27th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Inspiration Forum 2019
October 24–29, 2019
6 days / 6 topics / over 30 debates / 100 guests / more than 6000 visitors
The ninth edition of Inspiration Forum was attended by 6062 visitors, out of which 468 visitors were not accredited for the Ji.hlava IDFF, and welcomed 102 guests, who arrived from 19 countries. Besides European countries, such as Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Great Britain, our speakers were also from Afghanistan, Brazil and the United States. Over 6 days they examined 6 topics in 33 program blocks.
● Inspiration Forum 2019 Topics
● Inspiration Forum 2019 in Numbers
● Inspiration Forum 2019 in Program
● Inspiration Forum 2019 Guests
● Partners of the Inspiration Forum 2019
Topics 2019
„We are already and will remain all in the same boat.“ – Zygmunt Bauman –
● God & Co. | Church In an Accelerated World
● Woman in Change | Inspiration for the Third Millennium
● Re:democracy | New Models for the Future
● Climategeddon | How to Make Politicians Act
● How Not to Be Afraid? | State of the World and the Effective Role of the Individual
● Made in China | From Confucius to Xi Jinping
Inspiration Forum 2019 in Numbers
The ninth edition of Inspiration Forum was attended by 6062 visitors, out of which 468 visitors were not accredited for the Ji.hlava IDFF. Over 6 days we examined 6 topics in 33 program blocks. 7 debates were programmed in cooperation with partners.
We welcomed 102 guests, who arrived from 19 countries. Besides European countries, such as Poland, Hungary, Croatia and Great Britain, our speakers were also from Afghanistan, Brazil and the United States.
Inspiration Forum 2019 Program
God & Co. | Church In an Accelerated World ⇈back⇈
The Catholic Church, an institution that for centuries was a driving force in society, is undergoing turbulent times. There are radical differences between liberal and conservative schools of thought, and the Church is struggling with a decline in the number of believers and with internal conflicts. Where is this divided institution headed, and what will the Church and faith look like in the third millennium? What are the greatest challenges it must face? How will it reflect changes in society, new models of living,and the mixing of cultures?
A Church for the Third Millennium (Interview)
For conservative Catholics, Pope Francis is too radical, while liberals and non-Catholics often find his steps insufficient. Can today’s Catholic Church be an inspiration for society and offer a cure against fear, lack of trust, social alienation, and the environmental crisis? What stance do Catholics take towards sensitive issues such as women’s reproductive rights and the LGBT community? In cooperation with the Czech Christian Academy, Jihlava.
Guests: Tomáš Holub, Martin Veselovský
Moderator: Josef Pazderka
The Doomed Generation Z (Panel discussion)
They were born after 1995 and belong to Generation Z. Supposedly, they can’t keep their eyes off their phones, social networks are like a drug for them, they don’t care about politics, they want work to above all be fun, and they are putting off starting a family until later. On the surface their lives look easy, full of possibilities and opportunities. But they suffer from depression, anorexia, self-harming, and the fear that they can’t handle the demands placed on them by their family and society. They are afraid that they won’t fit in, and they struggle every day to break from the often hopeless situations that they have ended up in. What values do today’s young people believe in, and are the stereotypes about Generation Z true? Are they interested in spiritual matters, in God? What is their attitude to the world and how they see the future? The debate is part of the unique journalism project titled The Lost Generation Z, in which writers for the Aktuálně.cz news website explored the world of today’s adolescents, talking to young Czechs and experts. In cooperation with Aktuálně.cz.
Guests: Magdaléna Daňková, Mia Nguyen, Vojtěch Prokeš, Tomáš Vocelka
Moderator: Marek Pros
Woman in Change | Inspiration for the Third Millennium ⇈back⇈
The status of women in Western civilization changed significantly over the course of the 20th century. Nevertheless, in most of the world today, they still do not enjoy equality, equal opportunities, and a level playing field. And yet, we can see the signs of women everywhere. How is our world changing as we move closer to the ideal of gender equality? How is it influencing business, industry, politics, education, and healthcare? In what kind of a world will men and women live in the future and how will they function in it?
Wankers Unplugged (The inner world of Tereza Dočkalová)
Tereza Dočkalová is a forceful female voice who uses hyperbole to tear down stereotypes about the roles of men and women in society. In her show, The Wide World of Wankers, she criticizes patriarchal relicts in Czech society and shows both men and women that the struggle is not over. Dočkalová will talk about the women who inspire her.
Emancipation, Differently Each Time (Opening speech and conversation among guests)
The struggle for women’s rights takes on different forms in different parts of the world. There is no single feminism. It is not a homogenous movement, but has many positions and many goals. Its diversity does not prevent the formation of alliances, communication, or the exchange of ideas for successful action. Why should we take different contexts into account and make room for different ways of understanding women’s emancipation? How can we learn from one another? What problems do feminists, both male and female, face in countries with democratic deficits? And what do efforts at democratizing political life have in common with the struggle for women’s rights and the rights of the LBGT community?
