The work of the legendary South African cartoonist known as Zapiro, precedes even the most high-powered politicos that he’s caricatured over his three decades in lefty journalism. His vast oeuvre is a testament to the rich, complex and often paradoxical history of the mighty South African nation – reaching a global audience with a sharp brand of satire that transcends national divisions, and international borders.

Zapiro effectively kickstarted his life as a professional troublemaker during his time as a conscripted soldier in the early 1980s. Staunchly refusing to touch weapons of any kind, he was a leading member of the End Conscription Campaign, and soon became a target for military intelligence as an activist of the fledgling anti-apartheid movement.

After honing his natural-born skills under the comics masters Art Spiegelman, Will Eisner and Harvey Kurtzman in New York, he threw himself headlong into the social and political maelstrom that was the South Africa of the late 80s and 90s, addressing the towering monstrosities of injustice, corruption and ignorance, which defined the country during those tumultuous years.

Now an intractable staple of South African heritage, Zapiro continues to court controversy – most notably with his excruciatingly brilliant depiction of President Jacob Zuma, during the rape scandal which (briefly) sullied Zuma’s public image in 2005.

Sticking steadfastly to the analog inks and pens of yesteryear, Zapiro still draws only in monochrome and steers well clear of computers and color.

Loved by the grand masses, and hated as much by the new ANC elite as by their former apartheid trailblazers, his latest controversy is around a cheeky Mohammed cartoon which was published in the Mail & Guardian newspaper in May 2010, after an eleventh-hour court bid by the Council of Muslim Theologians to bar its publication was rejected.

You want to meet this guy right? So did we! While in Cape Town, we had the distinct privilege of being invited to his studio, an extension of his lovely home in leafy Oranjezicht, to see him live in action – what a pleasure! – and find out what makes him tick.

www.zapiro.com

This interview on Vimeo: vimeo.com/12078752

Pretty Cool Crew

Directors, interview: Jurriaan Esmeijer & Veerle Snijders, Camera and sound: Nick Chevallier, Editor: Jurriaan Esmeijer, Asst. editor: Jorrit Spoelstra.

Director Tommy Pallotta made a compelling documentary about his friend Stephen Prince: a very engaging storyteller who worked extensively with film icon Martin Scorsese in the seventies, both as a producer and as an actor (Taxi Driver).

Prince was also the subject of Scorsese’s lost film ‘American Boy’, in which the young Stephen tells fascinating, some time totally absurd anecdotes from his rock&roll life. For example: the most memorable scene from Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction, in which Travolta injects adrenaline into the heart of Uma Thurman who overdosed, is based on a story that Stephen tells in this documentary.

Three decades after Scorsese’s film was released, Tommy Pallotta brings us ‘American Prince’, where he draws out Steven Prince once more to recount his days since ‘American Boy’, share why he turned his back on the entertainment industry and to compose the next chapter of his story.

Since SubmarineChannel helped American Prince to come about and since we distribute the film, we had a nice talk with the Amsterdam-based director Tommy Pallota. We talked to him about how he met Stephen Prince (their first encounter wasn’t particularly friendly) and how Pallotta started in the film industry himself, still being a philosophy student in Austin. Here in Austin he met Richard Linklater with whom he work on movies like Slacker, Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly.

Watch American Prince exclusively on SubmarineChannel

Pretty Cool People Crew: Interview Remco Vlaanderen, Camera & Editing: Geert van de Wetering

Although he thinks it’s a bit cliché for an artist from Scandinavia , there is no question about it: Kustaa Saksi is heavily inspired by nature. His organic shapes and arabesque lines easily remind us of dark woods, meandering rivers and steep mountain slopes. Kustaa: “Especially in Finland, you don’t have to go far to find yourself in total wilderness.”

But this doesn’t mean Kustaa has limited himself to nature’s palette as well. On the contrary: Kustaa loves bright colours, from deep purple and vivid yellow to down right, crazy psychedelic compositions.

