A great man is one who collects knowledge the way a bee collects honey and uses it to help people overcome the difficulties they endure - hunger, ignorance and disease!
- Nikola Tesla

Remember, remember always, that all of us, and you and I especially, are descended from immigrants and revolutionists.
- Franklin Roosevelt

While their territory has been devastated and their homes despoiled, the spirit of the Serbian people has not been broken.
- Woodrow Wilson

Jelena Stupljanin

While in high school, Jelena ended up in a drama studio where she was trained and tutored by the late legendary acting professor Milenko Maricic. Then, a year later she was accepted at the prestigious National Academy of Dramatic Arts of Serbia, after auditioning with nearly 1000 candidates, in the class of the renown professor Gordana Maric. She completed the four years endeavor ahead of time with excellence and an award 'Branivoj Djordjevic' for best student in diction.

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Jelena won the hearts of the nation playing the title role in the musical 'Front Page Doll,' which earned her the best actress award of Theater 'Terazije'. This was the beginning of a new era of Jelena's career. Her success continued when she became a permanent member of one of the leading European theater companies' Atelje 212, where she took part in many mainstream productions, both nationally and internationally, including tours in most of the European countries.

Although she has appeared in many minor TV and Film productions before, Lisice-Foxes, a TV cult title featured on the national Serbian broadcast, that 'introduced' Jelena Stupljanin to the mass TV audiences across Serbia and the Balkans. Being one of the lead characters, Jelena and her fellow cast members mesmerized the spectators and made Foxes a grand success.

With the great generosity and support of Svetozar Cvetkovic (the artistic director of Atelje 212), HRH Princess Elizabeth Karageorgevic of Serbia as well as Ms Eileen Murray, Jelena was sponsored to attend the Lee Strasberg Theater and Film Institute in New York.

Currently Jelena is based bi-continentally and works both in Europe and the US on both the east and the west coast, and she is equally successful on stage and on screen.

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Branislav Bala

Branislav Bane Bala (writer/director/producer) is a Serbian filmmaker based in New York City. He holds an MFA in film directing from Columbia University.

His short films have played worldwide. His short film Shades of Gray was distributed by Doug Liman’s Hypnotic Releasing, and his commercial spot Magic was a Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker’s Award selection. He co-produced two low-budget features: Across Dot Avenue and Romeo and Juliet in Yiddish. The latter was invited for a week-long run at New York’s famous Lincoln Center and opened to rave reviews. He has taught various film classes at the University of Hartford, The New School, Art Institute of Austin, Ramapo College and was the chair of the Film Department at Katharine Gibbs School. He often collaborates with his brother Nemanja. Their latest collaboration, a feature film “Love Hunter” premiered at the prestigious Warsaw Film Festival and was “among its highlights”, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

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Publishing

In the Mirror

A Collection of Iconographic Essays and Illustrations

By Fr. Stamatis Skliris

The Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Western America is pleased to announce the publication of an outstanding book by Fr. Stamatis Skliris, a disciple of the great twentieth-century theologians Archimandrite Justin Popovich and Bishop Athanasius Yevtich. Fr. Stamatis is a parish priest in Athens and is renowned as an iconographer and as a writer and lecturer on Byzantine iconography.

In the Mirror is the second of a planned collection of works of contemporary theologians. It is an anthology of Fr. Stamatis’ articles which have appeared in Greek and Serbian. In it, he combines adherence to the teachings of the Church Fathers with a vibrant expression of faith through the experience of Christ in the Church. The book is adorned with more than 200 striking icons and illustrations by Fr. Stamatis.

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