- Occupation
Director - Country
Czech Republic
Špátová Olga
(Un)censored Interview
In a confrontation with her mother Olga Sommerová, the maker of the documentary enters into dialogues about life. A friendly duel between two generations, two women - mother and daughter. The mother - a well-known film director, the daughter - a film director at the beginning of her career. Their dialogues are intimate, spontaneous, loving, excited, dramatic and confrontational, their subjects being the groping search for one's sense of self, the desire for love and recognition, interpersonal relationships, the social position of men and women, and professional disputes over documentary film. They are also about unfulfilled desires, ageing and fear. Two Olgas, two directors, two views on life and the world. Opening shots, their first photographs together. The (un)censored dialogue starts as follows: "I wanted you so badly. I got you by praying. No, not praying. I fought for you." -"So it was out of love, wasn't it?"
Love Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
A documentary love story. A mother and daughter's view of the relationships between eight couples from various generations over the course of a year. A search for what most connects people, and at the same time divides them. The daughter mostly looks at young couples who are still choosing their life partners. Her mother looks at couples who have come to terms with the decision they made long ago, or are learning how to. A mosaic of human fates connected by the same simple, and yet complicated, desire to love and be loved.
I'll Go Where I Want
Singer Radůza has a unique place in the Czech folk music scene. The film shows Radůza as she is about to wrap up her existing style with a DVD and a concert, in order to begin a new chapter in her artistic and personal life. She was discovered by Zuzana Navarová, who offered the talented and free-thinking street singer the opportunity to study at the Prague conservatory. Radůza graduated as a composer with Spiritual Cantata. In 2003 she won three Angel awards, but she considers the year this film was made the happiest in her life.
Threeplay
Eye over Prague
An extraordinary tale of Jan Kaplicky, one of the most consummate visionaries of modern architecture. Shot over 3 years in the UK, Czech Republic and Italy, the film portrays Kaplicky at the height of his profession and the petty political gamesmanship that denied him his crowning achievement. His most audacious building would have been the Czech National Library, a triumphant return to his home country and vindication of his uncompromising philosophy. The organic design was too forward-looking for the political powers in Prague, however, and the architect tragically died uncertain whether his achievement would ever be realized.
Well-Paid Stroll
This documentary film describes the preparations for the new presentation of the jazz opera created by Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr at the National Theatre in Prague. The show originated in 1965 and was presented at the Semaphor Theatre, the home stage of these popular authors and singers. Jan Roháč and world-renowned Miloš Forman directed this version. It was also the latter who created a successful come-back of the show 40 years later in the spring of 2007, with the help of lyricist Jiří Suchý, conductor Libor Pešek and Forman's twin sons, stage designers Petr and Matěj.
Terry from Montmartre
Terry Haass, a versatile artist – a graphic designer, a painter and a sculptor, was born in Český Těšín in Czechoslovakia 1923. Being Jewish, she fled the Nazi occupation in 1939 and first found asylum in France, where she studied art history. After the five years of war, spent a at painting course in New York, she returned to Paris, where from the 1950s she worked in the Lacouriére studio. At that time she also studied the archeology of Mesopotamia, taking part in archeology research in the near and Middle East. Her works are represented in sixty galleries all around the world. The film shows this artist as a woman, who is still ready to create at her age of 84.
The Greatest Wish
The seemingly simple question, “What is your greatest wish?” provokes the respondents to formulate their value system. The heroes of this film are young people born towards the end of the communist regime or shortly after the Velvet Revolution. The Greatest Wish loosely follows up the eponymous documentary classics made by Czech filmmaker Jan Špáta in 1964 and 1989. In these films, Špáta surveyed the dreams and attitudes of young people at key times of the totalitarian era. Twenty years on, his daughter Olga Špátová picked up where he left off, as an insight into her own generation. The film features birth and death, social outcasts, ambitious professionals, people in love, civic activists and absolutely ordinary people who open up their hearts.
24
A documentary collage about the progress of one Czech day, composed by 24 directors. Everyone picked one hour, day or night, and received two minutes of the whole film at his or her disposal. This allowed for the mosaic on genres and topics that portrait the atmosphere of the Czech Republic today. At the same time, this unique project presents various filmmaking styles and approaches of the best contemporary Czech documentarians, all on the reel of one film. The authors accompany teenagers at a discotheque, observe doctors during surgery, laborers in a factory, believers in a synagogue or the descent in a human throat. Olga Špátová records the authentic power of the moment when the child is born. Vít Klusák engages a special camcorder to freeze the time of one tram stop. The flow of time is Helena Třeštíková’s topic – she films Katka taking yet another public bath in a Prague’s fountain. Martin Mareček shows a pair of legs sunk in aquarium, which, backed with a voiceover, illustrates the timeless power of human stupidity. Jiří Krejčík, a significant persona of Czech film, conceived his film hour with a great amount of humor and exaggeration.
