Don't give up: Climatic prisoners

In May 2013, Czech Television marked the 60th anniversary of its first broadcast. The journalistic block “Television Celebration” represents the joint efforts of several beginning documentary filmmakers – students from FAMU who, under the guidance of their instructor Vít Klusák, have attempted to capture the Czech Republic’s largest television institutions during its celebrations in a fresh manner, objectively and occasionally critically as well. The various segments were directed by Lumír Košař, Adéla Komrzýová, Karolína Peroutková, Zdeněk Chaloupka, Martina Ševčíková and Tereza Freyová. Produced by Czech Television in cooperation with FAMU.

Shock therapy through front-line reporting. Documentary filmmaker Jana Andert spent eight months with an elite unit of the Iraqi army on the front lines of the battle for Mosul, which was occupied by Islamic State fighters from 2014 to June 2017. A fearless report from a city in ruins, robbed of its soul by one of the greatest catastrophes of our times.

An increasing number of people dream of an ideal life with a minimal environmental footprint. But what would such a life look like, and is it even possible to live such a life in modern civilization? Mira Ahimsa has been trying for nine years. He lives without money or modern amenities. He doesn’t cut his hair, beard, or fingernails, and doesn’t even start fires.

After its successful documentary film featuring interviews with five abused women, Czech Television takes a look at another side of domestic violence. The stories of the film’s four male protagonists show that although the methods of violence are similar, the victims’ are in a much different position: Violence against men is usually questioned, and their partners, however manipulative and aggressive, are in a much more advantageous position, since the men, as representatives of the supposedly stronger sex, are generally not believed. The film is the first ever documentary to look at this socially taboo subject. 

This documentary film depicts the events of the Lidice tragedy in the practically unknown story of 30 Terezin prisoners. Until now, the story of Lidice has been recalled mainly through the testimonies of Lidice women, who returned to a plundered and burned home after the Second World War. The murder of Lidice men seemed to have ended their story once and for all. The women had remained silent since that horrific night when their husbands were shot and placed in a mass grave, and would only recall the lives of their husbands through mourning.

Three stories about the youngest generation of “digital natives” for whom the Internet became an endless source of entertainment and communication as well as of new dangers. Most today’s children can use a computer or a mobile phone before they learn to tie shoelaces and ride a bicycle. New generations of children who spent much more time in a virtual world than on a playground are growing up all over the world.

A look at the lives of three photographers. Josef Koudelka, Antonín Kratochvíl, and the Moravian photographer Vojta Dukát all spent the majority of their lives outside Czechoslovakia. The film explores the differences in their work, which often shares similar themes, places, or encounters.

This documentary film about people who "no longer have to pretend that they don't exist" was made as a gift from Czech Television for the Jedlička Institute for the Disabled to mark the institute's 100th anniversary. Over the course of just under an hour, we see and experience the everyday joyful, comical, embarrassing, and extraordinary situations of several people who have one thing in common: the institute that everybody calls by its nickname "Jedle" ("fir"). What kind of institute is it? How has it changed over the past 100 years? What has it given to and gained from the people who have passed through it? The various micro-stories culminate in a wedding and birth. Most of the protagonists are in wheelchairs, but that doesn't keep them from cutting loose.

Not many people know that the self-immolations of Jan Palach and Jan Zajíc were followed by the same tragic act of protest committed by Evžen Plocek in the early April of 1969 in Jihlava. What was the meaning of his deed back then and what can we see in it today? A documentary about the meaning of human sacrifice and about the incident that was long kept secret by the communists and still remains largely undiscussed.

Slovak musician and actress Dorota Nvotová sets out on a long journey of self-discovery. She finds peace in the foothills of the Himalayas, one of the poorest corners of the world and a place that could not be more different from our own culture. In Nepal, Dorota runs a relatively successful travel agency focused on high mountain tourism. With the help of her Nepalese alter ego Fulmaya, we also explore the world of street children and life at the Happy Home orphanage, which Dorota looks after. A story full of authentic situations, the "otherness" of a distant world, human truthfulness, and them music of a Slovak rocker.

Architect Josef Pleskot can be described as one of the best known and most respected contemporary Czech architects. Pleskot has earned many awards since the 1990s, and his designs regularly represent Czech architecture at international exhibitions.

The Second Republic was relatively short-lived. But those few months were one of the most dramatic and important periods in our history. In 1938 in Munich, all the ideals and values on which Czechoslovakia had been built came crumbling down. Czech society ceased to believe in democracy and began to admire authoritarian fascist governments. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of refugees fled the occupied Sudetenland for what remained of the country, but nobody wanted to take them in. The media was subjected to censorship, and an aggressive strain of anti-Semitism appeared among the Czech population. And on top of it all, there were further territorial demands by Germany, Poland, and Hungary, and separatist tendencies in Slovakia.