Opening speech: Fawzia Koofi
Guests: Jana Smiggels Kavková, Fatima Rahimi
Moderator: Saša Uhlová
Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism” (Panel discussion)
Feminism continues to be a controversial subject in Czech society. Despite the rich history of the women’s movement in the Czech lands and in Czechoslovakia, some politicians and certain media outlets view the question of women’s position in society as an imported “genderism” that does not reflect the local situation. What do women working in male-dominated professions have to say about this? And what about women living in difficult social conditions? What paths towards emancipation exist for women in Central Europe today? In cooperation with the Office of the Government’s Department of Gender Equality.
Guests: Karolína Koubová, Zuzana Kříčková, Kateřina Šimáčková, Magda Vašáryová
Moderator: Kateřina Smejkalová
Identity in Motion (Documentary dialogue with Alisa Ganieva)
In addition to traditional prejudices and the limited social mobility faced by women in the Russian Caucasus region, there has also been a visible shift towards conservativism, spread with the help of modern technology. Russian state propaganda, combined with the influence of Islamic fundamentalism, has thus contributed to creating a situation in which young people have more conservative beliefs than their parents or grandparents. Alisa Ganieva is a writer from Dagestan, the southernmost republic of the Russian Federation. Her first book was published under a male pseudonym so that it would not be pigeonholed as “women’s literature.” Her books explore the issues faced by society in the Russian Caucasus and speculate about possible dystopian scenarios.
Guest: Alisa Ganieva
Moderators: Marek Hovorka, Filip Remunda
Women’s Voices (Panel discussion)
Today’s technological progress, economic turbulences, and the environmental crisis are changing social relations and spreading uncertainty. How do female activists from Central and Southeastern Europe view the changes happening in society today? How have they adjusted their actions, and what innovations have made it into their work? How do they communicate and how do they define their priorities and fight for their goals at a time of growing populism and weakening democratic mechanisms? In cooperation with the Slovak-Czech Women’s Fund.
Guests: Zoe Gudović, Marta Jalowska, Petra Jelínková
Moderator: Miroslava Bobáková
Female Journalists (Panel discussion)
According to leading female Czech journalists, how does the public think about women? Can we change the status of women through media work that looks at women and nurtures sensitivity towards their position? Are today’s editorial offices capable of reflecting women’s more complex situation and accommodate them at work? Will the Czech public manage to talk about this issue without emotions, or would they rather sweep it under the carpet? And how are Czech media outlets doing on the issue of equal opportunities, pay, and other working conditions? In cooperation with Aktuálně.cz.
Guests: Zuzana Kleknerová, Šárka Pálková, Petra Procházková, Kateřina Šafaříková
Moderator: Petr Vizina
As Long As They’re Pigs: The Wide World of Wankers (Video screening and discussion with the filmmakers)
The Wide World of Wankers (Branky, Body, Kokoti), a distinctive video project by the Blesk for Women website, introduces a feminist viewpoint into journalism. The show’s creators take on lingering sexism and respond to derogatory statements about women or the LBGT community with criticism full of defiant frustration.
Guests: Petr Cífka, Tereza Dočkalová
Moderator: Bohdan Bláhovec
Re:democracy | New Models for the Future ⇈back⇈
How are democracies changing today? What threats do democratic systems face, what new challenges must they deal with, and what should we be prepared for in the future? What technological, economic, and social influences can we expect, and how will they affect citizens’ share of power? Do they deserve the democratic reforms necessitated by a changing world? What should they look like?
Bringing Together the Divided (The inner world of poet Kapka Kassabova)
“It is important to be open and listen, to try to understand one another across the things that divide us. It is more important today than ever before.” Author Kapka Kassabova explores borders, their topography, and how they influence our mentality. She shows how borders divide geography and societies, but also how this function is continually relativized and transcended by the multilayered identities of people who inhabit border places. Kassabova will talk about literature and about the texts that inspire her.
The Future Has a Veto Right! (Opening speech and conversation among guests)
The Western way of life would appear to be unsustainable. It’s not a question of consumption, but of the entire functioning of the economic system, which is incapable of taking into account our planet’s limited resources or the negative impacts of excessive mining and pollution. It equates social progress with endless growth. How can we reshape the present, both politically and economically, in order to leave our descendants the proper conditions for a dignified life?
