Thinking Through Film 1: How Meaning Emerges

Andrea Slováková / 11 min.

synopsis

How does a film come into being that truly moves us? Guests of Ji.hlava IDFF speak about curiosity, the senses, and the courage not to know. Filmmaking becomes an adventure in which mistakes, intuition, and chance all have their place. Somewhere between observing reality and transforming it, filmmakers look for those moments when something unexpected reveals itself before the camera.

“I'm looking for questions rather than answers.” — Jørgen Leth in the movie

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.