27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
The overuse of the term “crisis” in media and in politics evokes the feeling that we are moving from one crisis to another. It also prompts the necessity to take non-standard, quick and forceful measures introduced by the state, allowing minimum space for civic and individual activities. Using the term “crisis” with caution can also be inspiring as an approach to imminent questions in the field of education, economy, politics, culture and environment. What will change when we replace “crisis” with “responsibility”? How to recast a crisis into new opportunities?
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Women Globally on the RiseWhat to do to mitigate the numerous forms of institutional violence against women? The music and dance choreography, Un Violador en Tu Camino (A Rapist in Your Way), by feminist collective Las Tesis from Chile became the global protest-song thematizing violence against women, the performance of which brought together women from over fifty countries. The music formation from Chile does not call out on individual abusers but challenges the whole system that is based on the culture of women oppression. Guests: Colectivo LASTESIS |
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Let’s Talk about Responsibility, Not CrisisCrises are always overwhelming, they suggest the necessity to take non-standard, quick and forceful measures introduced by the state, allowing minimum space for civic and individual activities. Careful use of the crisis narrative can show us how to approach burning issues in the fields of education, economy, politics, culture and environment as well as the pandemic. Will our approach change if we start framing our message in terms of responsibility, not crisis? How to transform the crisis narrative into an opportunity to invent new solutions? What forms of participation can be applied in collective governance? Guests: Karel Kovář, Eszter Nova, Marek Szolc |
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Inner WorldsAbout the lessons learnt from encounters with others, recipes for life and materialized sacraments in a dialogue with the world. Not so audible voices that tell stories, share their roadmap to life and recall important moments that have motivated their steps in life and career. Guests: Dorotea Heczková and Magdalena Hrdličková (Kuchařky bez domova / Homeless Chefs), Lucie Králíková, Lukáš Houdek |
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Culture for All the MoneyThe purpose of culture, as well as landscape management, social work and education, is not to generate profit. Without subsidies and contributions, only the richest of us could afford it. The grant-making schemes force culture and art to meet so many criteria that they no longer allow for creative freedom, on the contrary, they lead to cultural overproduction. How should cultural institutions revise their strategies and how to reinvent the role of the state? Guests: Barbora Baronová, Jan Press, Gosia Płysa |
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Rebellion, Not ExtinctionFormal democracy and different versions of liberal capitalism seemed to herald the “end of history” and represent the final and ideal arrangement of matters of the state. However, they have been faced with serious challenges in terms of their function and legitimacy as they often don’t deliver as expected. This development inspired numerous ideas for alternative economic and social arrangements as well as autonomous movements. How should we deal with the changes in our world to make sure that it remains socially and environmentally fit for living? Guest: Andrej Grubačić |
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Discussion Won't Save the WorldWe are accustomed to regarding discussion as the missing link in solving societal problems. However, what we lack a lot more is direct experience and common action. There is no shortage of words, but there is insufficient action. This is evident at the level of small communities and places as well as in the entire environmental area. Common effort is what makes it possible to find common language. How do we transform education and schooling in order to empower ourselves to transform what matters to us? Keynote: Ingerid S. Straume |
GUESTS
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Barbora Baronová (CZ)A literary documentarist and publisher, a journalist by qualification and a media theoretician with PhD in Multimedia and Design. She has written several highly acclaimed book documentaries, for example Slečny (Unmarried Women), Ženy o ženách (Women on Women), or Intimita (Intimacy). In 2012, she founded wo-men, an independent art publishing house. How would you describe your work and your goals in the context of making culture more sustainable? What do you consider important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? |
