The Imaginary Film Academy was a unique space bringing together film professionals, authors and creators, led by three major figures of regional cinema — Karpo Godina, Nenad Puhovski and Rajko Grlić.
While attending this Academy, Katja Restović directed a documentary film about the Japanese sculptor Masayuki Nagase, an artist who arrived in Istria in 1979 and opened his studio in the village of Marušići.
The film was created during her two-month stay in Grožnjan, where it was both filmed and edited. During this period, Katja collaborated with Nagase on shaping the film’s concept and narrative, and worked alongside directors, cinematographers, editors and screenwriters involved in the Academy. In Grožnjan she met many film professionals with whom she has remained connected to this day. This experience played an important role in her artistic development and her continued engagement with documentary film.
After this project, she became a member of Factum, Croatia’s most significant and longest-running independent documentary production house. Over the past three decades, Factum has produced more than a hundred documentaries screened and awarded at numerous international festivals.
Factum is also the founder and organiser of the International Documentary Film Festival – ZagrebDox, the most important documentary film festival in Croatia and the wider region.
