My Uncle Panťa

Karel Fuksa / Czechoslovakia / 1968 / 6 min.

synopsis

A fanciful portrait of a family member – a barroom drummer and irresistible ladies’ man who lisped as a child, thus forever mangling his name Franta as “Panťa”. The director adds a unique touch to the narrative by combining stylised dramatised scenes with authentic footage, personal commentary and the protagonist’s own testimony, thereby skilfully crafting a legend around a real person with an incredible story. “Panťa, he’s a bit of a madcap, but a great bloke,” says the narrator – played by the director’s schoolmate Vlastimil Venclík – at the end. The work is a second-year documentary project.

biography

Karel Fuksa (1946) studied documentary filmmaking (1966–1971, graduated in 1972) and worked for many years as a director and producer at the Czechoslovak Television studio in Brno. Among other things, he focused on ethnographic documentaries exploring traditional Moravian culture (Poslední hudci [The Last Musicians], 1974) and later on portraits of historical figures (Až na dno zrady – Emanuel Moravec [To the Very Depths of Betrayal – Emanuel Moravec], 1997, winner of an award at Academia film Olomouc festival).