28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

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Excursion or History of the Present (English version)
Excursion or History of the Present (English version)

Excursion or History of the Present (English version)

director: Jan Gogola ml.
original title: Exkurze aneb Historie současnosti
country: Czech Republic
year: 2015
running time: 82 min.

synopsis

The creators of the documentary essay Excursions visit several typical tourist attractions – the Aurora battleship, the monumental buildings of the Third Reich, the Berlin Wall, and the world’s first museum in Rome. Their interest is not so much in these places as it is in different ways of encountering history. With a subtle sense of irony, they explore how historical monuments influence guidebooks and visitors. We hear guides’ explanations, interviews, memories, and reenactments with tourists playing various roles. The film uses their interactions with these stages of history to engage in a sophisticated exploration of the relationship between contemporary man and the past.

DETAIL:
“In the Jewish cemetery in Berlin there is a grave with an inscription: ‘Now you are here, watching silently. When you leave, go and talk.’ We behave like this in front of the monuments – we are silent.”

biography

Jan Gogola Jr. (1971) is a director, dramaturge, screenwriter, journalist, and teacher at FAMU. He studied journalism at Charles University and documentary film at FAMU. Past films shown at Jihlava include Nonstop (2000), King Does Nothing (2012), Mythmaking (2013) or František of His Own Kind (2014). His films are often based on everyday life, which forms a source of philosophical exploration in which nothing is taken for granted.

more about film

director: Jan Gogola ml.
producer: Filip Remunda, Kamila Zlatušková, Peter Kerekes
photography: Noro Hudec, Petr Vejslik
editing: Maroš Šlapeta
sound: Jiří Kubík
Ministerstvo kultury
Fond kinematografie
Creative Europe Media
Město Jihlava
Kraj Vysočina
GEMO
Česká televize
Český rozhlas
Aktuálně.cz
Respekt
Dafilms