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Ivo Bystřičan (CZ)Documentary director, screenwriter, and producer. He studied sociology at FSS MU in Brno and documentary filmmaking at FAMU. He is currently working on the creative documentary project Climageddon and the television series Industrie about the industrial and social history of the Czech Lands. How would you describe your work and goals in the area of documentary films? What do you consider important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Colectivo LASTESIS (CL)An interdisciplinary collective from Valparaíso, Chile, made up of Daffne Valdés, Paula Cometa, Lea Cáceres and Sibila Sotomayor. They use the tools of performance to deal with questions of gender, transferring feminist theories into a multimedia format. They are the creators of the performance “Un violador en tu camino” (A Rapist in Your Path), performed over 50 countries. 1/ How would you describe your work and your goals with regard to addressing the violence against women and the transnational violation of women’s rights? 2/ What do you consider important in the light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? 3/ Which publications and creative works have resonated with you the most this year? |
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Andrej Grubačić (bývalá Jugoslávie/USA)Founding Chair of Anthropology and Social Change department at CIIS-San Francisco, an academic program with an exclusive focus on anarchist Anthropology. He is the author of several books, including Living at the Edges of Capitalism: Adventures in Exile and Mutual Aid (co-authored with Denis O'Hearn), winner of the 2017 American Sociological Association prize for Distinguished Scholarship. How would you describe your work and your goals in the field of anthropology? What do you consider to be important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Lukáš Houdek (CZ)Government campaign coordinator for HateFree Culture and is involved in a number of other humanitarian projects. He is also active as a creative artist, mainly exploring themes of identity, violence, and hatred or injustice. He is the author of several radio documentaries and won the Journalist Award this year for his work White Brings Death for Czech Radio 2 about albino stigmatisation in Ghana. How would you describe your work and goals? What do you consider to be important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Karel Kovář (CZ)One of the most outstanding representatives of the Czech YouTube scene who is able to a wide audience and present current social issues. His YouTube channel, KOVY, has more than 820,000 followers and it is no longer followed only by children. He has written two best-sellers (autobiography OVŠEM/However and iPohádka/iFairy-Tale) and he is a co-author of the LINKA podcast and a presenter. Forbes magazine regularly includes him among the most influential people on social media. In the past, he was selected as one of three YouTubers to interview former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker; he also presented a show on TV Seznam (V Centru/In the Centre) and performed in Stardance. In addition, he is a regular guest of public discussions and debates. How would you describe your work and your goals in terms of reflection of the society? What do you consider important in the light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Jan Krajhanzl (CZ)A social and environmental psychologist who works at the Department of Environmental Studies at Masaryk University. He is the author of such publications as Psychology of Relation toward Nature and the Environment (2014) and Well-Hidden Emotions and Environmental Problems (2012), and the co-author of The Relationship of the Czech Public toward Nature and the Environment, Representative Public Opinion Surveys (2018). How would you describe your work and your goals? What do you consider to be important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Lucie Králíková (CZ)Lucie Králíková studied garden architecture but has always had a much broader range of interests. Together with Klára Zahradníčková, she founded the Efemér alternative flower studio in 2011, which has been leaning towards artistic presentation since 2015 when Lucie became the only manager of the business. She is a founding member of the Czechia group of seekers of local idiosyncrasies and creators of “the new folklore” (together with Kateřina Plamitzerová and Michaela Karásková). Flowers and plants remain her basic source materials but in her installations, she combines them with any other leftover, found or upcycled matter which is always specific to the location. Environmental awareness and social connection to every location (she often works with the local community) are typical for Lucie's work. Her art is also characterized by her effort to rediscover half-forgotten seasonal liturgical rites and their adaptation to current urban settings. Recently, she released her Svátosti (Sacraments) book which is an authentic poetic diary in the form of documentary notes in a literary style combined with experimental photographs. Its theme is rooted in her intense love for nature, plants and traditions which she not only resurrects but also transplants into the current world, landscape and cities. |
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Kuchařky bez domova (CZ)The Homeless Chefs cafeteria (Jídelna Kuchařek bez domova) employs homeless women. It is operated by the Jako doma (Like Home) feminist organization which deals with the issue of female homelessness in a complex way. Besides the cafeteria, they also operate a community center and humanitarian housing for women who are homeless or in social distress. |
