František of His Own Kind

director: Jan Gogola ml.

original title: František svého druhu

year: 2014

running time: 26 min.

synopsis

For more than 30 years, former government clerk František Krause has had an active interest in ornithology. He studies birds and protects them, building birdhouses and trying to be as close to them as possible. He records birds with mathematical precision, archives his records, and carefully organizes all his information. Gogola’s documentary portrait shows how Krause combines love for nature with a positivist respect for facts and logical thinking. This remarkable symbiosis is fleshed out and subtly ironized by the narration, whose consciously exaggerated emphasis on minor facts subverts the conventional descriptive commentary we are used to hearing in traditional nature documentaries.

DETAIL
“Here you can see that the youngest branch of the Krause family comes to an end.” “And what will you leave behind?” “Lots of bird houses.”

biography

Jan Gogola Jr. is a director, dramaturge, screenwriter, and educator. His typically meditative or stylized documentaries often explore issues of the everyday. He won the main prize in the Czech Joy section at the 2009 Jihlava IDFF for I Love My Boring Life (2006). He has had a film in this section for the past three years running, most recently Mythmaking (2013). He also worked as the dramaturge for this year’s Gottland.

more about film

director:	Jan Gogola ml.
producer:	Martina Šantavá, Roman Blaas
script:	Jan Gogola ml.

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