Art nouveau and pop art from the sixties are also major influences on his work. He likes to mix these powerful art movements from the past in a modern fashion, using the computer in a way it doesn’t look like it was done with the computer.

Having worked for magazines and brands all over the world, Kustaa has made a new step in his career: designing for 3D. Earlier he did create prints for 3D objects like shoes, but now he committed himself to the real thing – with some help of a befriended artist and an advanced Xerox-machine. The sculptures were commissioned by pop up gallery Maxalot in Amsterdam for an exhibition called Heroes.

The first time he saw his computer renderings come to live it was in fact an orgasmic experience for Kustaa. So we joined Kustaa to Utrecht where we witnessed another stimulating session of the birth of an iconic sculpture. Wanna be excited too? Watch the short doc we did on this Finnish hero.

SubmarineChannel Crew: Director: Geert van de Wetering, Interview: Lotje Sodderland, Camera: Niels de Roos, Editing: Jorrit Spoelstra.

Thanks to the hospitable people of Protospace where artists can experiment with new techniques and materials and Maxalot, the pop up gallery in Amsterdam.

Gushing wounds, rabid bats, decrepit corpses and oozing crevasses, welcome in the macabre world of Studio DDT, a Barcelona based company that produces state-of-the-art special effects. It is run now by David Marti and Montse Ribe. They experienced some terrifying times but managed to claw their way back to life. Now, they are responsible for one of the most mind-boggling characters in special effects, El Fauno, from Pan’s Labyrinth.

But that’s not the only terrifying specimen these creative geniuses have spawned. Their past is filled with such freighting successes as Darkness and the American breakthrough, Hellboy. Can you recall the horrors of Darkness? Do you have visions of Hellboys hair-raising face?

As you can imagine Montse is no stranger to hard work and doesn’t shy away from a challenge. She started out as a student at DDT’s school, and now runs the place. Of course, she still actually gets her hands dirty, working on the make-up, costumes, masks and props. “I always liked to draw fantasy figures and imagine them. And I always wished that they were real and that I could talk to them. The only way to see and touch them and talk to them is by doing this kind of work.”

All their hard work paid off. Having received an Oscar for Pan’s Labyrinth, Montse goes on to say; “We really suffered, as it was very difficult and we had very little time. And we didn’t have a very large budget. We really didn’t expect to get an Oscar for this movie. For every movie we gave all we had, always trying to do the best we can. But we never thought that a movie made here in Spain would ever make us win an Oscar. So all that suffering has been forgotten.”

As wonderful as this al sounds, DTT Efectos Especiales does suffer from one foul flaw.
“We have this small defect, which is fine for directors but not for us, as we always do more than they pay us for. We do it because we really like it and we want to make the director as happy as possible. So we always go a little bit further. It’s not wise from a business point of view. But on the other hand it makes us happier.”

It’s made us happier too. Note to future directors: Don’t dare exploit DDT’s goodwill. They have an army of very scary creatures so beware.

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Camera: Niels de Roos, Interview, Sound & Editing: Ben de Loenen.
We always do more than they pay us for. We do it because we really like it and we want to make the director as happy as possible.

Rutu Modan didn’t even know such a thing as comics existed when she started sketching out stories and characters during her childhood in the dry-lands of central Israel.
In this Pretty Cool People Interview, she introduces us to her first full-length graphic novel, Exit Wounds, which follows the consequences of a fateful meeting between Koby Franco, a twenty-something cab driver and a young female soldier called Numi, who approaches him with some disturbing news.
Defining a genre which might be described as ‘casual carnage’, Modan approaches the constant threat of mass violence suffered by many urban Israelis, with a dosage of irony which may be construed as flippant, but which poignantly illustrates how death and devastation have become just another humbrum part of daily life in this corner of the world.
Resonating the naive simplicity of Herge’s legendary oeuvre, she applies her jaded (but nonetheless charming) tone and pioneering visual framework to communicate rich, multi-layered messages which are at once grotesque, bizarre and true.
Watch Goody Two Shoes – an animated short by Rutu Modan and Batia Kolton, a SubmarineChannel exclusive.

