
Dr Catherine Baker (University of Hull), an expert on peacekeeping in Bosnia-Herzegovina and on Croatian television during the Yugoslav Wars, led this Research Networking Project funded by the AHRC (Arts and Humanities Research Council). Suzanne Bardgett, IWM’s Head of Research and Academic Partnerships at IWM, was Co-Investigator, and considerable help was provided by Matt Lee, IWM’s Head of Film, and IWM Research Managers Hannah Wills and Asha Hall-Jones.
IWM hosted three workshops as part of the investigation of the collection and the fruits of those can be read on these webpages.
The collection
The UNTV film and document collection was saved from disposal by Roy Head, Head of UNTV and Kay Gladstone, IWM’s then Film Acquisitions Officer when UNPROFOR was closing down its mission in former Yugoslavia. It comprises hundreds of completed films made by the UNTV journalists, the rushes from those productions, and nine boxes of the unit’s correspondence. The collection also includes videos inherited from UNPROFOR’s predecessor, videos from elsewhere in the UN, and reports from other international organisations and NGOs that the journalists collected in the course of their research. Together, the films and documents give an insight into not just what UNTV chose to produce and how it produced it, but also the challenges the unit faced in getting the films on television screens. These included subtitles to use in the fast-changing language politics of former Yugoslavia, the delicate diplomacy of negotiations with Croatian Television, and the unit’s struggles with UNPROFOR bureaucracy for suitable office space or the use of UN cars.

Historical background
The United Nations peacekeeping force in former Yugoslavia (UNPROFOR) was established in Croatia in February 1992. Its mandate was extended to Bosnia-Herzegovina in June 1992, and to the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in December 1992. UNPROFOR had always operated a small public affairs film unit, but early in 1994 decided to produce its own television broadcasting for viewers in former Yugoslavia. UNTV’s team of international producers hoped to make films in places that journalists from the region could not access, and to break nationalistic monopolies over information. However, it could only reach viewers by negotiating airtime with local private broadcasters or national state broadcasters, and had particular difficulties with Croatian Television.
UNTV’s first films were broadcast on 29 July 1994 by Radio-Television Bosnia-Herzegovina and several local stations. Between then and the end of UNPROFOR’s mission in January 1996, UNTV made 211 features, plus 91 ‘video letters’ voiced by people who had been separated from friends or family. Though hopes for peace had been rising in mid-1994 when UNTV launched, these were short-lived, and UNTV’s journalists had to respond to escalating hostilities in 1995. Some UNTV films deal with the aftermaths of the genocidal attack on Srebrenica by the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) in July 1995, and the Croatian Army’s last offensive against the Republic of Serb Krajina (RSK) entity in August 1995, when a UNTV team documented evidence of alleged atrocities against Serb civilians.
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IWM
Project blogs and articles
Reflections by users and practitioners of Filming for Peace.