Seven Docs in Contention for Koutecky Award

Vše pro dobro světa a Nošovic , Czech Republic, 2010, 82 min, 35 mm, Creative, Personal View, 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.

Medvědí ostrovy , Czech Republic, 2010, 62 min, HD, Creative, Nature, Reportage, Society

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.

Česká Granada , Czech Republic, 2010, 50 min, Digi Beta, Society

A penetrating film documenting four months in the lives of people who are part of a Czech drug community in Granada. An account of the harsh life in the streets, squats, caves of Granada.

Pozemšťané, koho budete volit? , Czech Republic, 2010, 26 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.

Filmař, fanoušek, podivín , Czech Republic, 2010, 59 min, Digi Beta, Arts and Culture, Portrait

Josef F., a young cartoon filmmaker, living in the world of cinema and theatre is a social case – he is slightly mentally handicapped. Josef is in frequent contact with the environment of film and theatre celebrities. At the same time, he lives a rather lonely and chaotic life with his curator, in a house without running water. The contrast between the glittering world of the celebrities and the colorless, slow-paced existence of the social cases, creates the framework of the film. The director intends to explore if and how these two worlds can be interconnected, whether they have anything in common, and to search in each of them something, that would be really surprising for us.

For Semafor , Czech Republic, 2010, 83 min, DV, DVD, History, Music

Musical road movie with twenty stops shows a unique project For Semafor. The film was shot in the Autumn of 2009. 23 musicians and bands participated in For Semafor. No matter where it was- home, theater studio, recording studio, town or willage- musicians without auditory tried to find their own way of performing songs of Jiri Suchy and Jiri Slitr.

Nesvatbov , Czech Republic, Slovak Republic, 2010, 72 min, Digi Beta, HD, Creative, Society

A situational documentary film about a village mayor trying to match local people in their thirties who are still single. Slowly but surely, the Slovak village Zemplínské Hámre is dying out. Its mayor, a retired general, doesn't want to give up though. Fighting the thirty-year-olds' loneliness, he has used various means such as offering a financial reward for each newborn child or encouraging people to make children in the local public address system. None of it has worked. However, the mayor has a new plan. He decides to organize a dating party for singles from all the neighbouring villages...