A sociologically focused documentary about life in the Na slatinách shantytown in Prague’s Ďáblice district, built during the First Republic on meadows and marshes, which still exists today without running water or sewerage and is largely ignored by the authorities. The narrative is based on the testimonies of long-time residents, some of whom would prefer to move to more civilised surroundings, while others are content with the rural character of this remote location. The film is a second-year documentary project.

This portrait of Antonín Martin Brousil, one of the founders of FAMU and long-serving rector of AMU, was made to mark his fiftieth birthday. The film has a celebratory tone, emphasised by lofty commentary: it presents Brousil as a “journalist, scholar, teacher and mentor”, whose native South Bohemian region “filled the boy’s soul with a longing for beauty, which he constantly sought to share with others” and “from there he set out into the world to fight for Czech art”. His contributions to national cinema and its international representation are highlighted (with particular mention of the Venice and Karlovy Vary film festivals and his personal relationships with world-renowned filmmakers), as is his role in the development of FAMU. The film combines new footage with archive material. Of particular value is the opening sequence from Brousil’s birthplace in Dolní Ostrovec near Písek, where he arrives with his wife to visit his parents, and footage from FAMU, which captures AMB’s seminar discussions with students and the celebrations marking the school’s tenth anniversary.

Miroslav Dohnal comments on his attempt to interview writer Bohumil Hrabal at his flat at 24 Na hrázi Street in Libeň. He states that the filmmakers wanted to find out about his favourite foods, women and writing. Instead, Hrabal talks about his neutered tomcat and his friends from the 1950s, when V. Boudník, E. Bondy, M. Medek and the graphic artist Jaroslav Dočekal used to gather at his place. Hrabal steers the conversation towards Egon Bondy, shows his samizdat publication Půlnoc (Midnight) and reads Bondy’s poem 23 October 1850, which reflects on the executions of victims of communist show trials. He also shows his unpublished poems, his outhouse in the courtyard and a collection of signs, commenting on the finds as he goes along. Finally, he returns to the story of how he acquired the tomcat in exchange for 15kg of pears. Dohnal once again points out the shortage of film stock; the camera pans across the rooftops and, as Bondy said: “Everything has its end, even the solar system.” The documentary was made at the height of Hrabal’s literary and cinematic fame and boldly treads the line of what is possible. As Dohnal says at the end: “We didn’t find out what we wanted to know, but, but…” The film is a television exercise by second-year students of the Department of Film Directing.

A recording of an exclusive interview between the singer J. Laufer and Louis Armstrong on the occasion of the latter’s concert at Lucerna in Prague. It takes place at the International, a prestigious hotel under Communist rule, and the whole interview comes across as awkward and embarrassing, both in the way it was filmed and the nature of the questions asked. The gift from FAMU students – a children’s trumpet – is amusing, while Armstrong’s answers are both spontaneous and cautious. A side effect is the testimony to the awkward attempts by local companies to gain visibility on camera through the gifts they foist upon the singer (Amati Kraslice, Plzeňský Prazdroj), as well as the official nature of his visit (departure in a Tatra 613 for a tour of Prague Castle). A documentary exercise by second-year students of the Department of Documentary Film.

Marker and Marret filmed interviews with workers and trade unionists at the Rhodiacéta textile factory in Besançon in December 1967, nine months after the major strike that led to the factory’s takeover. This retrospective account of the workers’ awakening during the strike and their discovery of a common voice is framed by the present, in which management is halving bonuses and making staff redundant. Part of the film was created from footage shot by the workers themselves on 8mm cameras. The unhurried conversation is complemented by a visual study of the faces and gestures of these courageous young men, snippets from the strike, and sparse narration by the filmmakers. The film is permeated by solidarity and the opportunity for self-expression, which was transformed into a replicable organisational model after the work was released.During a discussion with the workers that followed the screening in Besançon, criticism was voiced: it was claimed that the portrayal was dominated by complaints rather than the articulation of a concrete programme, and that it neglected the work of women and the trade union activities preceding the strike. The filmmakers’ response was that militant cinema can only emerge from collaboration with worker-filmmakers. The creators trained twenty of them, giving rise to the Medvedkin groups, which by 1974 had made a dozen films set in their own working environments. In their hands, cinema became a tool for self-liberation.

