Thinking Through Film 2: Why This Film Came to Be

Andrea Slováková / 6 min.

synopsis

How did this film come into being? A personal retrospective recalls the discovery of free forms of cinema, abstract documentarism and new readings of found footage. Encounters with films and filmmakers at Ji.hlava became a story of a changing personal vision and a celebration of the festival as a place where thinking differently remains necessary.

“Documentary film is one of the deepest ways to relate to the world without assuming that I already know what it is.” — from the film’s commentary

biography

Andrea Slováková (1981) is a director, poet, curator and film theorist. She makes documentary essays and experimental films that have been screened at festivals in the Czech Republic and abroad; Ji.hlava IDFF has presented her films In Sight (2011), Recovering Industry (2015) and 500 Plateaus (2020). From 2020 to 2024, she was Dean of FAMU. She founded the publishing house Nová beseda. She has been involved in Ji.hlava IDFF since 2002, curating experimental, retrospective and VR programs.

Janka Vlčková (1981) is an editor of documentary, fiction and experimental films and a graduate of FAMU. She has worked with Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda, Martin Mareček and Olmo Omerzu, among others. She has won Czech Lion Awards for her editing of Filthy (2017) and Winter Flies (2018). Her other editing credits include Old-Timers (2019), Bird Atlas (2021) and the documentary Steam on the River (2015). She has collaborated with Andrea Slováková since 2004 and has edited all of her films.