For Customer Satisfaction

Jan Špáta / Czechoslovakia / 1984 / The film already had its Czech Premiere / 10 min.

synopsis

Where there are temptations, there must also be control. Jan Špáta and inspectors from the consumer council of communist Czechoslovakia’s national committees visit butcher shops in Prague 2. However, his film survey does not examine dishonest vendors, but rather the characters of customers, emphasizing the active role of citizens in dealing with dishonesty. Only customers who defend their interests can ensure that the price we pay for our passivity is as low as possible.

biography

Jan Špáta (1932–2006), cinematographer, director, and educator, studied photography at the Technical School of Graphic Arts in Náchod, and cinematography at FAMU in Prague in the 1950s. He began his career as a cinematographer at Zpravodajský film. He devoted himself to documentary filmmaking in the 1960s. His debut film, Největší přání (The Greatest Wish, 1964), was followed by Největší přání II (The Greatest Wish II, 1990) and Máňa (1992), co-directed with Olga Sommerová. Both later films were screened at Ji.hlava IDFF in 2009. In 2018, his film Respice finem (1967) was also screened there.