Opening Speech: Sophie Howe
Guests: Kateřina Smejkalová, Jan Sokol
Moderator: Jonathan Terra
The New Language of Post-Liberal Politics (Panel discussion)
After the fall of the communist regimes in Central Europe, the local political atmosphere was full of enthusiasm. The borders were open, and the transforming countries unambiguously opted for political and economic integration with the West, joined NATO, and became members of the European Union. Today, thirty years later, some members of society are feeling disillusioned and are looking for new visions. The idealized model of liberal development into which Central European intellectuals and political leaders had placed their hopes in the 1990s, has been gradually rejected by a broad sector of society, and its legitimacy has even been questioned in Western Europe. In the Visegrad countries, authoritarianism and the politics of fear have become normalized. How to understand this turn of events? And what kind of a political ethos do we need if we want a more just government in a post-liberal world?
Guests: Matej Cíbik, Alexandra Daam, Dominik Hána, Dariusz Karlowicz
Moderator: Petr Fischer
New and Better Worlds (Documentary dialogue with Srećko Horvat)
What is the path from critical thinking and subversive strategies towards finding constructive alternatives? Is there such a thing as engaged philosophy? And can the questions being asked by contemporary philosophers help us as we try to come up with models for a future political order? What media, activities, and practices can we use to communicate about new forms of democracy and realize them in the public space? Philosopher Srećko Horvat revives the agora with projects in which he reintroduces into philosophy its role of imagining better possible worlds.
Guest: Srećko Horvat
Moderators: Marek Hovorka, Filip Remunda
Breaking Free from 1989 (Panel discussion)
Why do today’s protest movements still resort to the symbolic legacy of November 1989, and what interpretations of democracy resonate in the Czech Republic and Slovakia today? Instead of returning to the ideals of 1989, wouldn’t it be more effective to consider forms of democracy that have more in common with our conditions today? What topics and values should public debate encompass in order to not deepen the chasms in society any further but instead strengthen mutual understanding? Filip Zajíček and Kirill Ščeblykin open some of these issues in their book We Are Like Them, which takes the form of an interview with journalist Martin M. Šimečka on the recent history of Central Europe. All three will discuss these and related questions with sociologist Miriam Kanioková.
Guests: Miriam Kanioková, Kirill Ščeblykin, Martin M. Šimečka, Filip Zajíček
Moderator: Bára Šichanová
After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989? (Panel discussion)
Can Czech society agree on how to interpret the events that have taken place in our country over the past thirty years? Are there fundamental differences in how different generations or different social groups view developments over the past several decades? How can we talk about and interpret the history of the 1990s and the first decade of the new millennium? Our guests will look at the fundamental moments, unjustly overlooked contexts, and nearly forgotten ideological movements of post-1989 politics. The discussion is a part of “After Velvet,” an educational series of reports and interviews organized by Radio Wave in the fall of 2019 looking at Czech history since 1989 through the eyes of the country’s youngest generations. In cooperation with Radio Wave.
Guests: Ondřej Císař, Adéla Gjuričová, Jiří Pehe
Moderators: Hana Řičicová, Vítek Svoboda
A Bizarre Political Menu: Jindřich Šídlo’s Happy Monday (Video screening and discussion with the filmmakers)
Satirical show that looks back on the events of the past week and comments on topics in Czech politics and society. The show, a video continuation of Šídlo’s previous media work as a political commentary, is produced in cooperation with Tomáš Dusil and is part of the Monday edition of Seznam News. What approaches can be used for a satirical analysis of Czech politics, and what is it good for?
Guest: Jindřich Šídlo
Moderator: Ivana Průchová
Climategeddon | How to Make Politicians Act ⇈back⇈
According to many experts, greenhouse gas emissions are being reduced at too slow rate to avoid new climate crises. Should individuals reduce consumption in order to lower their ecological footprint? Or would that be pointless without comprehensive global steps by the world’s largest actors? What changes do we need in politics, industry, agriculture, and the lifestyle of each and every one of us? What role can we play in the global use of resources?
A Wilderness of Solitude (The inner world of author Aleš Palán)
Aleš Palán spent two years with hermits in the wilderness of the Bohemian Forest. What mirror do people who have traded the comforts of modern civilization for a life on the land, defined by the rhythms of nature and away from contemporary society, hold up to the rest of us? Can their perspective help us find the sensitivity that we have lost because we are firmly rooted in the world of civilizational comforts? Palán will talk about nature, closeness and distance, and the literature and texts that inspire him.
What to Really Do (Opening speech and conversation among guests)
The impact of carbon dioxide emissions on global warming has been known for decades. Climate change is increasingly becoming a leading topic in the world media and a subject of society-wide debate. And yet, global emissions of carbon dioxide continue to rise despite the fact that, in the Paris climate accords, the world’s governments committed to preventing a planetary increase in temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius. In a situation where the climate crisis is not a catastrophic future scenario but is growing worse before our eyes, scientists and activists are increasing their pressure on governments, society, and individuals. Can the environmental movement be an effective agent of worldwide change? What can we do as individuals? And what should the role of scientists be?
