Czech Docs
A year-round project that supports Czech documentary production, promotion and distribution to key international film festivals. Czech Docs annually publishes the Czech Documentary Films catalogue that provides an overview of the year's completed and upcoming documentaries. Please contact us at IDFA to get your copy of the catalogue.
CZECH DOCS AT IDFA
IDFA - 22nd International Documentary Festival Amsterdam
November 19 - 29, 2009
Amsterdam, Netherlands
WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA! [Vítejte v KLDR!]
DIRECTOR: Linda Jablonská // COLOUR | DIGIBETA PAL | 76’55’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
Screenings: Thu 19/11, Munt 13, 22:30 / Thu 26/11, Munt 13, 13:45 / Fri 27/11, Tuschinski 2, 16:30
In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a "journey into the unknown", a tour of North Korea. This trip was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in North Korea. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn't hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by "guides".
Reflecting Images - Best of Fests
OSADNE [Osadné]
DIRECTOR: Marko Škop // COLOUR | 35 MM | 65’ // SLOVAKIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
Screenings: Sun 22/11, Munt 13, 21:00 / Mon 23/11, Tuschinski 2, 22:45 / Sun 29/11, Munt 13, 10:00
Osadne is a film about an encounter between current top European leaders and the local politicians from the last village on the edge of the European Union. The small village of Osadne welcomes a delegation from the European Parliament. And vice versa – the mayor and priest from Osadne visit Brussels institutions on invitation from the European Parliament.
FORGOTTEN TRANSPORTS TO POLAND [Zapomenuté transporty do Polska]
DIRECTOR: Lukaš Přibyl // COLOUR/B&W | BETACAM SP | 90’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
Breaking down our notions about "Holocaust documentaries", the film focuses on human identity and its changes. It deals with choices, people, escaping Nazi ghettos, labor and death camps in the Lublin region of Poland, had to make in order to adapt and survive in utter extremity, on the run, in hiding – with a great deal of ingenuity, much humor and tremendous optimism. This documentary tribute to the human spirit is completely devoid of commentary, contemporary and make-believe footage and employs only impeccably researched time-and-place precise materials and fascinating words of the witnesses. From playing a deaf-mute fool, armed resistance to a touching tale of forbidden love, the handful of witnesses share their past, for the first time. This documentary offers a surprising picture of survival "as we don't know it".
COOKING HISTORY [Ako sa varili dejiny]
DIRECTOR: Peter Kerekes // COLOUR | 35 MM | 88’ // SLOVAKIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, AUSTRIA, 2009
A documentary film about army cooks. It shows how the everyday need of thousands armed stomachs affects the victories and defeats. About the field "kitchen" as a model of a world where food preparation becomes a fight strategy; a fight for great ideals standing on strong legs of the kitchen table. The film is based on eleven recipes of the cooks since the Second World War till the war in Tchechenia; from France through the Balkans to Russia.
AUTO*MATE [AUTO*MAT]
DIRECTOR: Martin Mareček // COLOUR | DIGIBETA PAL | 90’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
A playful essay about autoGSM-automatic society. Martin Mareček lives in Prague, "the mother of cities"… and "the city of cars". One of the most handicapped cities in Europe. "Six years ago, my neighbor was moving out: "We can't take this anymore."…"Yeah, I understand, it's the cars, isn't it? That noise, that smell…" …"Not really, it's more that there's nowhere to park." Is that story absurd? No. I think that most of us city folks are this automatic. Automatically we swear, automatically we drive. Slowly but surely, our game ends with our own auto-mate. Can anything be done? I realized that making a film is not enough. It will only turn into another short essay saying the well-known, addressing the usual audience. Therefore, I'd slowly turned from a film director into an activist, an artistic radical, a political lobbyist. The multi-layered organism AUTO*MATE was conceived."
I LOVE MY BORING LIFE [Mám ráda nudný život]
DIRECTOR: Jan Gogola // COLOUR | 35 MM | 26’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, GERMANY, 2009
A diary of a grandmother from the Prague neighborhood of Zbraslav as a diary of eternity. Using informal language, for five years grandmother Alena Němcova from Zbraslav has been writing down weather forecasts, dreams, morning exercise, recipes, regular house bustle, global events as well as notes concerning relationships, religion and the general spirit of the age. The diary is intriguing for the ways it connects matters of a private, family, social, real and also surreal nature. The film aims to show that the borders of the world are defined by the borders of our perception.
PHANTOM OF LIBERTY II [Přízrak svobody II]
DIRECTOR: Karel Žalud // COLOUR | 35 MM | 57’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, GERMANY, 2009
In the so-called global age, a man is caught in the trap of time that he has set for himself and got stuck in it together with his freedom. Experimental documentary about time that explores its physical quantity as well as its crucial impact on our actions, behaviour, perception, social rituals and out outlook on the world.
JAN HUS – A MASS FOR THREE DEAD MEN [Jan Hus – mše za tři mrtvé muže]
DIRECTOR: Miroslav Bambušek // COLOUR / B&W | DVD | 76’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
Jan Hus – A Mass for Three Dead Men tries to recover the legacy of the medieval reformist priest Jan Hus who was burnt to death by inquisition for his criticism and calling for reformation of the Catholic Church in 1415. The story takes place in the late 20th Century and relates to history of territory formerly known as the Eastern bloc. Jan Hus introduces three individuals – Ryszard Siwiec, Oskar Brusewitz, and Graham Bamford, who set themselves on fire to protest against the political regimes in which they lived, and against which they had struggled.
WELCOME TO NORTH KOREA! [Vítejte v KLDR!]
DIRECTOR: Linda Jablonská // COLOUR | DIGIBETA PAL | 76’/55’ // CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a "journey into the unknown", a tour of North Korea. This trip was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in North Korea. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend approximately 2,600 Euros on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn't hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by "guides".
OSADNE [Osadné]
DIRECTOR: Marko Škop // COLOUR | 35 MM | 65’ // SLOVAKIA, CZECH REPUBLIC, 2009
Osadne is a film about an encounter between current top European leaders and the local politicians from the last village on the edge of the European Union. The small village of Osadne welcomes a delegation from the European Parliament. And vice versa – the mayor and priest from Osadne visit Brussels institutions on invitation from the European Parliament.
Contact:
Diana Tabakov
Co-ordinator of Czech Docs
Institute of Documentary Film
T: +420 604 214 295
diana@dokweb.net
www.DOKweb.net
