SANDRA STOJANOVIC
The moment we stop searching, learning and progressing, we shoot the last frame of our life's movie. 

 

NARRATIVE STATEMENT

The path towards my first interest in cinematography dates back to 1985, in the former Yugoslavia, when my father bought me a Panasonic VHS camera. In that one act, my life changed forever.  The next big stepping stone was Belgrade Film Academy, the most prestigious film school in former Yugoslavia.  The acceptance in this program is very hard since only five students majoring in cinematography are enrolled each year and there are very few women among them.  I was the second woman to graduate from the school's fifty years history.  During my studies I discovered many positive aspects of this profession, including constant team work with an everlasting outcome.  In those years, my focus was on shooting feature fiction films.

Nevertheless, when I started my professional career, I entered the deep seas of documentaries. This was caused by the historical situation in my native country and the dictatorship that lasted for more than ten years. During this long decade of wars, street riots and economic crisis, the film industry was at a virtual dead end. We witnessed events as participants of national history making.  When I decided to become a cinematographer I could not have expected to play an important part in history. I worked for a number of local and international documentary productions and spent seven years at the helm of camera for TV B92, an independent Belgrade TV station.

Working for them was not always easy, because the Milosevic's police beat and arrested journalists and cameramen.

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