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview: Remco Vlaanderen, Camera & Sound: Niels de Roos, Editing: Geert van de Wetering & Paul de Heer.

Like so many talented artists, Sixeart started out spraycanning the streets in his hometown Barcelona, back in the Eighties. These days however the vivid paintings of Sixeart are on display in international galleries and museums. Last year for instance he made a gigantic mural on the façade of Tate Modern in London.

The artist has no formal education, but being an autodidact he sees as a big advantage now: art school can teach you technique, but the danger of your own personal style being destroyed is clear and present, according to the artist.

Talking about style, his is exceptionally colourful and unique in depicting a psychedelic, comic-like universe full of strange characters and abstract patterns. As he states on his website his work can be classified in 3 categories: Bad children with fringe, Circuits and Mutating Animals.

We talked to Sixeart – who actually bears a striking resemblance to Weird Al Yankovic – in his studio in Barcelona, where his seems most happy nowadays. Sixeart explains the ideas behind his paintings, sculptures and older work in which some intimate parts of his ex-girlfriend are included. Oh la la…

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Camera: Niels de Roos, Interview, Sound & Editing: Ben de Loenen.

Q: Don’t you feel bad when you eat cute animals?

A: Very.

Q: If you had a third arm, what would you do with it?

A: Well, I would grab more food and then eat much more.

Q: Are food and happiness connected?

A: Yes.

It´s strange, serious and sometimes hilarious questions like these, that French illustrator and graphic designer Genevieve Gauckler has made up by the dozens for her exhibition Food Chain. The show consists of beautiful prints with funny and sweet characters and their obsession with eating.

The title, Genevieve explains, is ambiguous: it expresses on the one hand the thought that through food all living beings are connected with each other, on the other side it makes clear that these ties can become chains. In other words: we can be captivated by our own consumerism. Gauckler: `Good ideas come when you merge two elements that don’t belong together. That way you can create something interesting.´

This double meaning is translated in very colourful images, with simple potato-shaped figures who eat food, digest food, excrete food, throw up food or lack food. They pose questions that make you laugh and make you think about our sometimes perverse relation with food.

Q: Is Genevieve Gauckler a good, friendly and funny artist?

A: Definitely!

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview: Geert van de Wetering, Camera: Niels de Roos, Editing: Ben de Loenen. Thanks to: Angelique Spaninks, MU, Eindhoven.

Born in Brazil and based in Barcelona, he combines the best of both worlds. Tom14 is a street artist in more than one way. He works on the streets, sometimes literally on the surface of the road, but besides this, his work is also deals with the rights on the street. It’s all about reclaiming the streets from real estate investors who make large profits from urban planning projects and do nothing about improving the situation for the local people.

Tom14 takes getting this message out there very seriously, without getting all pessimistic and depressed. His art is a celebration of urban life with bright colors and an iconography that reveals his Latin-American background. We met with the multi-talented Tom14 (he’s also a musicinan) as he and his fellow urban conquistadores were preparing an exhibition in galery La Montana in Barcelona.

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Camera:  Niels de Roos, Interview, Sound & Editing: Ben de Loenen.

It was this shock of the new that led to many a trespassing adventure and a lifelong fascination for graffiti. “One day a young boy said to me: ‘why don’t you photograph graffiti?’ He opened his note book and showed me his drawings. The minute I understood that there was a systematic designing and painting on the wall I became fascinated.”

Photojournalist Martha Cooper was one of the first to recognize the creative power of the New York graffiti scene. In the seventies she started photographing the first generation of spray can artists, now three decades later she is called the Grande Dame of Hip Hop Documentation and has produced a series of much celebrated photo books like Street Play and Hip Hop Files.

We talked to Martha Cooper about the early days, about the excitement of going into the railway yards at night, about the way graffiti was used as a secret language between the different NY boroughs.

The pictures shown during the interview come from her first book Subway Art, which she published together with that other famous chronicler of street life, Henry Chalfant.

