Thinking Through Film 4: The Matter of Reality

Andrea Slováková / 12 min.

synopsis

How can we think using the language of film? Filmmakers at Ji.hlava IDFF reflect on rhythm, editing, sound and image, as well as on the creative conventions of documentary and fiction. The choice of expressive means guides our attention, reveals meanings that cannot be put into words in advance, and opens up space for new ways of perceiving and knowing.

“That is why every film can create its own way of knowing. Its language stems not only from what it says. It is also a movement that sets the mind of the viewer in motion.” — 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.