Panel of Upcoming Documentary Films
Venue: Cinema Evald, Prague
Date: September 16, 2008 at 1pm
Organized by: Institute of Documentary Film, Jihlava IDFF and Czech Film Center
More information on the panel, catalogue and all of the films available in our Activities section / Panel and Catalogue of Forthcoming Documentary Films
Catalogue:
A bilingual brochure with details on nearly 100 new Czech documentaries, released as part of the event, will be made available at the Panel and can be downloaded at www.Dokweb.net, www.filmcenter.cz.
Catalogue Download (PDF):
CATALOGUE 2008/2009
- New Films + Documentary Projects under 30 minutes
- Documentary Projects under 60 minutes
- Documentary Projects over 60 minutes
The panel will include presentations of the following upcoming documentaries :
Radar (Czech Peace) – dir. Vít Klusák a Filip Remunda
Black Hearts – dir. Břetislav Rychlík, Monika Rychlíková
The Eye Above Prague – dir. Olga Špátová
Ivetka and the Mountain – dir. Vít Janeček
The Short Long Journey – dir. Martin Hanzlíček
Rapublic – dir. Pavel Abrahám
Kateryna – dir. Miroslav Janek
Forgotten Transports to Poland – dir. Lukáš Přibyl
A Holiday in DPRK – dir. Linda Jablonská
RADAR (CZECH PEACE) (Radar-Český mír)
Directed by: Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda
Script: Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda
Director of photography: Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda
Editor: Vít Klusák
Sound: Michal Gábor, Václav Flegl
Music: folk
Producer: Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda – Hypermarket Film
Co-producer: Česká televize, Soundsquare
Estimated date of release: 5 / 2009
Running time: 95 min.
Format: 35 mm
As part of their Missile Defence project, the US plan to locate a military base in the Czech Republic, which used to serve as a hideaway for the Soviet nuclear rockets during the Cold War. 70% of Czechs are against the project; the government, however, proceeds with the talks… War! War!! WAR!!! Everything will explode burn down and die…that’s what readers learn from the media from both the supporters and opponents of the US radar base. Supporters of the base use threats of the War on Terror, saying “Rogue states” can’t wait to shower the country with rockets. Opponents claim the same thing will happen if the radar is built. According to both parties concerned the war is inevitable. A pre-war comedy: Feature-length documentary about Czechs not knowing whether to invite a foreign army to the country, having experienced Soviet occupation while conscious of the current controversial War on Terror. A playful explosive film of our times…
BLACK HEARTS (Černá srdce)
Directed by: Břetislav Rychlík, Monika Rychlíková
Script: Břetislav Rychlík, Monika Rychlíková
Director of photography: Richard Krivda, Petr Koblovský, Miroslav Janek
Editor: Tonička Janková
Sound: Vladimír Chrastil, Michael Míček
Music: Roma folk music
Producer: Jan Lederer – Plum Production, Czech TV
Co-producer: Czech TV, Plum Production
Estimated date of release: Autumn 2008
Running time: 57 min.
Screening ratio: 16:9
The third part of the year-long documentary views of Břetislav Rychlík on the human community. After the films One Year (on the lives of seven old people born in the era of the Austro-Hungarian Empire living in the Horňácko region) and God’s Stone Quarry (one year in Northern Bohemia), Black Hearts captures the common view of two directors (Monika Rychlíková, Břetislav Rychlík) and two photographers (Jindřich Štreit, Marie Zachovalová) on four Roma families. The documentary was filmed from December 2006 to December 2007 in a Roma village (Slovakia), rural community (Hungary), industry region (Poland) and suburban Roma community (Czech Republic). The cameramen were Richard Krivda, Petr Koblovský and Miroslav Janek. The editor was Tonička Janková. The film is dedicated to the memory of photographer Marie Zachovalová who died tragically several days after finishing the film.
THE EYE ABOVE PRAGUE (Oko nad Prahou)
Directed by: Olga Špátová
Script: Olga Špátová, Eliška Kaplický Fuchsová
Director of photography: Olga Špátová
Editor: Jakub Voves
Sound: Richard Müller et al.
Music: Olga Špátová
Producer: Eliška Kaplický Fuchsová – Simply Cinema
Co-producer: Czech TV
Estimated date of release: 2009
Running time: 57 min.
