Adult Contemporary: Experimental Music Video 016

A group of Dutch mayors have come up with a rather unusual approach to solving problems. Using hidden cameras, they pretend to be journalists or new neighbours and infiltrate local communities. The aim is to understand their thinking so that the mayors can solve their town-specific issues in a better way.

In this recording of a July concert by the Plastic People in the village of Skála near Humpolec, Ságl captures the almost apocalyptic dimension of the Plastics’ performances. He shoots expressive close-ups of the dancers using a hand-held spotlight, complemented by calmer footage of the musicians immersed in playing their instruments – all of it “edited” directly in the camera. The film includes all the chronologically shot footage, thus testifying to Ságl’s intuitive and concentrated work with the camera. The concert took place near the town of Humpolec, where the Plastic People worked as woodcutters in the early 1970s.

The film focuses on the disillusionment that occurs during the transition from boyhood to manhood. The protagonist, a vision-impaired boy, who prefers to hold a model airplane in his hands rather than a clarinet. Life in a dormitory and intensive schooling awaken questions in him regarding his own self-determination. The asynchronous sound and off-screen commentary add a dreamlike energy to the film.

After living in an institution for twenty-eight years, Petr relocates to a training apartment, where he is preparing for a possible move into the “real world”. This untraditional look at a socially sensitive issue from the inside out, without the standard preconceived views of sympathy or irony, shows that the basic principles underlying interpersonal relationships are always the same – touching, humorous, and fragile.

A portrait of a boy sent to work in a farmer’s household, where he attends the local school. It captures not only the hard work he performs, but also those times when he plays with a dog and his frequent cigarette breaks. The documentary uses observational scenes of activities that at some points present even idyllic images of a human connected with nature.“ … the small farmer Jano longs for only one thing – to return from a society he does not understand, one which is foreign to him, to his solitude, back to nature…’ Rudolf Urc

Preparations for a concert by the Plastic People and Aktual in the village of Suchá by Nejdek. The film records the arrival of the band members, moving the equipment, and setting up the stage, but not the concert itself, which took place in absolute darkness and is seen on the film only as a brief shot of someone breathing fire – one of the many pyrotechnical effects that were a part of the Plastics’ concerts. It is a momentary homage to fire-breather, stage technician, and later the drummer for DG 307, Vladimír Vyšín.

This narrative, multi-faceted exploration behind the scenes of medicine literally takes a look at what’s on the other side of the screen. At points with curiosity, at others with a personal, technical, or suspenseful tone, it uses examples of leading Czech doctors (a plastic surgeon, a neurosurgeon, and a cardiologist) to present the social connotations of a service that is acknowledged yet also undervalued.

The third part of the documentary series that follows a class of Roma children from the Brno quarter called Bronx for several years. In the first two parts, the children learnt to work with cameras to present a unique testimony about their lives and their families. The third part continues to follow the individual stories of the now teenagers.

Eight cities are supervised by a municipal inspector and her team of secret agents for two weeks. At the end of each episode, the results of the survey are presented to the residents of the city. The factual entertainment show evaluates the advantages and the shamefully unsolved problems in education, health, safety, food, and local authorities.

A private concert by the Plastic People at their practice space in the now-demolished house (no. 1) on the corner of Dělnická and Argentinská Streets in Prague. Because of the cramped conditions, Ságl recorded the events in extreme close-up using his characteristic hand-held lighting. The close-ups are often on the border of being out of focus. This, combined with the bright light source, makes it one of the rawest and most original documentaries of its time.

For a year, the filmmakers followed the work of nurses in different environments – in homes and hospitals, and on a foreign mission. The cycle is a complex insight into the problematic area of Czech health care, telling a story of women and men who share responsibility, stress, and modest salaries.

The millions of victims of the totalitarian USSR in 1917-1960 included 25,000 Czechs and other Czechoslovak citizens, who are the subject of the 3-part documentary Czechoslovaks in the Gulag – a joint project of Czech TV and the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Regimes. The makers will reveal what preceded the documentary: a journey to the abandoned Siberian camps (part of a Gulag.cz project), and years of research, primarily in Ukrainian archives. In addition to excerpts, the filmmakers will show other ways the topic is presented, e.g., the Gulag Online Museum.---The Workshop is led by: Štěpán Černoušek, Marta Nováková---Čechoslováci v GulaguArt Design: Anna KrtičkováDramaturgy: Lucie Králová Topic: Štěpán Černoušek