- Occupation
Producer, Director - Country
Czech Republic
Růžička Janek
For the Love of Prague
For his new love Zdenka left the American cartoon director Gene Deitch in 1958 his family in New York and relocated to Prague. What followed surpasses the most fantastic imagination of Hollywood filmmakers. Besides films as Tom and Jerry or Popeye, he made dozens of short cartoons with Czech animators. (Munro won the Oscar in 1961). As a jazz enthusiast, he has recorded the home blues session of John Lee Hooker a time before the first official recording. His life-love story is an intelligent and chilling account of 40 years under communism, lived by an American "guest".
Inner Stress
A film about a musical instrument maker. Every piece of wood form which Jan Richter makes a violin or viola has its own inner stress. The tension between the precision of a humble trade and his independent Bohemian existence is part of Richter's everyday life in his workshop, a demolished gipsy house, a life also characterized by confrontation with his father. FAMU, Department of Documentary Film (2nd year)
Theatrum Honoris Causa
A documentary of the ceremony during which the President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel was named honorary doctor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. FAMU, Department of Documentary Film (2nd year)
The Head of State
The documentary film is a contemplation about the problems and duties related to the office, about the actual face behind it and about the meaning it has among people today. Apart from presidential candidates, the film also features former President Václav Havel, an artist who designs presidential postal stamps, school children, a girl who wrote a letter to the President complaining about the lousy food at her school, and many others.
Grass Widow
A winter landscape, a field with three tall trees. A young woman in an old-time dress stands under the trees, holding a faded photograph of a soldier, and performs a strange witchcraft ritual that eventually brings her sweetheart back from the war.
Prague Portrait
A dramatized documentary about one boy's possible life stories.
How Could I Not Believe You...
A narrative short; a surprise for a phony healer. - Department of documentary film, FAMU - 2nd year.
Kali Cerchen - The Black Star
A documentary legend-tale about Roma kids seeking the mystical "Black star". What does "Kali cerchen" represent? Is it the talent? Is it a song? Is it the heart? Is it the destiny? Talented Romany children during the preparations for a performance at Moravian Svojanov castle are trying, along with the singer and muzician Ida Kelarová, to find the Black Star.
And Who Are You?
The marriage of a gay couple serves as the starting point for thinking about how our society perceives personal and social connections in the so-called gay unions.
Pro FORMA(N)
Film about director Miloš Forman who has given an honorary doctorate from AMU, the Academy of Performing Arts, at the Lichtenstein palace in Prague on 16 January 1998. - Department of documentary film, FAMU - 3rd year.
One Day in the Land of OOZ
A mosaic of images and sound without commentary and testimony. Animals and people come together during one day at a zoo which loses its character of an enclosed garden but strives to give the impression of a kind of common land - a land which reflects the similarities and contrasts between people and animals. - Department of documentary production, FAMU - 1st year.
For his new love Zdenka left the American cartoon director Gene Deitch in 1958 his family in New York and relocated to Prague. What followed surpasses the most fantastic imagination of Hollywood filmmakers. Besides films as Tom and Jerry or Popeye, he made dozens of short cartoons with Czech animators. (Munro won the Oscar in 1961). As a jazz enthusiast, he has recorded the home blues session of John Lee Hooker a time before the first official recording. His life-love story is an intelligent and chilling account of 40 years under communism, lived by an American "guest".
Inner Stress
A film about a musical instrument maker. Every piece of wood form which Jan Richter makes a violin or viola has its own inner stress. The tension between the precision of a humble trade and his independent Bohemian existence is part of Richter's everyday life in his workshop, a demolished gipsy house, a life also characterized by confrontation with his father. FAMU, Department of Documentary Film (2nd year)
Theatrum Honoris Causa
A documentary of the ceremony during which the President of the Czech Republic Václav Havel was named honorary doctor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. FAMU, Department of Documentary Film (2nd year)
The Head of State
The documentary film is a contemplation about the problems and duties related to the office, about the actual face behind it and about the meaning it has among people today. Apart from presidential candidates, the film also features former President Václav Havel, an artist who designs presidential postal stamps, school children, a girl who wrote a letter to the President complaining about the lousy food at her school, and many others.
