Thinking Through Film 3: Films in Our Heads

Andrea Slováková / 10 min.

synopsis

Where does a film come into being? On the screen, or in the viewer’s mind? Guests of Ji.hlava IDFF reflect on images that awaken memories, stir uncertainty, and bring new connections into view. Each viewer completes their meaning through their own experience. Documentary film creates a space that can leave us with a different perspective on the world and on ourselves.

“The question of documentary film is not whether it offers a faithful representation of reality. The question is what movements of thought it makes possible.” — 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.