a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN
Jan Bušta / Czech Republic / 2022 / World Premiere / 77 min.
synopsis
A children's film about the largest mass suicide of the 20th century reconstructs the 1978 event. The Reverend Jim Jones forced nearly a thousand followers of his People's Temple sect to drink poison in the settlement of Jonestown, Guyana, South America. A third of them were children. Jan Bušta gives sadists, voyeurs, and necrophiliacs one minute to leave the cinema. His self-reflective documentary, which is the result of ten years of time-lapse filming, does not depict dramatic scenes. To the sound of an audio recording from that fateful day, we see a collage of child ghosts preaching about escaping the corruption of the world.“In his debut film, Jan Bušta, ‘in a live broadcast’ brings us an electrifying experience of demagogy and manipulation. a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN is also a cinephile tribute to film experiment milestones, ‘demagogically manipulating’ with all elements of film narration and audience’s expectations.”
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Source: https://www.filmcenter.cz/files/files/1645626325_czech-documentaries-2021-2022.pdf
biography
Jan Bušta (* 1980) studied feature film directing at FAMU under Jan Němec. Since 2010 he has been creating audiovisual campaigns for Czech and foreign films. At the 2016 Ji.hlava IDFF, he sat on the jury of the Czech Joy section. He made the documentary Televise bude! (Television Will Be!, 2014) for Czech Television. a-B-C-D-e-F-G-H-i-JONESTOWN is his feature debut.more about film
director: | Jan Bušta |
cast: | Jakub Kanhäuser |
producer: | Radim Procházka |
script: | Jan Bušta |
photography: | Michal Černý, Jan Kundera |
editing: | Šimon Špidla |
music: | The Delfonics |
sound design: | Jan Balcar |
art director: | Petra Vlachynská, Jan Cechl |
contact
KULI FILM / Radim Procházkaradim@radimprochazka.com
Film at festival
premiere type: | World Premiere |
festival edition: | 2022 |
section: | Czech Joy |
téma: | experiment, religion, Czech films - full length , history, violence |
awards: | |
language: | English, Czech |
subtitles: | English, Czech |
colour: | Colour and B&W |
Info
director: | Jan Bušta |
original title: | á-B-C-D-é-F-G-H-CH-í-JONESTOWN |
country: | Czech Republic |
year: | 2022 |
running time: | 77 min. |