Balkans Backwards and Forwards: "Looking for Dayton" Stream

A livestream of the film “Looking for Dayton” with an introduction from the director Valery Perry.

"Looking for Dayton" is a character-driven, documentary dramedy that follows the journey of 3 friends who fought in and for Sarajevo during the war as they travel to the United States to ask questions, seek answers and consider the impact of the US-brokered peace agreement on their lives and their country 25 years later.

In Act 1, the main characters are introduced. The story centers on three men who came of age in Sarajevo, and whose subsequent adult life was shaped by the war, and, in particular their defense of their hometown under siege. Together with their local and foreign friends, the trio hatches a plan to put together a film to help them to think about what "Dayton" means as they look at their lives over the past 20 years. They have interviews with key players in Sarajevo during the war to collect questions, talk to people on the street to find out what the word "Dayton" means to them, and prepare the logistics for an autumn 2015 trip to the US.

In Act 2 the trio travels to the US, to visit policymakers in Washington DC and New York. They also go to Dayton, Ohio to take part in a conference and activities marking 20 years since the end of the war. Along the way, they meet a lot of interesting people and have a lot of fun -- something they managed in the war as well.

In Act 3, the guys return to Sarajevo. Time passes, and in 2020 the 25-year anniversary is about to be marked. Since they went to Dayton, the world has changed -- with Brexit, Trump and a rise of aggressive global politics, extremism and polarization that can seem eerily familiar to people from Sarajevo.