One of her latest projects is We B*Girlz in which she presents strong, smart, independent B-Girlz and other Hip Hop females as role models for upcoming generations and to show everyone that there is a significant place for women in this worldwide culture. In addition, We B*Girlz wants to preserve the history of women in Hip Hop by encouraging everyone to collect and archive materials from back in the days and to document the scene as it exists now.

Pretty Cool People Crew: Interview: Sarah Domogala, Camera/Sound: Steffen Haars, Editing: Niels de Roos & Geert van de Wetering

He dropped out of high school and didn’t finish his art studies either, but that did not prevent him from making it big in the industry. Paris-based graphic designer and video director Alex Courtes is a busy man, but he still managed to invite us for a coffee in his apartment and escorted us on his motorcycle to Machine Molle, a motion and graphic design agency. Here, Alex is working on his latest project: a new commercial for Ebay.

It all started when Alex met Martin Fougerol at art school, back in the early 1990s. Together they produced album sleeves and music videos for French artists like Cassius and Air. It didn’t take long for them to draw international attention, and soon they were directing videos for super bands. For The White Stripes for instance, Alex & Martin helmed a hugely acclaimed promo for the song Seven Nation Army, which was nominated for an MTV Award for Best Rock Video. They went on to deliver the new video for the long awaited new U2 album, Vertigo, which went on to win a Grammy for Best Music Video and was nominated for many other awards worldwide.
After numerous more music videos Alex now concentrates mostly on commercials. He is represented by Partizan, the prestigious agency that produces music videos and commercials. As for the future he has plans for a feature film, but as friendly as Alex may be, he didn’t want to elaborate on that yet. We’ll talk to him again when the time is ripe.

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview: Geert van de Wetering, Camera: Ben De Loenen, Sound and Editing: Paul de Heer.

Watch this interview with Spanish subtitles on Milestimulos – Blog de difusión cultural y artística.

In Paris we met with one half of the design duo that makes up Studio Deubal. Deubal is a French creative agency consisting of Stéphanie Lelong and Olivier Marquézy. We fell in love with their original character-based title sequence designs. When we visit Olivier in his studio, he’s on his last legs. He’s been pulling an all-nighter.

Studio Deubal’s animated film title sequences caught our attention during our research for Forget the Film, Watch the Titles – SubmarineChannel’s project dedicated to the art of film title design. Four of Deubal’s designs are included in the collection: Le Cactus, Hors De Prix, Crustacés et Coquillages and Après Vous. Each one is unique and different, but they all ooze elegance and style. French style, that is.

Olivier studied graphic design, not animation or motion graphics. He learned how to do it from watching others. As Olivier hops through his studio, opening cabinet drawers and folders on his computer looking for stuff to show us, he is searching for the right words to describe French style. He doesn’t really come up with a satisfying answer. But he does find a nice hobby project to show us, that involves sampling and sequencing movie clips.

www.deubal.com

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview: Geert van de Wetering, Camera and Editing, Paul de Heer, Sound: Ben de Loenen.

There’s no stopping the tidal wave of digital animation coming at us on the web, in the cinemas, and on tv. But there’s also a counter movement (if you can call it that) of animators who use old school animation techniques, like stop-motion. Stop motion animation is the “slow food” of animation. It’s hands-on, physical and magical. But also a lot of hard work and very time consuming.

One of the rising stars of the new generation of stop motion animation directors is Valerie Pirson, born in 1981. She was “discovered” by Michel Gondry – one of the innovators of the visual language of music videos of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Gondry is probably most famous for his highly imaginative promos for Björk, in which he often combined live action and stop motion animation. When Gondry saw Valerie’s graduation animation film Pistache, he liked it so much, he asked her to work on the The Science of Sleep – his second feature. The film is laden with original animation sequences that are a joy to watch. Valerie created the animations for “Stephane TV”, the imaginary TV show of the protagonist. “Michel Gondry gave me carte blanche. He just outlined the story,” notes Valerie, who was still in school, about to complete her degree course in Visual and Graphic Arts at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris, Ensad, when she embarked on Gondry’s project.

