24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Canis Lupus
director: Artur Magrot
original title: Canis Lupus
country: Czech Republic
year: 2019
running time: 6 min.
synopsis
Canis lupus, or the grey wolf, may be altered into the family dog by adding the attribute familiaris to its generic name. This experimental film brings out parallels between the aggressive nature of the wild beast and humans with the author eliminating soundtrack, building up his reflections using 3D animations combined with a written monologue told by invisible narrator.biography
Czech artist Artur Magrot is a graduate of Prague’s Academy of Fine Arts (AVU) and founder of Ukradená galerie (Stolen Gallery), a project using empty public spaces for hosting exhibitions. His interests are relations between humans and modern technologies.more about film
director: | Artur Magrot |
producer: | Artur Magrot |
other films in the section

Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz - Out of competitionThe common denominator of the videos is the theme of therapeutic or relaxation exercise, the goal of which is to release mental and physical tension. In each of these works, however, a critical sting can be observed, honed by the frustrations of man in today’s world – whether they’re related to politics, interpersonal relations, or pressures at work. The transfer of these videos from a gallery context into a cinema changes the viewers’ experiences: the viewer is confronted with the images more urgently, they feel the tension building and releasing, and hence empathy with those observed.The series of videos was developed in cooperation with the Jindřich Chalupecký Society. Curated by Tereza Jindrová (Jindřich Chalupecký Society) as part of her research while organizing the exhibition Healing, dedicated to the topic of health in contemporary art.Prezentovaná díla:Migra jóga / Migra YogaCzech Republic, 2012, 10 min.Director: Markéta MagidováPrvotní promluva / Primal SpeechUnited States, 2016, 12min.Director: Liz Magic LaserNěkdy se cítí skoro šťastně / Sometimes They Almost Feel HappyCzech Republic, 2015, 9 min.Director: Barbora KleinhamplováSpolečně 2017 / Together 2017United Kingdom, 2017, 10 min.Directors: Lucy Beech & Edward ThomassonDvě minuty / Two MinutesCzech Republic, 2016, 6 min.Director: Jakub Jansa
Release on Command: The theme of group therapy and exercise in the works of contemporary artists.
90 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz

The film essay brings the audience right into the heart of a historical battle re-enactment. The hundreds of soldiers fighting in historical costumes imitate organized violence; the film oscillates between a game, a theatre play, a Spartakiad and Land art. The multiplied projections evoke war turmoil, further enhanced by quotes from Karel Čapek’s anti-war drama The Mother.
War memorial
Martin Ježek
Czech Republic / 2019 / 35 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

This personal essay relates the perception of space to the mental universe of screenwriter and director Pavel Juráček who found his “truly ideal place” in the town of Příbram. The sensitive combination of journal entries, intimate notes, and film fragments tries to break down conventional storytelling techniques to build an original world of timeless thinking.
This Kind of Spring Has Never Been Yet
Tereza Kozáková
Czech Republic / 2018 / 21 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

The video and rap clip confronts contemporary feminism and capitalism. The sober environment of economic forecasts and cash flows is transformed into a psychedelic 3D animation depicting a witch session. The film culminates with the author’s rap that hyperbolically criticizes the power and role of money in today’s society.
Moréna Rex
Marie Lukáčová
Czech Republic / 2019 / 11 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

The audiovisual essay explores the Danish part of Jutland from the view of both a living eye and an inanimate object. The horizontal line of the water surface represents a penetrable borderline between the world of people and the world of nature, bubbling with rippling reflections of the outer realities while accompanied with wind, voice and silence blasts.
Horizontalis
Louise K Wilson, Michal Kindernay
Czech Republic, Denmark / 2019 / 8 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

Short postdigital meteorological film poem about black sun and its light, mostly composed of manipulated found footage materials combined with original music. The main storyline is derived from the remixed section of the 1967 film Above the Horizon by American meteorological company.
Below the Black Sun
Kilián Kuděla
Czech Republic / 2018 / 6 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

Lyricized images inspired by the world of dreams reflect the transition state between sleeping and waking. Ambiguous fragments of images, traces of experiences, and scenes from the unconscious together create a dream which slowly dissolves and all that remains are intangible clues and wakeful consciousness.
Life of Dreams
Evgeniya Opalko
Czech Republic / 2017 / 5 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

A bustling scene somewhere between documentary, abstraction, and animation, based on a static view of the intersection of Adam Mickiewicz and Józef Piłsudski Streets in Warsaw, is transformed into an audiovisual jumble of noises, shapes, colors, and movement, among which we see pedestrians, cars, and public transport vehicles.
Traffic
Zbyšek Semelka
Poland, Czech Republic / 2017 / 52 sec.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

This film by the author duo Geislerová and Mazúr builds on the concept of the so-called liquid love introduced by sociologist Zygmunt Bauman and the work of theorist Elisabeth Badinter in its critical analysis of the question of predestination of women for the mother role realized through a collage of shots of women symbolizing motherhood as well as emancipation which questions the inevitability of this frequently debated social role.
Liquid Mother Love
Ester Geislerová, Milan Mazúr
Czech Republic / 2018 / 5 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

Signum Supra presents art as a shamanic ritual, as an aestheticized tool materializing principles that cannot be grasped by consciousness. Gripping structures that resemble rocks and landscape contours float in indeterminate space, serving as a springboard for contemplating the patterns of perception beyond the visible and the tangible.
Prologue Of Signum Supra
Kryštof Brůha
Czech Republic / 2017 / 8 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

An archaeologically significant site diffuses its memory through levels of the myths, rituals, and folk tales in an essayist discourse on the forms of historical continuity. Absence of contact sound and minimalist music emphasizing the visual motifs of both alive and inanimate tracks in the landscape.
The conglomerate eternity
Petr Pololáník
Czech Republic / 2018 / 14 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere

A metaphorical weather forecast portrays human emotions and sentiments in confrontation with contemporary social debates. The lightly satirical tone of the tv moderator’s presentation accompanies a video collage featuring a central motif of the Earth in which Africa is shrouded by clouds of existential questions and a spiritual crisis front threatens Europe.
The Weather of Time
Adéla Součková
Czech Republic / 2018 / 7 min.
section: Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz
World Premiere