Download Catalogue Czech Documentary Films 2010/2011

Divadlo Svoboda , Czech Republic, 57 min, 16 mm, Beta, DVD, HD, Art and Culture, Creative, Portrait

“Darkness is my raw material. Just as the sculptor needs his clay, the carver needs his wood, I carve my theatre out of darkness." (Josef Svoboda). I grew up in the house of a man who was a brilliant stage designer, but who also was my grandfather to whom I did not talk much. I was twenty-five when he died and I realized I knew very little about him. Darkness and emptiness he would often talk about as his material filled up my head. I decided to explore the darkness and the emptiness through a film: and to search for some of the things that outlive us. (Jakub Hejna). The basic plot line of the film deals with Jakub's search for his deceased grandfather, famous stage designer Josef Svoboda. The search aims to present this extraordinary man in contexts that are still largely unknown.

Vše pro dobro světa a Nošovic! , Czech Republic, 2010, 82 min, 35 mm, Animated, Cinema Release, Creative, Current affairs, Ecology, Human Rights, Personal view, Politics, Social issues

An original portrait of a Czech village that houses a giant car plant built by South Korea's Hyundai. Before the village turned into an industrial zone, many of the landowners had no intention of selling their plots of land... Not until many of them faced pressure from their neighbours who had accepted approx. EUR 4000 in compensation and not until they received death threats. Using nine protagonists, the film paints a portrait of a village changed beyond recognition. A humorous yet compelling film about a field that yields cars.

Pozemšťané, koho budete volit? , Czech Republic, 40 min, Digi Beta, Current affairs

"Conquering Public Space - Documentalities" is a documentary project made by people who find it hard to get oriented in the world and who probably never were A students. To put it politically correct, they are mentally handicapped. That, however, does not prevent them from having an original perspective, sensitivity, curiosity and courage - all one needs to become a documentarist. During a six month documentary workshop of the civic association Inventura, a film was made under the supervision of documentarist Linda Jablonská, trying to prove that mentally handicapped people, too, can get oriented in the public space and have a political opinion of their own. We were following a phenomenon concerning all of us - the Czech parliamentary election.

Nutnost volby , Czech Republic, 90 min, Digi Beta, Personal view, Social issues, Society, Time Laps

This long-term observational film compares the situation of prisoners sentenced for life with the situation of those who leave prison cells after several years. What does a man who has been looking forward to the day he would leave the prison gate for such a long time do? How does he cope with the fact that everything is different from what he imagined? What choices will he make? Will the situation be at least a little similar to what he expected? And what are the decisions and thoughts of a person who apparently has no choice – a person sentenced for life? The director's aim is to depict the moments where twists and important changes take place in the lives of these people. Based on the prisoners' stories, the film also intends to put forward the more general question of managing one's own time and freedom.

Medvědí ostrovy , Czech Republic, 60 min, HD, Adventure and Sport, Creative, Nature, Portrait, Reportage, Society, Travel

In Bear Islands, director Martin Ryšavý continues his exploration of subjects related to the Sakha Republic, or Yakutia, Russia's Far Eastern Federal District. The film captures the life of residents in the remotest part of the territory, Nizhnekolymsky Ulus. Bear Islands are located in the East Siberian Sea at the mouth of the Kolyma River. The camera follows park rangers who take care of the nature reserve as they travel to an isolated polar station through the vast space where the past meets the present. A portrait of a landscape, its history and people who inhabit it.

Dva malí piráti ze Somálska , Czech Republic, 90 min, 35 mm, Digi Beta, HD, Anthropology, Creative, Current affairs, Ecology, Human Rights, Politics

The film tells the story of Somalian pirates who set out on the sea with the vision of feeding their hungry children, since they are living in a country where nothing has worked for dozens of years except for the lucrative business with ships and their cargo. We are far from advocating the terrorist who take hostages for ransom. We are far from defending the bosses of Somalian pirate clans who dispose of people, weapons and ships, representing an international power unit similar to ETA, Al Kaida or IRA. Our aim is to introduce Ali Muhammad Warsame, one of the hundreds of modern pirates who are spending endless days and weeks on the sea, taking drugs not to die of hunger and exhaustion, fearing everything and everyone like an animal waiting for its death in a cage.

Stíny minulosti , Czech Republic, 2010, 85 min, HD, Creative, Docu drama, History, Politics

Forgive your enemies but never forget their names. J. F. KennedyFor the first time people from the opposing sides of the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia, Czechs and Russians face each other on screen. Shadows of the past tells the story of a Russian dissident who protested the invasion, the daughter of one of the hundreds of people killed by the invading soldiers, a Soviet soldier who played an active role in the invasion and a Czech driver who witnessed the shootings. The stories of these everyday people, playing out in the background of a decision by powerful politicians, are a confrontation of motivations, attitudes, judgements and also of the repercussions they faced for their decisions. All this from todays perspective – forty years later. Who is guilty and who is a victim in a regime that gave people the choice of staying faithful or betraying themselves?

Rock života , Czech Republic, 80 min, HD, Creative

A creative documentary film portrait of Olda Říha, frontman of a famous Czech rock band Katapult celebrating 35 years of its existence. The first day of shooting captures the funeral of bass guitar player and Říha's lifelong friend Jiří "Old Man" Šindelář in January 2009 and the last day of shooting records an opening concert of the new album tour '' Joys of Life'', which took place in the largest church in Eastern Bohemia. Almost a thousand people attended the concert. The film follows the music, but particularly the life path of Říha and his band Katapult from  the "church of death" to the "church of rebirth." It is a path full of doubt, fault, conflict and happiness, but above all it is a journey with no end. Against the backdrop of the death and rebirth of the band, open and often conflicting situations take place between director Jan Gogola and Olda Říha, making it possible to find out whether Říha really sings what he lives and lives what he sings. Olda Říha is seen on the stage, in the backstage, on a TV show, on a tree stump, in a rehearsal room, in his office and in a bookstore, playing squash or taking a shower... A film about how the ordinary becomes the extraordinary.

Skvělá příležitost , Czech Republic, 57 min, Digi Beta, Social issues

Until the crisis of 2008, some eight thousand Mongolians came to work in the Czech Republic; since that time, the numbers reduced by half. Unlike other nationalities, most of them usually end up working at the very bottom of the production chain and services. Most of them had left for the West with a vision of improving their life standard and securing the lives of their children. These visions, however, are often problematic and the way back is not easy. To be able to start a new life in a country remote from their homeland and to secure a working position there, they were often forced to sell all their belongings. The film presents various examples of how Mongolians cope with the reality of life and work in the Czech Republic.

Manuál na výrobu teroristy , Czech Republic, 95 min, DV, Politics, Social issues, Youth Documentary

In the Basque region of Navarra, the director - a stranger - stops the passers by at the political graffiti, letting them explain what they mean and why they were painted. A documentary feature about repression, the anti-terrorist act and the events that happen within our common borders.