BiH actors and actresses spoke openly about their own experiences of sexual harassment. The confessions opened Pandora's box of traumas caused by methods that acting professors use to "liberate the actor." Where is the line is between art, censorship and immorality? Deans of four generations at the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo spoke for N1 on this topic: Admir Glamocak, Zijad Mehic, Pjer Zalica and Srdjan Vuletic.
Mehic said that he was very shocked by the events that took place recently and that he was sorry that this was being transferred to state institutions, primarily at the Academy of Performing Arts, which has its own code and norms of behaviour, both for students and professors.
“We need to talk about this. In my practice, I have not had a formal application related to similar things. I never even heard of it. There was a violation of the discipline of the teaching process and it was all sanctioned timely,” stated Mehic.
Glamočak pointed out that as much as acting seemed free, they teach students acting elements.
“There is a general physical preparedness test for people who will be doing this job in the future and there is one segment called posture and when I heard from a candidate that it is done in underwear, I had a conversation with the teacher and told them to find another way. That was unacceptable to me. This is something that was allegedly taken over from the Faculty of Sports and it serves to assess whether there are any physical anomalies. When I heard that this was being done, my reaction was that at least two other people of the opposite sex had to be present, which would make it relatively easier,” Glamocak said. He added that this test has never been applied in that (wrong) way for the past 8 or 9 years and that this is the only situation he knows of.
Director Zalica mentioned that his mother was an actress, his wife is also an actress and that he remembers a situation from his childhood that he placed in a different context in his film.
“When my mother told me she was told – Whores don't need a diploma… That's a sentence my mother heard from a political official. I’m also familiar with situations from the war when politicians came to plays and offered cigarettes to actresses, invited them to their offices. If we can put it in the context of culture, it has existed since before I was born. I’m not surprised that it exists at the Academy of Performing Arts as well. There were situations where female students felt uncomfortable, and then I asked that it not be done. We did that because we don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable,” Zalica said.
Vuletic spoke about the commission that was formed in order to encourage and speak to the victims.
“The commission one thing and a new body the other. We have changed the application process in the sense of encouraging victims to come forward. There are three members of which two are experts in the field. They are teaching assistant Nebojsa Jovanovic, who is an expert on gender equality, and Dzenana Kalas, who is a court expert and psychotherapist and president of the Students’ Association,” Vuletic said.
Through the Facebook page “Nisam trazila” (“I did not ask for it”), he stated that he understood that the process of encouraging the victims had fallen into the background and that the Academy of Performing Arts in Sarajevo became a sort of a scapegoat, which, he said, was unacceptable.
“We will get to the bottom of this and we have initiated concrete steps, but everyone else should do the same. I guarantee that every student application will be processed. These three people who are experts will instruct students how to issue that statement so that it would be legitimate,” Vuletic stated.
Zalica stated that the position of women in our society is disastrous.
“Sexual harassment is a charm and that’s how things are positioned and it’s terrible. The problems at other institutions are much more serious, but let the focus be on the Academy and let us solve that problem. And I doubt that we will solve it until basic problems of being civilized towards women are solved “, Zalica concluded.
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