Grass Widow
A winter landscape, a field with three tall trees. A young woman in an old-time dress stands under the trees, holding a faded photograph of a soldier, and performs a strange witchcraft ritual that eventually brings her sweetheart back from the war.
Prague Portrait
A dramatized documentary about one boy's possible life stories.
How Could I Not Believe You...
A narrative short; a surprise for a phony healer. - Department of documentary film, FAMU - 2nd year.
Kali Cerchen - The Black Star
A documentary legend-tale about Roma kids seeking the mystical "Black star". What does "Kali cerchen" represent? Is it the talent? Is it a song? Is it the heart? Is it the destiny? Talented Romany children during the preparations for a performance at Moravian Svojanov castle are trying, along with the singer and muzician Ida Kelarová, to find the Black Star.
And Who Are You?
The marriage of a gay couple serves as the starting point for thinking about how our society perceives personal and social connections in the so-called gay unions.
Pro FORMA(N)
Film about director Miloš Forman who has given an honorary doctorate from AMU, the Academy of Performing Arts, at the Lichtenstein palace in Prague on 16 January 1998. - Department of documentary film, FAMU - 3rd year.
One Day in the Land of OOZ
A mosaic of images and sound without commentary and testimony. Animals and people come together during one day at a zoo which loses its character of an enclosed garden but strives to give the impression of a kind of common land - a land which reflects the similarities and contrasts between people and animals. - Department of documentary production, FAMU - 1st year.
Wolf Robert Vano
Robert Vano. The fashion world lay at his feet. His name entered the history of world photography. His photos were the pride of magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, and Cosmopolitan. To his native Czechoslovakia, he returned shortly after the fall of communism. He fell in love with Prague and has lived and worked there for almost twenty years. The documentary Wolf will have a non-traditional concept of a unique picture of a legend. Through the portrayal of the life of one extraordinary man, the film strives to examine contemporary history, contemplate the strength of individuals and re-evaluate the role of spirituality in the life of a person from the contemporary western world – all of this from the position of a seeming outsider. It will show the intense charisma, originality and incredible life story of a photographer.
Of Wolves And Men
Robert Vano and his works have been a significant influence to many young artists. He is known all around the world. Now he lives and works primarily in Prague. He comes from Slovakia from a similar background as Andy Warhol. As a renowned photographer, Vano has personally met the pop art icon. As a globetrotter whose home is everywhere and nowhere, Vano has had a tortuous life career. His way to fulfilling the American dream was never simple; he often had to start again from scratch. The byways of his life, his rises and falls, his childhood memories of Slovakia, his escape to the free West, his return to post-revolution Czechoslovakia; all of these represent a challenge to a documentarist. Together with Vano, we take a virtual trip in time from New York to Italy, France and Germany for more work. Then back to Czechoslovakia where Prague charmed him so much that he stayed for the next twenty years. "It's really funny that I'm running away from a place where I wanted to be free, finding freedom right here - in Prague", he says about the city which he would never leave for America again. Robert Vano can talk about his life openly and freely. The spectators will love him for his experience, sense of humour, modesty and grace. It is easy to love him just like he falls in love with his photographic objects. Since that is the only way for his photographs to be filled with powerful emotions.
Robert Vano. The fashion world lay at his feet. His name entered the history of world photography. His photos were the pride of magazines like Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue, Elle, and Cosmopolitan. To his native Czechoslovakia, he returned shortly after the fall of communism. He fell in love with Prague and has lived and worked there for almost twenty years. The documentary Wolf will have a non-traditional concept of a unique picture of a legend. Through the portrayal of the life of one extraordinary man, the film strives to examine contemporary history, contemplate the strength of individuals and re-evaluate the role of spirituality in the life of a person from the contemporary western world – all of this from the position of a seeming outsider. It will show the intense charisma, originality and incredible life story of a photographer.
