Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

This year's festival brings a unique collection of works by Václav Táborský. Before he emigrated to Canada in 1968, where he worked as a university teacher and writer, he was largely responsible for ushering in cinéma vérité in Czechoslovak cinematography. He took part in the founding of the creative group ČAS, which moved documentary film from the staging of the 1950s to the reality of everyday life in the 1960s. Táborský's filmography includes over 80 short films and almost 50 educational programs that depict everyday life with humour and authenticity.

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Life is like a pub, a grotesque microcosm in front of which a pram and a coffin are parked. The parade of human destinies in the expressive detail of eyes, faces and bodies, intimate hugs, fleeting kisses, toothless mouths and wrinkled faces shows that we are all on a journey.

A Pub

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1963 / 9 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

Singer Eva Pilarová, lyricist Jan Schneider and composer Bohuslav Ondráček search for the right melody, word and tone in the magical space between silence and sound. The intimacy of their creative process is reminiscent of alchemy, where notes, lyrics and recording equipment give birth to a bitterly swinging love song, It Happens.

A Song for Ms. Pilarová

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1967 / 14 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

I'll throw you in a pit, cover you up with sand and you'll be gone, sighs the driver of a Tatra truck who has to drive eighteen times in one shift from the sandpit to the embankment in Veltrusy and back. Driving, dumping, loading and driving again; dust, heat and wind-battered, suntanned cheeks are the attributes of inadvertent heroism.

Behind the Wheel

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1962 / 10 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

I’d still paint even if I were blind, declares Czech painter Jan Zrzavý in a film dialogue with himself about aging and infinity. For him, time is magically internalized. Stopped in the middle of nowhere, it transforms into blurred structures and landscapes, hidden from the outside world.

Czech Painter Jan Zrzavý

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1963 / 9 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

The enduring Czech people have survived many historic dates ending in eight, from the Přemyslids to the Soviets. In a filmed opinion poll, Miloš Kopecký has a Schweik-like conversation with a tailor's dummy and, with a head carved out of stone, he debates the significance of Alexander Dubček and the Prague Spring.

History and the 8

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1968 / 12 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

Baby clothes on the line, a fictional mother and cots for sixty-five boys and girls stuck in time paint a sensitive portrait of the residents of a children’s home. The probe into a fragile world of those who are waiting accompanies Táborský's socially-themed feature films Escape in the Wind and Miraculous Puzzle.

They Are Waiting Every Sunday

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1962 / 9 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

Life is a train ride – we choose where we’ll go and with whom, but we all finally end up in a tunnel. A humorous little sketch of people hanging around a train station answers the question of the meaning of human existence, which is just as significant as a hockey stick in the hands of a travelling old woman.

Train Station

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1964 / 8 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere

We were the closest, now we will be strangers – Věra and Vladimír say goodbye to the lost years of their marriage, which culminated in a divorce. Women's shoes, a man's briefcase, photographs of their young son and details of personal fetishes are transformed into alienation by fragments of human faces, bodies and memories in the abyss of the courtroom.

Two Tables Between Us

Václav Táborský

Czechoslovakia / 1961 / 11 min.

section: Translucent Being: Václav Táborský

The film already had its Czech Premiere