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Martina Malinová (CZ)Documentary filmmaker. She is also a rapper, poet and media educator. She studied social anthropology and media and communication studies at the Faculty of Social Studies of Masaryk University, and documentary production at the Film and Television Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts. In the autumn of 2019, she joined the New Media Studio II at the Academy of Fine Arts. She is the author of the feminist zine Drzost. In her film work, she tries to give a voice to people and topics that are overlooked. How would you describe your activities and goals in the context of reflecting the position of women in society? What do you consider important in the light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Jan Návratová (CZ)Theatre Institute's expert on dance, artists' second career and the status of artists. She is also a journalist, an editor, a cultural manager and a curator in the field of dance and movement theatre. In 2009, she founded the biennial Dance Film Festival and became its art director. Since 2005, she is the chairwoman of the board of the Dance Career Endowment Fund. She cooperates with professional cultural media including Czech Radio Vltava, Czech Television and Aktuálně.cz. |
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Eszter Nova (HU)Lecturer in philosophy and political science, researching the role of learned helplessness in the emergence of authoritarianism – and its cure. How would you describe your work and your goals in the area of political analysis? |
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Gosia Plysa (PL)Executive Director of Unsound – international contemporary music festival coming from Kraków, Poland with its editions taking place in Adelaide, New York, London, Toronto, and many others. She is also a co-director of Unsound Productions – creative and management agency representing several special projects of Unsound and working with artists such as Jlin, Zora Jones & Sinjin Hawke. She has also been involved in various networking activities of Unsound, such as ICAS, SHAPE platform and We Are Europe. |
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Jan Press (CZ)Director of the Moravian Gallery. Jan Press graduated in Art History and Museum Science at the Masaryk University in Brno and studied at the School of Engineering of Brno University of Technology. He worked as a project manager for the Diocese of Brno and in 2008, he joined the Moravian Gallery. In 2010, he became the head of the collections department and two years later, assumed the position of the head of the department of economy and operations in the director's department. In this capacity, he was in charge of the project teams reconstructing the Dušan Jurkovič villa in Brno, the Culture program, and prepared the reconstruction of the Governor's Palace within the Integrated Operational Program. |
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Filip Remunda (CZ)Czech director, cameraman, and producer. He studied documentary filmmaking at FAMU and co-founded the Institute of Documentary Film, which helps to promote Czech film abroad. He gained wider public awareness along with Vít Klusák with their controversial film reality show about a fictitious hypermarket entitled Czech Dream. He received the Pavel Koutecký Award for his film Tadpole, the Rabbit, and the Holy Ghost. |
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Ingerid S. Straume (NO)Norwegian writer and philosopher of education. She works as a director of the academic writing programme at the University of Oslo. Her recent publications include What Children Ask from Us: Education and Worldlessness in the Anthropocene (book chapter) and “What may we hope for? Education in times of climate change” (Open access article). How would you describe your work and your goals in the field of education? What do you consider to be important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most out of this year’s literature and artistic releases? |
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Marek Szolc (PL)Lawyer, public policy adviser and sustainability expert. Graduated from the University of Warsaw and Université de Poitiers. Worked for ClientEarth, a leading international environmental legal NGO, and in the Polish Sejm as an adviser to one of the parliamentary groups. Supported Warsaw Smog Alert, the main clean air organization active in the Poland's capital. He is member of the Warsaw City Council elected in 2018. Chairperson of the Council's Committee on Environmental Protection focused on implementing and promoting progressive, sustainable urban policies. Currently working as Sustainability Analyst at EcoVadis, a corporate social responsibility management systems rating company, which supports businesses on their way towards greater sustainability. How would you describe your work and your goals in relation to law and politics? What do you consider important in the light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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Filip Vostal (CZ)Received his doctorate in sociology in 2013 from the University of Bristol. He works as a researcher in the Cabinet for the Study of Science, Technology and Society at the Institute of Philosophy at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. He is currently working on the temporality of knowledge production in the field of free electron laser experiments and is examining the epistemic role of acceleration and velocity in new methods of molecular dynamics. How would you describe your work and your goals in terms of studying the transformation of society in modernity? What do you consider to be important in light of the current situation and what issues do you think we, as a society, should take seriously? What resonated with you the most from this year's literature and artistic releases? |
