“From the roots to the flower” is this year's slogan of the first edition festival Ilinden Days. We started the creation of our film program from the roots of the Bitola's film tradition, the one of the Manaki brothers – the first cinematographers in Macedonia and in the Balkan, who left us invaluable testimonies of the everyday life and the great events of their time, engraved on the film tape. They actually made the first ethnographic documentaries.
It was natural that the Festival Ilinden Days, which has risen to international level, to include in its rich program a festival of ethnographic films. Then the creation of new customs and beliefs. All covered by the artistic passion of the artists, who follow the need to leave indelible traces with their cameras.
In addition to the high cinematographic quality of the films, during the selection we were guided by their capacity to convey important messages, which justifies their selection. We hope that our program will succeed to attract and surprise the festival's audience, because these are strong films, which can surprise us, disturb us, soften us, make us happy, provoke us to think, change our view, oppose us, therefore after each screening we will be able to exchange opinions about each of the films.
In 1971 in Macedonia a great idea was born, a wish of a group of professionals, enthusiasts, dreamers, visionaries, an idea which became reality. A springhead, a glowing heart of a cultural organism has been created. A heart which beats, motivates, initiates, boosts, educates.
In 1971 in Bitola was established the International Festival for folk songs and dances “Iliindenski denovi” in Bitola. The name of the Festival is symbolical, its mission is generous while its goals and criteria are deeply integrated and conceived. This festival is dedicated to most hardworking people and their creations which endured the criteria of value through time. This is e Festival which presents, promotes and documents the deed of priceless folk cultural tradition. Thousands of folk artists, millions of visitors, numerous photos, audio, video documents, telegraphed materials, documents for the next generations. On all four parts of the world, the Festival realized its mission, sent messages, thus attracting a great number of authentic values of the cultural heritage fans.
Nevertheless, after all these years the beginning is here, since the new generations should also learn about and as well dance “Teskoto”, “Kopacka”, “Nevestinsko”, Komitsko”…
Every generation implements its own rock in the priceless mosaic of the Festival, a monument, a textbook…
This text is just sparkle from the great fire, a small stone in the mosaic. It has been written with lots of love, respect, and a wish for this Festival to continue.