Sounds like a best-case scenario for any young animator. Gondry also introduced Valerie to Partizan, the French agency that produces music videos and commercials.

We spent a day with Valerie in Paris and filmed her at her studio, where she gave us a peek at the animation process. And we followed her to a meeting with clients at the Partizan headquarters.

Watch ‘Pistache’ on YouTube

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel/Sound: Geert van de Wetering, Director/Interview/Editing: Ben De Loenen, Camera: Paul de Heer.

“I knew from a fairly early age, about 15 or so, that I wanted to be an artist. The problem was, my father was a detective in the police. In his view, artists were almost as suspect as criminals”, explains Austrian artist Erwin Wurm. He obviously withstood his father’s objections to his artistic ambitions and followed his vocation. Good for him and for us, because Edwin Wurm is now one of the most successful contemporary artists in the Northern hemisphere.

We too love Erwin Wurm. He’s right up there with the zeitgeist. He speaks our language – the language of pop culture, tv, movies, comics and science fiction. And even though he’s had solos at some of the most prestigious museums and art galleries around the globe, Wurm dares not to take art, the art world, or himself all too seriously. “I want to reach more than just an elite circle of insiders”, says Wurm. And he did. Even if you’ve never seen one of Wurm’s shows, you’ll still know his work indirectly from The Red Hot Chilli Peppers‘ ‘Can’t Stop’ music video. The video is nothing less than a tribute to Erwin Wurm’s work. It’s filled with Wurm-style concepts and sculptural jokes inspired by his one-minute sculptures. Big Kudos to the Peppers for recognizing the influence Wurm had on their video.

This one-minute sculptures project is our biggest favorite. Proving that you don’t need to carve into a hundred tons of marble for six months to make a nice sculpture, Wurm does one in a minute. These quickie sculptures are based on simple, but powerful ideas that involve one or more models posing with objects in a unusual way for nothing more than a fleeting moment, really. Wurm documents his ‘sculptures’ on camera. What’s you have, then, is a photograph that’s part of an ongoing series of intriguing, original images that just hijack your attention.

Watch the interview and see how Wurm arranges the art works for his solo show in museum Het Domein, and see how Wurm is trying repeatedly, though unsuccessfully, to create what he calls a toothbrush launching pad by carefully balancing a tube of toothpaste, a chair, two oranges, and a bed into a fragile looking sculptural configuration.

Pretty Cool Crew:
Director/interview: Geert van de Wetering, Camera: Niels de Roos, Editing: Geert van de Wetering & Niels de Roos. Thanks to Erwin Wurm and museum Het Domein, in Sittard, Holland.

Imagine that. Bumping into a famous music video director somewhere where you least expect it. And you just happened to be there with a crew to shoot an interview. It happened to our Pretty Cool People crew. They were in a city in the South of Holland called Eindhoven to shoot a Pretty Cool People Interview with Miranda July and they sort of bumped in to director Mike Mills, who was accompanying Miranda to her show at the art space MU. Mike was just hanging around while Miranda worked on her show. So we took Mike to the local skate park for a chat.

Mike’s eyes twinkle as he gazes on down on the skating kids in the indoor park. Once a semi professional skater himself, Mike Mills is now an accomplished graphic designer and director. Besides making music videos, he directed his first feature fiction Thumbsucker in 2005, followed by a feature documentary in 2007 Does Your Soul Have A Cold? But his creative roots are in the subcultures of punk rock and skateboarding. It’s the attitude of punk rock that he loves, which is all about changing the rules constantly, about switching your style and breaking down people’s expectations. He still tries to do those things in his work today.

Mike is part of a generation of directors that emerged in the ninetees including Spike Jonze, Roman and Sophia Coppola, Michel Gondry and their peers. They are now regarded as influential innovators, who re-invented the music video. Everyone but Roman has gone on to direct successful feature films.

