Unborn Father

Michal Böhm / Czech Republic / 2025 / World Premiere / 83 min.

synopsis

Inspired by Jonas Mekas' diary films and his father's home videos, Michal Böhm composes a candid self-portrait of his own desire for fatherhood from numerous visual fragments. Six years of life, dozens of gestures, smiles, and silent faces captured by the nimble eye of an 8mm camera. A breakup with a partner, a new relationship, his mother's serious illness, meetings with friends. Demonstrations, pandemics, war, and weddings. Things both fleeting and fundamental. Life as a fabric of fleeting impressions and the camera as a tool that captures, shapes, and preserves them for future generations. And above all, reflections on the future and the legacy we will leave behind, and doubts about whether this is the right world and the right time to have a child.

“But there had to be a soundtrack, and an 8mm camera doesn't record sound on its own. So in the end, I used fragments of conversations and excerpts from my own and other people's speech.” — Michal Böhm

Source: Dok.revue

biography

Michal Böhm (b. 1988) is a Czech freelance film editor. He graduated from FAMU and collaborates on feature films and documentaries. In addition to filmmaking, he is also involved in film journalism, teaching, and theory. The film Unborn Father is his feature-length directorial debut.