Of Wolves And Men
Robert Vano and his works have been a significant influence to many young artists. He is known all around the world. Now he lives and works primarily in Prague. He comes from Slovakia from a similar background as Andy Warhol. As a renowned photographer, Vano has personally met the pop art icon. As a globetrotter whose home is everywhere and nowhere, Vano has had a tortuous life career. His way to fulfilling the American dream was never simple; he often had to start again from scratch. The byways of his life, his rises and falls, his childhood memories of Slovakia, his escape to the free West, his return to post-revolution Czechoslovakia; all of these represent a challenge to a documentarist. Together with Vano, we take a virtual trip in time from New York to Italy, France and Germany for more work. Then back to Czechoslovakia where Prague charmed him so much that he stayed for the next twenty years. "It's really funny that I'm running away from a place where I wanted to be free, finding freedom right here - in Prague", he says about the city which he would never leave for America again. Robert Vano can talk about his life openly and freely. The spectators will love him for his experience, sense of humour, modesty and grace. It is easy to love him just like he falls in love with his photographic objects. Since that is the only way for his photographs to be filled with powerful emotions.
JANEK RŮŽIČKA (JQr)
born 23.2.1975 in Vrchlabí, 1989 – 1993 Gymnázium Tanvald (Secondary school without specialization)-1995 – 1998 FAMU Praha - Academy of Fine Arts, Film and TV faculty, documentary department – the creative workshops of Olga Sommerová and Jan Špáta
filmography:- Slaměná vdova (The Grass Widow) (FAMU 1995)- Jeden den v zemi OOZ (One Day in OOZ Land) (FAMU 1996)- Jak bych vám mohl nevěřit (How Could I Not Trust You) (FAMU 1996)- Theatrum Honoris Causa (FAMU 1996)- Vnitřní pnutí (Inner Tense) (FAMU 1997)- Pro forma(n) (FAMU 1997)- Není mi odpovídat. Ptám se. (I´m not to answer. I ask.) (FAMU 1998)- Hry na Prahu (Primavera de Praga) (1999)- Sametová revoluční procházka (The Velvet Revolutoion Walk) (Czech Television 2000)- Hlava státu (The Head Of State) (Czech Television 2003)- „A vy jste kdo?“ („And who are you?“) (Czech Television 2004)- Třináctá komnata – Richard Müller (Thirteen´s chamber - Richard Müller) (Czech Television 2005)- Třináctá komnata – Daniel Landa (Thirteen´s chamber - Daniel Landa) (Czech Television 2005)- Třináctá komnata – Dan Bárta (Thirteen´s chamber – Dan Bárta) (Czech Television 2006)- For the love of Prague (Golden Dawn 2007) - Třináctá komnata – Ida Kelarová (Thirteen´s chamber – Ida Kelarová) (Czech Television 2007)- Kali čercheň – Černá hvězda (Kali cerchen – The Black star) (Golden Dawn, Miret 2007)- The Space of Light (PRATT Fine Arts Center Seattle USA 2010)other TV works:- „Q“ – the weekly queer programm (Czech Television 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010) – original idea, script-writer, director- „Musicblok“ – the weekly music programm (Czech Television 2008, 2009) – directortheatre dramaturgy and direction:- „Cendrillon“, full-length ballet - Les Grandes Ballets Canadiens Montréal, autumn 2003 – dramaturgist, librettist, as.director- Doug Wright´s „I´m my own wife“ – Divadlo Letí 2007 – director- „camoufl.AGE“ – experimental contemporary dance performance (choreography Jan Kodet) – National theatre 2009 – idea, libretto, director film cooperation on theather performances:- Kabaret Vian – Cami, Divadlo v Dlouhé, dir. Jan Borna- Smlouva, National Theatre – Divadlo Kolowrat, dir. Arnošt Goldflam- Jak jsem se ztratil, aneb Malá vánoční povídka - Divadlo v Dlouhé, dir. Jan Borna- Komedie omylů (Comedy of Errors) - National Theatre – Stavovské divadlo, dir. Enikö Essényi