Mike exploded onto the international scene with his original music promos for the French band AIR’s first album. His promos for the songs “Kelly”, “All I Need” and “Sexy Boy” are legendary and it’s hard to separate the music from the visuals now. After the success of the AIR videos, Mike could have been directing for major bands and artists, but instead he chose freedom and independence – only directing and designing for products and people that he can relate to, which is a very fortunate position to be in for any designer.

As a graphic designer, music video and film director, Mike continues to innovate himself, churning out new and inspired stuff all the time, no matter what medium he works in. So enjoy the interview in which Mike reveals his ‘recipe’ for creating an interesting music video.

mikemillsweb.com

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Interview: Sarah Domogala, Camera/Sound: Daniel Bouquet, Editing: Paul de Heer and Geert van de Wetering.

Miranda July was a prolific performance and video artist in the 1990s who stepped into the mainstream limelight when her 2005 film Me and You and Everyone We Know became an international hit. But instead of working on a second feature film, Miranda has been “in a hurry to do everything else”. Like making exhibitions featuring do-it-yourself art taken from the ever-expanding Learning To Love You More project, an ongoing collaboration with Harrell Fletcher.
The Learning To Love You More website features 65 creative assignments, as well as the reports from people who completed an assignment. With over five thousand reports and counting, the website has become an amazing archive of personal creative endeavors by people from all over the world. Yet browsing the pictures, drawings, and videos that were uploaded, you kind of feel a connection to them, which is due to the nature of the assignments. Learning To Love You More is a project for and about other people and, as Miranda says in the interview, it’s a great source of inspiration for her and keeps her sane.

Filmed at MU, a great art space in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, on Friday 24 August 2007, the day of the opening of the Learning To Love You More show.

www.learningtoloveyoumore.com

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Interview: Sarah Domogala, Camera/Sound: Daniel Bouquet, Editing:Paul de Heer and Geert van de Wetering.

The lovely, multi-talented Anna Biller shocked and surprised audiences everywhere with her high-camp (s)exploitation flick ‘Viva’. The film takes place in 1972, during the heyday of the sexual revolution. Anna Biller plays Barbi – a bored, naive suburban housewife who gets sucked into a life of prostitution, drugs, sexual experimentation, nudist camps and orgies, and subsequently reinvents herself as the self made, sexually liberated goddess Viva.

Biller directed, wrote the script, plays the leading role, edited the film, created the ravishing costumes, and spent weeks, sometimes months, to perfect the lavishly decorated sets that are overflowing with gorgeous, evocative props from the era. ‘Viva’ is a masterpiece of styling that redefines retro. Everything is infused with a sense of style and class, to perfectly emulate a seventies B-movie. From the hair styles to the hors d’oeuvres, the dialogues, the fake laughter, the lighting, the cinematography -everything simply looks and sounds meticulously authentic. ‘Viva’ is a visual feast, an ode to an era of cinema with its vibrant technicolors and campy craftsmanship, but most importantly, tons of fun to watch!

We met Biller at the Rotterdam Film Festival 2007, where ‘Viva’ had its world premiere.

http://www.lifeofastar.com

Interview by Alexander Oey.

Taika Waititi is a director with a very original mind. In his homeland New Zealand, he’s known foremost as a stand-up comedian. But Taika also directs, writes and paints. We met him at the 2007 International Film Festival Rotterdam, where he presented his first feature film, ‘Eagle vs Shark’ – an offbeat romantic comedy featuring two socially inept misfits. The soft spoken and romantic Lily, who works the counter at a fast food chain, has a secret crush on Jarrod, a tough looking geek/hero wannabe who works at the local electronics store. Jarrod doesn’t show any interest in Lily at first. But that changes when Lily beats everyone at a Fightman Kill-A-Thon video game tournament at a costume party at Jarrod’s house. Everyone came dressed up as their favorite animal. (Jarrod to Lily in a shark costume: “I almost came as a shark, but then I realized that an eagle is slightly better”). ‘Eagle Vs Shark’ is a sensitive film, made with a great eye for detail, for the time period (small town in New Zealand in the 80s) and respect for the characters. Taika’s New Zealand style humor – comedy mixed with tragedy and pain is refreshing.

www.eaglevsshark.net

Interview by Alexander Oey.

