The Secrets of the Orchestra

Film Action Group / Czech Republic / 2025 / World Premiere / 11 min.

synopsis

Minimalist musical accompaniment, together with sound design replicas and emotionally charged screams from a crime drama revolving around the character of a deranged criminal, unify the vertical montage of found 16mm film strips from home archives. The result is a slightly paranoid and self-ironic mélange, which is shaped as a structural film.

“This naive 16mm film was created through collective collaboration as part of a 16mm workshop at the Czech Visions 2025 festival. […] The assignment was: create a structural film experiment together. When asked what that was, I replied that it wasn't important, that they should just imagine it or ask AI. I don't know if they did that or what they imagined, but even though the result is a form composed solely of mistakes and errors, it has (at least for me) the unique charm of the unintended.” — Martin Ježek

biography

Film Action Group forms a variable, non-hierarchical group that, in the spirit of art brut, explores the contemporary possibilities of narrow-gauge Super 8 and 16 mm film formats. Daniyar Tanatov, Kryštof Nejedlý, Tereza Havelková, Zdeněk Vídeňský, Adéla Rusová, Světlana Jägerová, Leona Vacková, Josef Smrček, Aneli Rejdová, and Marina Laznik contributed to this work. For most of the authors, this was their first experience with film material and working in a laboratory.