KAMERAT Labour Film Festival is the first and the only labor film festival in Slovenia and among the few around the world. Friends of culture, film, and dignified, decent work have been inspired by the 1934 workers’ strike in the Slovenian city of Hrastnik, when workers from across sectors jointly demanded and achieved better working conditions. It is no coincidence that the festival takes place on the anniversary of the strike when the local community celebrates solidarity, comradeship, and the importance of organizing for common goals. The festival, named after how workers in the mine used to call each other (kamerat means comrade), calls out not only a fellow worker but much more: from comradeship and solidarity to organizing for common goals – values that are nowadays pushed aside.
The unique features of the festival are also its venues in a no longer operational coal mine – film projections take place in the old compressor station as well as in the tunnel, 40 meters underground. These locations add to the festival’s distinctive value, bringing workers’ films to spaces where generations of workers labored for decades and that continue to impress themselves on visitors.
The purpose of the KAMERAT is to use film as a mode of social criticism to investigate the position of workers at the crossroads of history and the future, changing concepts of work, and workers’ rights in various social, economic, and technological contexts. These topics are further explored through accompanying round tables, conversations with international and local workers in art, workshops, exhibitions, and educational events. As such, the festival brings together and joins forces with trade unions, movements, activists, artists, and other workers in the field of culture.
Poster for the KAMERAT Labour Film Festival in 2023. Author: Aljaž Košir
