Journal No 1 An Artists Impression

In 1947 two years after the end of the Second World War Film Journal No 1 was released in Sarajevo Fifty years later after the collapse of the Communist bloc this newsreel was lost in the confusion of the fighting in Yugoslavia In Journal No 1 Hito Steyerl attempts to find out how the footage got lost and what was on this document from the Sutjeska studio In the simultaneous projection of Journal No 1 the unattainability of an historical zero hour of the national identity takes concrete form The lost newsreel reports on a literacy campaign as well as Muslim women confidently removing their headscarves We listen however to eyewitnesses trying to recapture the lost content and we see the artist Arman Kulasic making a number of drawings that resemble the storyboards for the lost film What appears to be moments of great change remain limited by subjective and uncertain memory The film was premiered at documenta 12