In a confrontation with her mother Olga Sommerová, the maker of the documentary enters into dialogues about life. A friendly duel between two generations, two women - mother and daughter. The mother - a well-known film director, the daughter - a film director at the beginning of her career. Their dialogues are intimate, spontaneous, loving, excited, dramatic and confrontational, their subjects being the groping search for one's sense of self, the desire for love and recognition, interpersonal relationships, the social position of men and women, and professional disputes over documentary film. They are also about unfulfilled desires, ageing and fear. Two Olgas, two directors, two views on life and the world. Opening shots, their first photographs together. The (un)censored dialogue starts as follows: "I wanted you so badly. I got you by praying. No, not praying. I fought for you." -"So it was out of love, wasn't it?"
Love Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow
A documentary love story. A mother and daughter's view of the relationships between eight couples from various generations over the course of a year. A search for what most connects people, and at the same time divides them. The daughter mostly looks at young couples who are still choosing their life partners. Her mother looks at couples who have come to terms with the decision they made long ago, or are learning how to. A mosaic of human fates connected by the same simple, and yet complicated, desire to love and be loved.
I'll Go Where I Want
Singer Radůza has a unique place in the Czech folk music scene. The film shows Radůza as she is about to wrap up her existing style with a DVD and a concert, in order to begin a new chapter in her artistic and personal life. She was discovered by Zuzana Navarová, who offered the talented and free-thinking street singer the opportunity to study at the Prague conservatory. Radůza graduated as a composer with Spiritual Cantata. In 2003 she won three Angel awards, but she considers the year this film was made the happiest in her life.
Threeplay
Eye over Prague
An extraordinary tale of Jan Kaplicky, one of the most consummate visionaries of modern architecture. Shot over 3 years in the UK, Czech Republic and Italy, the film portrays Kaplicky at the height of his profession and the petty political gamesmanship that denied him his crowning achievement. His most audacious building would have been the Czech National Library, a triumphant return to his home country and vindication of his uncompromising philosophy. The organic design was too forward-looking for the political powers in Prague, however, and the architect tragically died uncertain whether his achievement would ever be realized.
Well-Paid Stroll
This documentary film describes the preparations for the new presentation of the jazz opera created by Jiří Suchý and Jiří Šlitr at the National Theatre in Prague. The show originated in 1965 and was presented at the Semaphor Theatre, the home stage of these popular authors and singers. Jan Roháč and world-renowned Miloš Forman directed this version. It was also the latter who created a successful come-back of the show 40 years later in the spring of 2007, with the help of lyricist Jiří Suchý, conductor Libor Pešek and Forman's twin sons, stage designers Petr and Matěj.
Terry from Montmartre
Terry Haass, a versatile artist – a graphic designer, a painter and a sculptor, was born in Český Těšín in Czechoslovakia 1923. Being Jewish, she fled the Nazi occupation in 1939 and first found asylum in France, where she studied art history. After the five years of war, spent a at painting course in New York, she returned to Paris, where from the 1950s she worked in the Lacouriére studio. At that time she also studied the archeology of Mesopotamia, taking part in archeology research in the near and Middle East. Her works are represented in sixty galleries all around the world. The film shows this artist as a woman, who is still ready to create at her age of 84.
The Greatest Wish
The seemingly simple question, “What is your greatest wish?” provokes the respondents to formulate their value system. The heroes of this film are young people born towards the end of the communist regime or shortly after the Velvet Revolution. The Greatest Wish loosely follows up the eponymous documentary classics made by Czech filmmaker Jan Špáta in 1964 and 1989. In these films, Špáta surveyed the dreams and attitudes of young people at key times of the totalitarian era. Twenty years on, his daughter Olga Špátová picked up where he left off, as an insight into her own generation. The film features birth and death, social outcasts, ambitious professionals, people in love, civic activists and absolutely ordinary people who open up their hearts.
24
A documentary collage about the progress of one Czech day, composed by 24 directors. Everyone picked one hour, day or night, and received two minutes of the whole film at his or her disposal. This allowed for the mosaic on genres and topics that portrait the atmosphere of the Czech Republic today. At the same time, this unique project presents various filmmaking styles and approaches of the best contemporary Czech documentarians, all on the reel of one film. The authors accompany teenagers at a discotheque, observe doctors during surgery, laborers in a factory, believers in a synagogue or the descent in a human throat. Olga Špátová records the authentic power of the moment when the child is born. Vít Klusák engages a special camcorder to freeze the time of one tram stop. The flow of time is Helena Třeštíková’s topic – she films Katka taking yet another public bath in a Prague’s fountain. Martin Mareček shows a pair of legs sunk in aquarium, which, backed with a voiceover, illustrates the timeless power of human stupidity. Jiří Krejčík, a significant persona of Czech film, conceived his film hour with a great amount of humor and exaggeration.
Born in 1984, Olga Špátová is a Czech documentary filmmaker. Received numerous awards at film festivals at home and abroad. Filmography: (Ne)cenzurované rozhovory, Láska včera, dnes a zítra, Půjdu, kam chci (2007), Ženy Charty 77 (2007), Eye Above Prague (2009).
Catalogue of Upcoming Czech Documentary Films - 2012