Casting of Time

It is the late 1980s. Petr Mička and Jirka Imlauf are friends at the Faculty of Education in Ústí nad Labem. Two years still remain before the Velvet Revolution. What could their random participation in an unpermitted protest possibly achieve? And what happens after a random look into the Cibulka List of supposed collaborators 20 years later?

What are the ideological concepts behind the emergence of documentary film as a separate field of study at FAMU? How is the documentary approach to film specific and unique? How can this specificity be reflected in the teaching and how does it differ from journalism? Documentarian Viola Ježková will try to answer these questions. The workshop will be supplemented with examples of student film exercises. Participant input and discussion will be welcomed.---Kurátorka programu a autorka textů / Curator and author of the texts: Viola Ježková

A record of one of Zorka Ságlová’s last land-art actions in October 1972. In the abandoned Vřísek Castle in the village of Zahrádky near Česká Lípa, a group of invited participants released hundreds of inflated condoms. The action was one of Ságlová’s many land-art interventions such as Laying Napkins near Sudoměř (1970) and Throwing Balls into Bořín Pond (1969). Participants included the members of the Plastic People and their friends. The film concludes with several spontaneous events such as the recreation of the Stalin monument and an improvised concert by Milan Hlavsa in a nearby cave.

This workshop will focus on capturing human movement as a form of expression that is equal to spoken and written expression. We will be especially interested in both the spontaneous and the planned use of hands as language, including the unique characteristics of the cinematic recording of the hand’s rhythm and movement. Workshop participants will watch two documentaries: In the Land of the Deaf (dir. Nicolas Philibert, 1993) and Dancing Dreams (dir. Anne Linsel and Rainer Hoffmann, 2010). The first of these (by the director of To Be and to Have) enters the world of deaf-mutes; the second off ers a look at dance rehearsals at Pina Bausch’s Kontakthof with a group of young non-professional dancers.  

Preparations for a concert by the Plastic People and Aktual in the village of Suchá by Nejdek. The film records the arrival of the band members, moving the equipment, and setting up the stage, but not the concert itself, which took place in absolute darkness and is seen on the film only as a brief shot of someone breathing fire – one of the many pyrotechnical effects that were a part of the Plastics’ concerts. It is a momentary homage to fire-breather, stage technician, and later the drummer for DG 307, Vladimír Vyšín.

The exhibition Video Day, the first collective presentation of video art in the Czech lands, took place on June 11, 1989 at Julius Fučík Culture and Relaxation Centre (today’s Prague Exhibition Grounds) as part of the annual presentation of the Czech Association of Visual Artists.   The exhibition Video Day 1989/2018 was a reconstruction of the original 1989 exhibition which took place on September 4, 2018. Martin Mazanec as the curator came up with an idea of initiating a debate on historical forms of presentation, but also on potential preservation of moving images. The reasons why video art has been up to now avoided by large numbers of institutions and artists may be illustrated within areas representing the clash between socio-cultural and economic circumstances of the origination and existence of individual works of art.   Discussion with invited guests will be accompanied by fragments of works by artists exhibiting back in 1989: Věra Geislerová & René Slauka, Václav Hodan, Roman Milerský, 5D studio (Tomáš Kepka, Michal Pacina, Marta Karoliová), Radek Pilař, Pavel Scheufler, Petr Skala, Lucie Svobodová, Ivan Tatíček and Jaroslav Vančát.  

A private concert by the Plastic People at their practice space in the now-demolished house (no. 1) on the corner of Dělnická and Argentinská Streets in Prague. Because of the cramped conditions, Ságl recorded the events in extreme close-up using his characteristic hand-held lighting. The close-ups are often on the border of being out of focus. This, combined with the bright light source, makes it one of the rawest and most original documentaries of its time.

This filmed survey of second-year students of the Documentary Department explores the conflicts that arise when a woman wants to study, possibly even set out along an academic career path, but at the same time longs to properly care for her family and children. The scenes portray the efforts of the female students, and their off-screen statements are interspersed with a contemporary commentary.

Most TV viewers see as the most boring such documents, TV journalism and even entertainment formats that focus on political issues. This workshop will present three programs that prove to be the very opposite of boring: The Circus, a Showtime docusoap, following the US presidential campaigns since the first primaries in January 2016; BBC’s An Idiot's Guide to Politics, which reminds politicians of their broken promises; and Channel 4’s Ballot Monkeys, a satirical series, where TV audience watches the British election campaign through the eyes of four MP hopefuls.---Workhop is led by Milan Kruml

The first-year workshop of the FAMU Documentary Department is led by Vít Klusák, who, together with his students, will present both the concept of the seminar as well as the films resulting from it during the 2015/16 academic year. Each of the five participating students will present two of their films that were selected as their final projects, as well as film exercises that generally cannot be seen outside the academy.In this year’s batch, the audience will learn what may be hidden behind the Czech terms “norník” and “ťapina”, and that the quest to find a partner may be conceived using the refined language of the silver screen. They will also see the news report from a courtroom where unscrupulous individualism comes out the winner in the form of a decadent deviation from the noble ideal of freedom… Discussion is welcome!---The Workshop is led by: Vít KlusákStudents: Jindřich Andrš, Lenka Benešová, Matouš Bičák, Eliška Cílková, Zora Čápová

Traveler and director Dan Přibáň crisscrosses the world with his crew in yellow trabants and provides fresh information from around the world. His last trip will lead us to China, which will be topis of his workshop. We will talk about absurdities, which look comical for outside observers, but are a harsh reality for ordinary local people.

While on a trip with Ivan M. Jirous, Jan Ságl came across several dozen metal printers’ plates hanging out in the open landscape. A much-needed product in samizdat circles, the plates were being used to scare away birds. The film shows a sun-drenched landscape with scattered silver points arranged in random constellations like some kind of land-art. It is loosely inspired by Zorka Ságlová landscape interventions, which Jan Ságl regularly helped to realize and document in his photographs, and in which a large role is played by the juxtaposition of the landscape with objects of a more geometric nature