FILM MUTATIONS: FESTIVAL OF INVISIBLE FILM XIX
JON JOST – THE BALLAD LIFE OF FILM
JON JOST – THE BALLAD LIFE OF FILM
Split, 13th – 20th November 2025
Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film
Split Academy of Arts (UMAS)
Kino Klub Split
The 19th edition of Film Mutations: Festival of Invisible Film is dedicated to the American director and video artist Jon Jost, one of the most important independent authors of contemporary film. The “Ballad Life of Film” program will be held in Split from 13th to 20th November 2025, bringing a retrospective, workshops and interviews with the author. This year’s Film Mutations: Festival of Invisible Film XIX is realized in collaboration with the Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film, the Split Academy of Arts (UMAS) and the Split Cinema Club.
In Focus: Jon Jost – The Ballad Life of Film
At the heart of the nineteenth edition of Film Mutations is the work of Jon Jost, an uncompromising American independent film and video artist, almost invisible in our film landscape. Over the past two decades, four of Jost’s films and video works have been screened at the Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film, thanks to curator and filmmaker Branko Karabatić, and the film Homecoming won the Grand Prix in 2005. On this occasion, Film Mutations and the Split Film Festival are jointly bringing a special retrospective and educational program that includes screenings, talks, masterclasses and workshops with the author.
The program in Split is prepared and hosted by Marin Renić (Split Festival of New Film and Video), Tanja Vrvilo (Film Mutations, UMAS), Sandra Sterle, Dan Oki and Gildo Bavčević (UMAS), and Sunčica Fradelić (Kino klub Split).
Split Programme
Karaman Cinema · November 13 – 15, 2025
Retrospective of key Jost films and conversation with the author
November 13, 6:00 PM
Portrait (Portrait, 1963, 13’)
Slow Moves (Slow Moves, 1983, 93’)
8:30 PM – Homecoming (Homecoming, 2004, 104’)
November 14, 6:00 PM
City (City, 1964, 15’)
Rembrandt Laughing (Rembrandt Laughing, 1989, 100’)
8:30 PM – 13 Fragments & 3 Narratives from Life (1968, 22’)
All the Vermeers in New York (All the Vermeers in New York, 1989-90, 90’)
November 15, 18:00
Fall Creek (1970, 15’)
The Bed You Sleep In (1993, 117’)
8:30 PM – Texas, Osijek (Franci Slak, 1987, 16’)
Last Chants for a Slow Dance (dead end), 1977, 90’)
UMAS – Masterclass and workshops
November 14, 15:00 – 17:00
Jon Jost’s Masterclass “Cutting Things Short”
with screening of short digital films: Tanti auguri, San Lorenzo, Vera x 3, My Life as a Midge and others.
November 17 – 19, 10:00 – 13:00
Digital Film and Video Workshop
host: Jon Jost
Kino klub Split
18 – 19 November
Jonathan Rosenbaum’s Film Essay Writing Workshop with Jon Jost’s Film Analysis
hosts: Jon Jost and Jonathan Rosenbaum
Jon Jost – Film and resistance
Jon Jost (Chicago, 1943) is one of the key independent authors of American cinema and, according to many, “the most independent of the independents”. From 1963 to the present, he has shot, directed and edited more than a hundred films – from 16-millimeter works to digital video works and multi-channel installations. His work was shown at festivals in Venice, Berlin, Rotterdam, Toronto, London, Edinburgh, Sydney and Yamagata, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York dedicated a month-long retrospective to him in 1991. Today his work is archived and restored by the Eye Film Museum in Amsterdam.
An artist who combines poetics and politics, Jost creates films about people on the margins of society, landscapes of a vanished world, and realities filled with rebellion and introspection. His practice is shaped by his experience of activism and civil disobedience – he refused military service during the Vietnam War and spent 27 months in prison, after which he joined the film-activist collective Newsreel.
In films such as Last Chants for a Slow Dance, Slow Moves, and All the Vermeers in New York, he explores the existential and political margins of America. His minimalist style and use of long shots are not just an aesthetic choice, but a political act – a way to give the viewer back time and space to think.
The Decadence of Attention: The Ballad Life of Film
This year’s program is entitled “The Decadence of Attention: The Ballad Life of Film” and explores contemporary politics of viewing and new forms of attention in film and the visual arts. The program connects theoretical, curatorial, and artistic practices that consider film as a space of care, co-play, and shared viewing. The nomadic structure of the festival connects the cities of Split, Zagreb, Rijeka, Tirana and Ljubljana, and the programs include film screenings, lectures, workshops and discussions with authors.
Organization and support
The winter edition of Film Mutations takes place in Split, Zagreb and Rijeka, with related programs in Tirana and Ljubljana, in partnership with the Split Film Festival / International Festival of New Film, the Art Academy in Split (UMAS), the Split Cinema Club, KIC and Cinema Kinoteka and Forum cinema / Tuškanac cinema programs in Zagreb, Art-cinema and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Rijeka, with the Albanian Cinematheque in Tirana and AVAN – Albanian Visual Arts Network and Slovenian Cinematheque and Slovenian Film Center in Ljubljana.
Courtesy of author Jon Jost, film and video materials have been provided for screening. Restored copies of All the Vermeers in New York, The Bed You Sleep In, Portrait, City and Fall Creek were given to EYE Filmmuseum Amsterdam (Simona Monniza, Olivia Bunning). Screenings of All the Vermeers in New York and The Bed You Sleep In were made possible by Henry S. Rosenthal and Complex Corporation. A copy of the film Texas, Osijek by director Franci Slak is being screened thanks to the Slovenian Cinematheque and the Slovenian Film Centre.
The festival is organized by the artistic organization Film-protufilm, with the support of the Croatian Audiovisual Centre, the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, the Office for Culture and Civil Society of the City of Zagreb and the Kultura nova Foundation.
About the festival
Film Mutations: Festival of Invisible Film is a curatorial and research project developed since 2007 by Tanja Vrvilo with international collaborators, including Alexander Horwath, Nicole Brenez, Raymond Bellour, Jonathan Rosenbaum, Adrian Martin and Kent Jones. The festival is dedicated to minority film histories, invisible practices and the politics of film curatorship, opening a space for dialogue between artists, theorists and the audience.
Through retrospectives, curatorial programmes and workshops, Film Mutations considers film as a living art of resistance and attention – a place where different forms of seeing, creating and thinking intertwine. This year’s edition of “The Decadence of Attention: The Ballad Life of Film” continues that tradition, turning its gaze toward the poetics, politics, and radical independence of Jon Jost‘s filmmaking.