TKV is the artist name of Sashka (1988), a Serbian street artist, living in Belgrade. Doing stencil art is a basic need for TKV: she has to go out and leave her creative marks throughout the city. It’s as essential as eating or sleeping.

Since graffiti – like in most places – is prohibited in Serbia, TKV has to be very careful not to be caught by the police. That’s the reason why we filmed her in a matter that makes her less recognizable.

Although TKV is extremely concerned with the social situation of her country, this doesn’t mean she loses herself in political slogans. On the contrary: she wants to add something beautiful to the world, she wants to surprise unsuspecting passerby’s and make her fellow citizens smile. Albeit for a moment.

In upgrading her hometown TKV focuses on the dirty alleys and rundown street corners. Monuments and historic buildings are left untouched. ‘These have their own value’, she explains.

Not unlike a fairy queen she roams the streets at night using a spray can as a magic stick to transform the appearance of the city. Hence her artist name, which is an abbreviation of The Queen of Fairy (The Kraljica Vila). Changing the world with artistic magic, you can dismiss it as hopelessly naive, you can also admire the persistent optimism. We hope the latter attitude will appeal to you the most.

We joined Sashka on one of her nightly trips during which a strange confrontation sets her off on a passionate account about the current state of Serbia.

Pretty Cool Crew: Commissioning Editor for SubmarineChannel: Geert van de Wetering, Interview & sound: Jessie van Vreden, Camera: Pierre Rezus, Editing: Jessie van Vreden, Axel Skovdal Roelofs.

Aleksandar Macasev doesn’t mince matters: “The real center of power in Serbia is the pharmacist. Give the people a lot of tranquilizers and they will not complain.” According to the Belgrade based artist and graphic designer, a lot of Serbian people are on drugs.

Macasev came to Belgrade in the beginning of the nineties, a turbulent time of war, protests and isolation. This period had a big influence on Maćašev, who has a very critical attitude to politics and who uses his art to grow awareness on tricky issues like mass communication and corruption.

Belgrade may have a very lively nightlife, a lot of Serbs have lost their spirit as a consequence of the recent geopolitical events. Maćašev sees it as his duty to wake up his fellow citizens from their slumber of indifference.

His Joseph Goebbels Project really freaked people out. Not surprisingly, because it consisted of posters and large billboards of the father of propaganda, the Nazi-minister Joseph Goebbels. The portraits were made out of logos of big media companies. Not very subtle maybe, but very effective indeed.

We teamed up with the forthcoming artist for a day and he showed us around in his hometown. Despite his serious mission, Macasev keeps his head up.

www.macasev.com

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview & sound: Jessie van Vreden, Camera: Pierre Rezus, Editing: Jessie van Vreden, Axel Skovdal Roelofs.

Director and visual artist Ivan Sijak (1969) is considered as some kind of local hero of the creative scene in Serbia. On a lot of people that were young in the nineties his music videos had a big impact. Artists that grew up with seeing his stuff on tv can still relate to his visual language today.

Sijak took us around the old town of Belgrade, pointing out the remains of the ‘real’ city: building blocks that are not renovated as if they are the setting of a historic movie like it is the case in most European cities. Sijak prefers to see the ‘fingerprint of time’ on the houses and he likes to use the aesthetics of eroded textures in his visual work.

In 1999 he cooperated with Otpor, the famous youth movement that rebelled against, and led the overthrow of president Slobodan Milosevic, who was later trialled for crimes against humanity. Nowadays Sijak rather focuses on the new generations than on old political issues. Young artist, with their enthusiasm and creative talents can give colour to life in Serbia, shaping an new identity for his troubled nation. Not as an activist, but as a committed teacher he wants to take part in this process.

Pretty Cool Crew: Interview & sound: Jessie van Vreden, Camera: Pierre Rezus, Editing: Jessie van Vreden, Axel Skovdal Roelofs.