Ji.hlava30: Thinking Through Film

Andrea Slováková / 50 min.

synopsis

What happens and what comes to light between the world, the camera, and the audience? Composed from materials from the festival series Minutes from Jihlava to the Mind, recordings of masterclasses, and interviews, this compilation film brings together reflections by filmmakers at Ji.hlava IDFF on how meaning emerges, what cinematic representation does to reality, and how rhythm, editing, sound, and creative choices transform our perception of the represented reality. Authorial perspectives and methods, together with questions about the nature of documentary, unfold into a reflection on film as a way of knowing and as a space for doubt, for discovering connections, and for rethinking both the world and our own way of seeing it.

“The question of documentary film is not whether it offers a faithful representation of reality. The question is what movements of thought it makes possible.” — from the film’s commentary

biography

Andrea Slováková (1981) is a director, poet, curator and film theorist. She makes documentary essays and experimental films that have been screened at festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad; Ji.hlava IDFF has presented her films In Sight (2011), Recovering Industry (2015) and 500 Plateaus (2020). From 2020 to 2024, she was Dean of FAMU. She founded the publishing house Nová beseda. She has been involved in Ji.hlava IDFF since 2002, curating experimental, retrospective and VR programs.

Janka Vlčková (1981) is an editor of documentary, fiction and experimental films and a graduate of FAMU. She has worked with Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda, Martin Mareček and Olmo Omerzu, among others. She has won Czech Lion Awards for her editing of Filthy (2017) and Winter Flies (2018). Her other editing credits include Old-Timers (2019), Bird Atlas (2021) and the documentary Steam on the River (2015). She has collaborated with Andrea Slováková since 2004 and has edited all of her films.