Trilobite Awards 2011
Hosted by the Czech Film and Television Association (FITES)
January 28, 2012
Martin Mareček's documentary film Solar Eclipse received a Trilobite Award presented annually by the Czech Film and Television Association (FITES). Solar Eclipse was voted Best Czech Documentary Film at the 2011 Jihlava IDFF and it won the Silver Eye Award and the Czech Film Critics Award.
Filmmaker Tomáš Škrdlant, recipient of the 2009 Pavel Koutecký Award for The Unwelcome, received a Trilobite Award for his documentary film I Am Like a Tiger, while Miloš Zvěřina earned a Trilobite for his short animated documentary Helga L - 520.
Special Mention was awarded to Jakub Hejna for the arts slash personal doc Theatre Svoboda and to Pavel Kačírek for his portrait The Krajina Files.
Filmmaker Jan Němec was honoured with the Vladislav Vančura Award for his lifetime contribution to feature, documentary and experimental film.
Click here for a complete list of winners (in Czech).
Solar Eclipse
Pod sluncem tma , Czech Republic, 2011, 81 min, DV, Creative, Current Affairs, Portrait, Social Issues
In 2006, Milan and Tomas electrified a school campus and a hospital in a detached Zambian village. After four years, they return for the last time to find out about their system's failures, repair it and hand it over at last. The film follows them through chaotic days as well as pitch black nights and provides a fresh insight into the pitfalls of humanitarian development projects. Short circuits of all sorts, blending and dissolving of different worlds, rituals of gratitude and concepts of solutions. With no attempts to declare or evaluate anything, Solar Eclipse becomes a situation probe examining various forms of light and darkness. Will the two Czech linkboys succeed in lighting up the Zambian bushland?
I Am Like a Tiger
I Am Like a Tiger , Czech Republic, 2011, 42 min, DVD, Creative, Personal View
A Slovakian architect living in United Kingdom came to die to the Czech republic. He chronicled his dying by drawings and paintings. The author's intention is to reveal nothing more before the film viewing.
Catalogue of Upcoming Czech Documentary Films 2011
Helga L - 520
Helga L - 520 , Czech Republic, 2011, 20 min, Digi Beta, HD, Animated, Arts and Culture, Creative, History
The artistic animated documentary film "Helga L-520" is inspired by the life story of Helga Weiss-Hošková (*1929) and her internment in the Terezin ghetto. The film is based on Helga's unique drawings she made in the camp. The visual component of the film builds on a contrast of the animated drawings and historical materials on one hand and the current footage of Helga in Terezin on the other hand. The film "Helga L-520" is a second project of "The Terezin Triptych“. It is a sequel to an award winning graduation film of Miloš Zvěřina "Imprisoned Dreams". By means of its unconventional, "non-violent" and interesting form, the film points out the fact that history is not linear.
Theatre Svoboda
Divadlo Svoboda , Czech Republic, 2011, 98 min, DCP, HD, Arts and Culture, Creative, Portrait
Theatre Svoboda portraits the life and work of the director’s grandfather, world-famous stage designer Josef Svoboda (1920–2002), who tried to juggle creative freedom, family life and political allegiances during the times of a communist regime. Svoboda was able to work for the top of world theatres, such as The Old Vic in London, The Metropolitan Opera in New York and La Scala in Milano. The film takes the viewer literally behind the scenes and reveals some of the secrets of Svoboda’s fascinating lifework through archive materials that have not been published yet.
The Krajina Files
Akta Vladimír Krajina , Czech Republic, 2011, 57 min, 16 mm, Beta, DVD, HD, History, Politics, Portrait
The documentary The Krajina Files will introduce the resistance activities of Vladimír Krajina during World War II as well as his anti-communist attitude and fate after February 1948.