Format: DV Cam
Jan Kaplický from the Future Systems, the winner of the first International Architectural Competition in the Czech Republic, could build one of the world's technologically most advanced buildings. Ten million books are to be stored in a subterranean vault with a fully mechanized retrieval system operated by robots. Including its amazing design, the library really is a part of Czech national identity; however, a lot of care will be needed to turn this baby into an adult of some integrity. Jan Kaplický certainly has a big fight on his hands in Prague. The National Library’s enemies have called Kaplický’s design an “octopus”. Politicians are the main problem, as President Václav Klaus and mayor of Prague lined up against him. After receiving a result one has to stick to it. With Kaplický, however, one gets the impression that this project means the world to him, a finale to a peculiar and celebrated career. He just wants to be judged when it is finished; not before it has started. It is a battle of an architect against the whole machinery and administration of the state. Kaplický is fighting, together with Czech intellectuals including former president and writer Václav Havel, for modern architecture in Europe, for culture and for books. However, the film is about more than just the library; it is as much about the fight for democracy and prosperity as it is about books. The Czech Republic, after all, is a country with a powerful history of the surreal and the absurd. From Franz Kafka's stories to Milan Kundera and Emma Destinová, Czechs have always found solace in absurdity. Kafka wrote: “It is not necessary to accept everything as true, one must only accept is as necessary.”
IVETKA AND THE MOUNTAIN (Ivetka a hora)
Directed by: Vít Janeček
Script: Vít Janeček
Director of photography: Braňo Pažitka
Editor: Hedvika Hansalová
Sound: Lenka Mikulová, Jiří Melcher
Producer: Petr Oukropec – Negativ
Co-producer: Česká televize Brno
Estimated date of release: 11 / 2008
Running time: 84 min.
Format: Digibetacam, DVD
In a village Litmanová in Eastern Slovakia, each month between 1990 and 1995 Holy Mary appeared to two girls, Ivetka and Katka. They were ten and eleven when it started. Both of them saw her, Iveta could also talk to her and receive her messages. After the revelation ended, Katka got married happily and lives her civic live. The other, Iveta, went to a monastic community and spent 9 years there. After fulfilling her temporary promises she decided to leave... The place – Zvir Mountain near Litmanová – became a famous place of prayer; millions of people have come there already and many more are coming every day... The film is a recollection of Iveta's inner and outer experience of meeting Mary, asking the question: how to live with a revelation?
THE LONG SHORT JOURNEY (Krátká, dlouhá cesta)
Directed by: Martin Hanzlíček
Script: Fedor Gál, Martin Hanzlíček
Director of photography: Richard Krivda
Sound: Peter Zubál, Václav Vondráček, Miloš Brunclík
Music: Marian Varga
Producer: Fedor Gál, Jarmila Poláková – Film & Sociologie
Estimated date of release: 1 / 2009
Running time: 90 min.
Format: Betacam digi, DVD
“I have never seen my father…”, wrote Fedor Gál in his narration entitled “Fragments”. He also writes that not only did he never see his father but he never found out what happened to him. He thought he was buried somewhere in a mass grave at a German extermination camp. It was not until 1994, at the funeral of his mother, that Zoltán Lenský disclosed the fact that he had been with Vojtěch Gál during the last stage of his life on a death march from Sachsenhausen. He was also able to state how Fedor’s father died – Vojtěch was shot when, utterly exhausted, he was unable to go any further. Zoltán Lenský never had the strength to relate this story to Barbora Gálová, even though they knew each other and even lived in the same city. Now he told it to her sons. And this knowledge ignited a need to find their father’s grave. Our historical experience shows us how easy it is to unleash the demon of hatred, and how easy it is to corrupt the basic functions of a human community – one concrete defined group, or an entire group of inhabitants - until it leads to its destruction. The most primitive form of cruelty is able to find its way into people who not long ago were experiencing a happy and harmonious period of mutual coexistence. It only takes a little and suddenly people are burning down each others’ homes and murdering their neighbours. Unfortunately, people often murder one another in an endless cycle. It is a terrible fact that, even in the 21st century, there is mass hatred, people being driven out, massacres, refugee camps… and this is happening on our own European continent. These are the reasons why this project has been created.
RAPUBLIK (Česká rapublika)
Directed by: Pavel Abrahám
Script: Pavel Abrahám, Tomáš Bojar
Director of photography: Vladan Vála
Editor: Šimon Špidla
Sound: Lukáš Moudrý et al.
Music: PSH, Indy & Wich, Supercroo
Producer: Martin Pošta – Fresh Films
Co-producer: Studio Beep
Estimated date of release: 2-10-2008
Running time: 93 min.
Format: DVD, 35 mm
The Czech RAPublic is the first feature film dedicated to Czech rap. James Cole, Hugo Toxxx and Orion on the stage, but primarily off it. Three prominent Czech rappers, ten pieces, ten lively – and even enlivening – film situations. Introducing a garrulous professor of linguistics, cheeky children from a Roma ghetto in Karviná, a curious photographer, a strict registry clerk, accidental passers-by of Prague or the “almighty” Hana Hegerová; further more the members of a classic music trio, basic school students from the Prague South City, representatives of the association Word and Voice and even the saviour of the Czech language, Josef Jungmann himself. Hip hop on the way from its narrow subcultural ghetto to the world. Citizens of the Czech RAPublic and the Czech Republic come together for a common “freestyle”. Orion explaining to a linguist what “charáč” means; a DJ trio jamming with a chamber music trio; James Cole confessing his love for the film Twelve Monkies to a registry clerk; Hugo Toxxx telling the Express radio listeners that Czechs have a metal core. And as “Hana Hegerová loves hyphy”, it all ends up in a collective anthem.
