Background
Kino Udarnik was built in 1935 on the accord of a wealthy local family Guštin and was planned by the famed architect Vladimir Šubic. It was originally designed as the elite Maribor city cinema hall and was also a popular community centre, hosting even some sort of striptease evenings in the 1950s. In the late 90s, it started programming art films, became a member of Art Cinema Network and hosted, for example, the DokMa International Film Festival. In that same time Udarnik started to lose audiences due to the newly opened multiplexes on the city outskirts and in 2008, it was brought to a halt.
Programme
After being reopened, Kino Udarnik once again started with a quality, art cinema oriented programme and is one of the rare venues in Slovenia that is regularly presenting experimental films and various new works by un-established film makers. Regular screenings are organised in collaboration with the Slovenian Cinematheque and are called The Embassy of Cinematheque series. These screenings are sometimes followed by a discussion or artists talk (for example, a conversation of the computer art pioneer Eduard Zajc with the theoretician Melita Zajc) and co-organised with institutions such as SCCA-Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts).
Udarnik hosts the Maribor part of the Animateka International Animated Film Festival, the Stoptrik International Film Festival, the international children and youth film festival Little elephant and – together with Vetrinjski dvor – runs a summer open-air cinema series and a children's festival Vilinsko mesto [The Elf City].
A rich multidisciplinary programme is set up alongside, with regular music concerts and DJ nights, film education workshops and occasional lectures. Udarnik collaborates with many other NGOs from Maribor, like GT22 and the son:DA Foundation and has featured strongly in the Maribor, European Capital of Culture 2012 programme. It also has a small shop with various artisan products and a bar.
See also
- MKC Maribor Youth Culture Centre
- SCCA-Ljubljana Centre for Contemporary Arts
- Stoptrik International Film Festival
- Vetrinjski dvor
- Slovenian Cinematheque
- Animateka International Animated Film Festival
External links
- Udarnik Institute's website
- Kino Udarnik at Arhitekturni vodnik (in Slovenian)