This promotional film showcases the work of Czechoslovak Airlines. Using three flights as examples, it showcases some of the professions involved – pilots, technicians, air traffic controllers, hydrometeorologists – and a selection of typical situations, including the dramatic guidance of an aircraft in poor visibility. This work by Štefan Uher, a future pioneer of the Czechoslovak New Wave, is notable among other things for its striking visual style.

This documentary focuses on composer and actor Jan Klusák. It portrays him in the roles he played in Jan Němec’s films The Party and the Guests and Martyrs of Love and also highlights Klusák’s Čtyři malá hlasová cvičení (Four Little Vocal Exercises), which was composed using a theme from Franz Kafka. Following the performance of these “exercises” at Prague’s Theatre on the Balustrade, he went on to collaborate with E. Schorm and V. Chytilová. The film captures him at home (“I’m conservative; I can only work in my own room.”), in the corridor of the Rudolfinum and on walks in the Jewish Cemetery in Olšany. It inquires into his decision not to emigrate after the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia (“When you’re unhappy, there’s nowhere to run from it.”). An alienating effect emerges towards the end of the work, as Klusák advises the crew to pan the camera towards themselves in the mirror. The work is a second-year exercise at FAMU’s Department of Film Directing.

The film consists of two parts linked by the principle of contrast. The first (longer) part is a melancholically stylised musical collage based on the American folk song Where Have All the Flowers Gone, the German-language version of which – reminiscent of Marlene Dietrich’s rendition – is accompanied by static shots of a lonely girl in a bleak winter landscape and a cemetery. The second part consists of footage of the bustling street life of a modern city, filmed with a hidden camera and accompanied by lively music. The sad girl from the first part is played by Soňa Valentová, a student at the Academy of Performing Arts. This work is a fourth-year documentary exercise.

This documentary follows four graduates of Prague’s DAMU Puppetry Department who founded the “Theatre in a Suitcase”, with which they perform on the Charles Bridge, abroad and for children using pantomime and puppetry. The film also features excerpts from their plays and their own commentary. They take issue with a lecturer, claiming that the department allegedly exploited them, and that they only became involved in theatre towards the end of their studies. The survey entitled “How should a person look?” states that “a person should be made in the image of God” and “everyone should be happy to be just as they are”. The work is a second-year exercise from the Department of Film and Television Journalism.

Rivers flowing through areas of intensive industrial production are so heavily polluted with toxic substances that life in them is disappearing. Staff at the Water Research Institute in Prague are analysing water samples and proposing suitable solutions, including the construction of modern treatment plants. Mrtvé řeky (Dead Rivers, 1956) is one of the first Czech films to tackle the themes of pollution and environmental protection.

This documentary, featuring a dramatised narrative, depicts the life of a Danube boatman’s family through the eyes of a young boy who must leave the river to start school. The film explores the emotional contrast between the romance of life on the river and the boy’s first responsibility, which he manages to fulfil thanks to the care of his parents and the boatmen’s community. At the same time, it portrays the work of the boatmen and dock workers and their caring wives. The piece is shot as a silent film; the soundtrack interweaves ambient sounds (the horns of boats) with a captivating musical motif (the central melody being The Exodus Theme by Ernest Gold from Otto Preminger’s Jewish drama Exodus). The film was created as a second-year documentary exercise. In 1964, the director returned to the subject and, in a professional setting, made a widescreen remake titled Posledná plavba (The Last Voyage), which follows the ship’s journey all the way to the Black Sea. While still a student at FAMU, he had already produced a short feature film on the theme of river boatmen, Majstr alkohol (Master Alcohol, 1962).

The origins of the “Land of Ten Thousand Springs” – as the territory of present-day Vietnam was once known – are shrouded in several ancient myths about land and water. It is precisely the dialogue between these two elements that forms the basis of Trinh T. Minh-ha’s essayistic film. Through footage shot in 1995 and 2012, the film gives a voice to local people, communities and war veterans of the devastating Cold War conflict. Their memories intertwine with images of everyday life in contemporary Vietnam, creating a multi-layered portrait of a country straddling the boundaries between tradition and change, memory and oblivion, and solid ground and flowing water.