Why Havel?

director: Vojtěch Jasný

original title: Why Havel?

year: 1991

running time: 96 min.

synopsis

The screening of Jasný’s documentary Why Havel? is co-produced by himself and Miloš Forman in Canada and Czechoslovakia in 1991. As remarkable as this reflection of the paradoxical transformation of a dissident into a president in the carnival-like atmosphere of the euphoric post-revolution period with the first question marks already appearing may be, it did not meet the expectations of the head of state. The film was premiered several years later, with one scene edited out, and its value has not yet been fully recognized. The director’s cut of the documentary will be screened and accompanied by a commentary on the intriguing story of its production and distribution. The screening is hosted by the film historian Jiří Voráč.

biography

Film studies professor, the author of the monographs Český film v exilu (2004), Ivan Passer: Filmový vypravěč rozmanitostí (2008) and Vojtěch Jasný. Filmový básník v exilu (2020), the director of the edited documentary film Brněnský Listopad (2019), an expert of the Czech Film Fund, the Slovak Audiovisual Fund, the Czech Television and the Prague City Hall, a member of the Art Committee of the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. Between 1993 and 2020 he worked as a lecturer at the Masaryk University in Brno and was the founder and the head of its film studies department.