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Blinking icons, pop-up windows, a blaring alarm clock, and the blipping of unread messages are normal parts of our everyday lives. The creator turns her back on the endless stream of information and attempts to escape from the world of modern communication technologies for at least five minutes to devote some attention to herself.

The almost hallucinogenic whirlwind of virtual views of potential targets of a nuclear attack in a “buffer zone” shows the viewer an unpleasant proximity of total destruction, which threatened Czechoslovakia in the 1950s. The visuality of the film, reminiscent of direction finding, was created using the data from Google Maps.

The experimental film Unknown presents prototypical urban motifs, such as public transport and escalators, transforming them into abstract black and grey fragments using rotoscope animation to the accompaniment of authentic sounds. Using these scenes, the filmmaker is trying to evoke in the viewer the subjective feeling of alienation in the anonymous environment of a city.

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.

Recent history dies out in the overgrown landscape of a former German military base where children are playing. Through performances by young protagonists and disturbing commentary that suggests that the innocence of the images isn’t what it appears to be, the film reflects on the phenomenon of violence and encourages us to learn from the past.

Out of desire to prove the power of socialism, Marshal Tito had a railway line built across all of Yugoslavia. In the post-ideological 21st century, the counterpart example to his deed might be the modern-time Chinese megalomaniac Silk Road portfolio of projects. A video essay shot in Montenegro, Hong Kong, Kazakhstan and China brings out a perspective on the global vision of Chinese state-run capitalism.

Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz - Out of competitionThe little-known Super 8mm films of Stanislav Hora (1959) from the 1980s are a little studied area of artistic film in our country. With his background in sculpture, Hora approaches film more as an artistic material – he uses it to animate the creation of sculptures, he draws on it, scratches and attacks its surface or uses it as a medium for art happenings. For Hora, film is a tool for expanding his artistic practice into other forms, a means for capturing visual processes or a kind of sculptural object. The Ji.hlava screenings are the premiere of newly digitized versions.Curator and author of the texts: Martin Blažíček (CAS FAMU)Digital reconstruction of the films: Lukáš Janičík, Emiliya VereshchaginaAudio mastering: Sara PinheiroThe films of Stanislav Hora were reconstructed at FAMU’s Centre for Audiovisual Studies thanks to the Academy of Performing Art’s institutional support for long-term conceptual development.Screening:BabraeCzechoslovakia, 1980, 6 min.Černý hadice / Black HoseCzechoslovakia, 1982, 3 min.Dobře posazená figura / Well-Positioned ModelCzechoslovakia, 1987, 3 min.Oko / EyeCzechoslovakia, 1987, 1 min.Pavouk / SpiderCzechoslovakia, 1987, 4 min.Kameny / StonesCzechoslovakia, 1987, 4 min.Fragment II – West BerlinCzechoslovakia, 1989, 6 min.FILCzech Republic, 2016, 5 min.

Technology as a silent witness to the permanent movement of celestial bodies... The light installation visualizes the arrival and departure of daylight as contemplation and a dramatic process. By condensing one day into a few minutes, it thematizes the passage of time and the cyclicity of natural processes.

Domlátil’s short animated film shows the daily rhythms of life at a speed of twelve frames per second. He works with real objects that we use in our regular lives or that we pass by without noticing them. Working with the textures, patterns and symbols he finds on them, he creates a visual continuity.

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.

imperfect media image can make you give in to emotional illusions. The combination of animation and stable shots of the forest ground is accompanied by the author’s comment on the absurdity of the situation presented.

Potentia dei is a notion difficult to translate, but possible to explain. The same goes for a film essay by Ondřej Vavrečka, with signs and information, their interpretation and secrets as its main theme. The collage-like film uses sharp audiovisual contrasts to make people think.