KATERYNA (Kateryna)
Directed by: Miroslav Janek
Script: Miroslav Janek
Director of photography: Miroslav Janek
Editor: Tonička Janková
Sound: Michael Míček, Štěpán Mamula
Producer: Lenka Poláková – Česká televize Ostrava
Estimated date of release: 12 / 2008
Running time: 57 min.
Screening ratio: 16:9
Kateryna Kolcova is a person who could be called a dramatic artist of life. She can interpret any detail with unbelievable performance. Her mother reared her in hard living conditions. Although she did not know about her national background she was in touch with the Jewish environment. Her biggest dream was to become a singer. With the help of Radio Free Europe, she arrived in the Czech Republic and studied singing at Jan Deyl Conservatory for Visually Impaired in Prague. She fell in love and got married in the Czech Republic. As she says, her husband is the best of all. The singing of Kateryna Kolcova-Tlusta is very energetic and heartfelt. Her interpretation of Jewish folk songs will not leave you unmoved. Her beautiful deep voice has dynamics and colour, which surely makes her one of our biggest new musical discoveries.
FORGOTTEN TRANSPORTS TO POLAND (Zapomenuté transporty do Polska)
Directed by: Lukáš Přibyl
Script: Lukáš Přibyl
Director of photography: Jakub Šimůnek
Editor: Vladimír Barák
Sound: Jan Čeněk, Marek Musil
Music: Petr Ostrouchov
Producer: Lukáš Přibyl, Ondřej Trojan – Total Helpart THA
Estimated date of release: 12 / 2008
Running time: 84 min.
Format: DV, betacam, digi betacam
A result of seven years of research and shooting, Lukas Pribyl’s Forgotten Transports series now concludes with the fourth documentary, To Poland. Like with the previous films (focused on Latvia, Estonia and Belarus), the picture is based on recollections of mostly Czech Jewish eyewitnesses deported to the virtually unknown concentration camps and ghettos in eastern Poland. The documentary uses neither commentary nor contemporary shots but tells gripping stories through a minimalist montage of interviews with the handful of survivors – most relating their reminiscences for the first time – and never before seen extant photos and footage drawn from a vast array of sources, from archives to attics of Polish village houses. From 13.000 Czech and Moravian Jews deported to the Lublin district of Poland, 47 lived to see the end of the war. The only way to survive was to run, even though an escape seemed hopeless in a country where betraying a Jew was rewarded with a few pounds of sugar. The film explores how these escapees coped, for years, constantly on the run, ever alone, always assuming different identities, forever on guard (one man was for example jailed three times in the same prison, each time under a different name and with an another story). Every mentioned detail is painstakingly documented with authentic, time and place precise visuals, substantiating the fascinating private perspectives and recollections of each individual, as the witnesses talk only about places, people and events they experienced themselves. Together, these narrow points of view combine to paint a new, surprising picture of the Holocaust and a different “mode” of survival.
A HOLIDAY IN DPRK (Dovolená v KLDR)
Directed by: Linda Jablonská
Script: Linda Jablonská
Director of photography: David Cysař, Linda Jablonská
Editor: Jakub Voves
Sound: Ivan Horák
Producer: Milan Kuchynka – Negativ
Estimated date of release: 10 / 2008
Running time: approx. 60 min.
Format: DV
One of the Czech travel agencies offers a “journey into the unknown” in its catalogue, a sight-seeing tour of North Korea. This spring was the second time since 1990 when a regular group of Czech tourists set foot in the DPRK. We were part of this group. The intensive six-day programme was made up of sight-seeing at various “attractions” provided by the local state tourism office. Tourists spend several days in the capital and surrounding areas, visiting for example a demonstrative collective farm, a youth corps centre or a gigantic dam. The tourist programme is under constant supervision, nobody from the group is allowed to leave the hotel in an “unorganised” manner, nobody is allowed to break away from the group tours and set out to explore on their own or even talk to any “normal” North Korean. During the course of the trip we show our appreciation for several Kim Il Sung statues, listen to a commentary on the American imperialist evil, wonder at the bizarre items in the Museum of Gifts to the Great Leader. Despite the fact (or just for this reason) that we are cared for like a governmental delegation, some of us accept these aspects in an embarrassed way and with doubts about our own moral responsibility. It is clear to us that under no circumstances can we “get to know” the country in just under a week, we are only seeing what the North Koreans want us to visit, see and photograph. What is more, the North Korean system is conspicuously reminiscent of our own past. The omnipresent organisation, architectural monumentality of state institutions, Czech trams, dull grey of the panel-built housing, the uncertainty in the eyes of the passers-by. Which emotions do these associations arouse among our travellers? How does a Czech person come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a totalitarian system after having become accustomed to eighteen years of freedom and democracy? Who sets out on such a holiday and why?
