Active (citizen)

An intimate look at the life and work of a Roma refugee from Kosovo collecting trash on the streets of Novi Sad, Serbia, 'Active (citizen)' is a visual ethnography focused on the material, sensorial and kinaesthetic realities of the protagonist’s work and its political and social significance – the daily activism beyond the scope of public recognition.

The film is part of a larger visual project on the ‘invisible activism’ of ethnic minorities and migrants who engage for causes beyond those important for their own community. Such activism is invisible because it happens outside any minority / migrant community structures (point of access / reference for researchers and media) and because at times it takes forms which comparing to the activism of those who can afford more grand forms of acting (/resisting) it seems insignificant. The film approaches the question of affordability of social engagement (/resistance) as it is understood / conceptualised by middle-class academics and activists.