This site on the film Welcome to Sarajevo was designed and written by me, Erik Weems. The original version of this site was made using Adobe Pagemill (no longer available from Adobe Systems, they replaced it with the higher-priced Go Live program) on a Macintosh Quadra 660AV. This "updated" version was made using Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop, both on an Apple iMac.

My principal memory of this film, despite the repeated reviews I've seen that say the film is "emotionally distant," is the galvanizing effect it had on the audience I saw it with. It was a rainy early-spring night at a theatre in the Northern reaches of Washington DC. Half-full, the people viewing the film (I sat in the back) became more caught up in the film, or that is, the situation it presented, and by the end provided an appreciative, if not emotionally releasing, burst of applause. An ironic result to so horrendous a presentation. Still, something of a truly human response to a bit of art that won't fit in the simple "entertainment" category, and yet didn't present itself in that cloying, preaching social comment voice that films use when congratulating themselves on "caring." Instead, Welcome to Sarajevo seemed to just report its story and gape at itself, thunderstruck.

I hope you find this small site useful, and if you would care to make a comment, please write to me at erik@eeweems.com

Thank you!

 

Erik 1998