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FILM SELECTIONOeconomia (Carmen Losmann, Germany, 2020) |
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READING LIST |
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If you want to delve deeper into this topic, we offer you a selection of the most interesting sources that we came across while thinking through the program of this year's Inspiration Forum. YUK HUI: ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF CRISIS (E-FLUX)
In his essay, the philosopher of technology working at the Bauhaus school in Weimar, Germany, studies the global pandemic of our “post-metaphysical” world by reflecting on the events that shook up Western society in the century following the First World War. Hui ponders which mechanisms and institutions of globalised society will survive in the context of our new reality. He also warns about the dangers associated with the lack of diversity and solidarity in an online world run by tech giants. “For Jacques Derrida (whose widow, Marguerite Derrida, recently died of coronavirus), the September 11, 2001 attack on the World Trade Center marked the manifestation of an autoimmune crisis, dissolving the techno-political power structure that had been stabilized for decades: a Boeing 767 was used as a weapon against the country that invented it, like a mutated cell or virus from within. The term “autoimmune” is only a biological metaphor when used in the political context: globalization is the creation of a world system whose stability depends on techno-scientific and economic hegemony. Consequently, 9/11 came to be seen as a rupture which ended the political configuration willed by the Christian West since the Enlightenment, calling forth an immunological response expressed as a permanent state of exception—wars upon wars. The coronavirus now collapses this metaphor: the biological and the political become one. Attempts to contain the virus don’t only involve disinfectant and medicine, but also military mobilizations and lockdowns of countries, borders, international flights, and trains.“MAT SCHULZ: THE TYRANNY OF CLOSENESS: THE EXPERIENCE OF EXILE IN A VIRTUAL WORLD (THE GRIFFITH REVIEW)
The writer and art director of Krakow’s Unsound Festival ponders what we stand to gain and lose in a world where crossing long distances – whether by plane or through permanent online connections – is no longer an issue. He also thinks about the impact of his lifestyle which inescapably involves regular travel across and between continents. “Last night I spoke to an Australian friend who lives in Paris. He asked, ‘What happens if the internet runs out?’ This idea, of course, is appalling: how would we cope? I push it to the back of my mind, with a whole host of ever-darkening thoughts.“INGERID S. STRAUME: WHAT MAY WE HOPE FOR? EDUCATION IN TIMES OF CLIMATE CHANGE (WILEY ONLINE LIBRARY)
The Norwegian philosopher of education warns that the negative impacts of climate change cannot be solved exclusively through science and tech, but that we also need to reconsider the ways in which society and its institutions (such as schools) function. She considers "transformative education" focused on changing people's perspectives to be one of the key ways of making this happen. In that form of education, climate change wouldn’t just be a part of the curriculum that needed to be taught – it would be a starting point for transforming education and its systems. “As a political (and moral) category, hope seems to be especially important for children and young people; nevertheless, I would argue that hope can be productive in the long term only when based on realistic assumptions and truth knowledge. In this respect, I am critical of much of the wishful thinking on climate change communication which, at least in the wealthier parts of the world, include the assumption that climate change can be “solved” by some kind of hitherto unknown technological innovation or that we already have the means to combat climate change and all we need to do is to implement them. On the contrary, my starting point is that deep alterations of the earth system are already taken place and that some of these processes are irreversible and escalating toward their tipping points. Climate change and other ecological problems have simply become part of the conditions for life on earth.”TERENCE SHARPE, NEW GENRES OF BEING FOR THE MITIGATION OF ECOCIDE (STRELKA MAG)
The Irish artists and curator, Terence Sharpe suggests, in an article for Strelka Mag, that the first prerequisite for solving the crises of our time – especially the climate crisis – is for us to become aware that we are members of a human species and approach this fact from non-anthropocentric point of view. Sharpe states, however, that this runs contrary to the capitalist basis on which our current society is built and, as a result, we need to change the current economic system. “From a human viewpoint, climate change is fundamentally an economic problem, existing not within but as part of the very fabric of the economic system in which we are entrenched. As it seems a non-economic conception of the human cannot be realized at scale during this point in history, the global financial system must be re-engineered to divert its interests towards green energy along with different models of value engineering.” |