument of partisans Stanko Paunović Veljko, Đorđe Marković Đilas and Zencel Hunjadi, also known as Kurir Franja, named “Stručica”, while the studying part implies meetings with individuals who are diversely involved in resisting different types of fascism. RWF supports this initiative both for preserving meaningful volunteering and reviving the neglected partisan monument culture and memorizing the antifascist resistance.
12. Women in Black, Belgrade
- RSD: 300.000
- Project title: We remember the anti-war resistance in 1991!
It has been 30 yeas of the anti-war resistance in Serbia, 1991-2021. The ocassion is reminding, memorizing and marking the important acts and dates from the history of the anti-war resistance in Serbia. Practices, initiatives and deeds that are unspoken, suppressed or marginalized will be written into history. Through the activities within the project, we will introduce the public and permanently preserve exceptionally significant anti-war initiatives that took place in 1991/92. (civil anti-war actions, women’s anti-war initiatives, rebellions of deserters and consciousness objectors, artistic initiatives etc). The project is created for the overall public, especially young people and civil society in Serbia and the region.
