Launching an ambitious program of compelling global and Czech work, the 27th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival opened on Tuesday, kicking off six days of more than 350 film screenings by veteran and new filmmakers.
Fest head and founder Marek Hovorka, who launched the event in his hometown in 1997, introduced what is now Central and Eastern Europe’s main event for docs, defining the fest mission as “a celebration of films, image, sound, gestures and diversity.”
The films selected this year are “all very original,” he told the opening gala audience, and show filmmakers “perceive the world very differently.”
The fest, raising its curtain in the location that remains its home, the communist-era Dko “house of culture,” as the pre-1989 regime dubbed such multi-purpose spaces, attracts for its launch hundreds of guests seated at white-decked tables, sipping local wine.
Opening night moderators embraced an ironic take on AI,...
Fest head and founder Marek Hovorka, who launched the event in his hometown in 1997, introduced what is now Central and Eastern Europe’s main event for docs, defining the fest mission as “a celebration of films, image, sound, gestures and diversity.”
The films selected this year are “all very original,” he told the opening gala audience, and show filmmakers “perceive the world very differently.”
The fest, raising its curtain in the location that remains its home, the communist-era Dko “house of culture,” as the pre-1989 regime dubbed such multi-purpose spaces, attracts for its launch hundreds of guests seated at white-decked tables, sipping local wine.
Opening night moderators embraced an ironic take on AI,...
- 10/25/2023
- by Will Tizard
- Variety Film + TV
The documentary about online predators has helped the Czech box office to reawaken after local cinemas started reopening with restrictions in place. The shuttering of cinemas following the Covid-19 outbreak disrupted the theatrical run of the Czech documentary Caught in the Net (co-produced by Slovakia) in domestic cinemas. Directed by Barbora Chalupová and Vít Klusák, the doc captures the unsavoury details of the online abuse of minors and became the talk of the town during its crowdfunding and pre-premiere promo campaigns. After the original premiere on 27 February, it took only seven days for Caught in the Net to become the most-visited Czech documentary at the local box office, dethroning the movie that had occupied the number-one spot for years, Citizen Havel by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek. In late April, Chalupová and Klusák’s film had a dry run for its big-screen comeback, as Caught in...
A Well Paid Walk by Milos Forman (top); Vaclav Havel in Citizen Havel by Pavel Koutecký and Miroslav Janek (middle); The Karamazovs by Petr Zelenka (bottom) New Czech Films at New York’s BAMcinématek. The series includes works by two-time Academy Award winner Milos Forman and Jan H?ebejk, whose Divided We Fall (2000) was nominated for a best foreign language film Oscar. Václav Marhoul’s war drama Tobruk, which is supposed to show that there’s "a very thin line between heroism and cowardice," sounds particularly intriguing. All films in Czech with English subtitles. Schedule and film information from the BAMcinématek website: A Well Paid Walk (Dob?e Placená Procházku) (2009) 85min Wed, Nov 18 at 6:50*, 9:40pm *Q&A [...]...
- 11/17/2009
- by Andre Soares
- Alt Film Guide
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