Opening speech: Bill McKibben
Guests: Anna Kárníková, Juraj Zamkovský
Moderator: Jakub Patočka
Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act (Panel discussion)
In recent months, the environmental crisis and climate change have become perhaps the most burning issue in society. How can we move from merely talking about alarming articles and videos towards effective action? The main tools for change are in the hands of politicians with the power to regulate industry, models of consumption, and forms of transportation, or to stimulate sustainable energy. But in many countries, they remain relatively apathetic to this subject. What strategies on the part of citizens, communities, organizations, and movements can act as catalysts for political change in today’s quickly changing media reality and amidst the growing environmental problems? What steps can we take to force politicians to act? We will join our guests in exploring strategies that have been successful in the world and have led to real change.
Guests: Jan Beránek, Sini Harkki, Veronika Holcnerová, Tereza Lízalová, Eamon Ryan
Moderator: Ondřej Liška
The Hope of the Forest (Documentary dialogue with Isabella Salton)
When we talk about Brazil today, it is usually in connection with forest fires and the continued deforestation of the Amazon rainforest. Under the government of President Bolsonaro, extensive, previously protected forest areas are being opened up for commercial use. And the situation has been made worse by the fires. We will talk with Isabella Salton about another Brazilian forest, its renewal, and hope that can motivate action.
Guest: Isabella Salton
Moderators: Marek Hovorka, Filip Remunda
Energetic Screenwriting (Panel discussion)
“Why should we worry about the year 2050 now, 31 years in advance?” the Czech prime minister proclaimed after the Czech Republic, along with Hungary, Poland, and Estonia, blocked an EU agreement on achieving carbon neutrality by the year 2050. At the same time, coal-fired power plants have been given exemptions allowing them to release forty percent more toxic mercury that seriously threatens people’s health. In terms of greenhouse gas emissions per capita, the Czech Republic is the fifth largest polluter in the EU and twentieth in the world. What scenarios exist for the transformation of the Czech energy sector, and how are our foreign neighbors doing in this regard? In cooperation with Greenpeace Czech Republic.
Guests: Jiří Jeřábek, Stanislav Mišák, Martin Sedlák, Veronika Dombrovská
Moderator: Zuzana Vlasatá
Will Technology Destroy Us or Save Us? (Panel discussion)
Why is it easier for us to imagine the end of the world than a different way of doing things? Why do we refuse to bid farewell to the vision of constant growth when we can see its unsustainability with our own eyes? Can new technologies save us from the worsening environmental crisis? Or is techno-optimism out of place in this situation and are we instead at risk of technocratic alienation? In cooperation with Salon Právo.
Guests: Naďa Johanisová, Daniel Prokop, Jan Romportl
Moderator: Zbyněk Vlasák
An Unpleasant Young Voice: Video Footage of Speeches by Young Activists (Commented video screening and discussion)
A look at public speeches by the young climate activists Greta Thunberg, Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner, and Yeb Saño, their influence within the global climate movement, their representation in the media, and their political influence.
Guests: Jan Beránek, Sini Harkki
Moderator: Ivona N. Remundová
How Not to Be Afraid | State of the World and the Effective Role of the Individual ⇈back⇈
Catastrophic scenarios are a part of our everyday lives. e end of the world, environmental catastrophes, fake news, resource wars, terrorism. Fear can be paralyzing. How can we transform fear and apathy into active civic life? In these difficult times, how can we avoid being paralyzed by apocalyptic visions and instead act consciously, effectively, and without fear? What can each of us – journalists and politicians – do to transform the public?
A Trip to the City (The inner world of Lama Sonam Tsering)
As a child, Sonam Tsering was chosen as the reincarnation of a Tibetan spiritual teacher and spent fourteen years preparing for the life of a monk at a Buddhist monastery in northern India. But then he decided to leave the monastery, and today he runs a pop-up Tibetan café in Prague. Join him as he talks about his travels, his experiences, and the people who inspire him.
How to Transform Fear (Opening speech and conversation)
The complicated and global nature of the problems of today’s world produce uncertainty and a fear of what the next few years will bring. Fear is an understandable response to unfamiliar and complicated challenges. But with many people it grows into panic. How can we deal with this emotion reasonably and productively? Is fear in any way related to hope? What emotions can help us to keep a critical distance, stay calm, and remain objective? Can the Catholic Church help, or does it suffer from the same emotions as the rest of society? In cooperation with the Czech Christian Academy, Jihlava.
Opening speech: Tomáš Halík
Moderator: Josef Pazderka
How to Deal with the Politics of Fear (Panel discussion)
Many media outlets, politicians, and special-interest groups are engaged in spreading fear of real or imagined threats. They feed on predictions of the darkest visions, apocalypses, fatal conflicts, and external threats. Their rhetoric fires up their audience for the struggle against real or imaginary enemies, or paralyzes them into frightened inactivity. How can we look at the world differently, and what stand can we take, through our thoughts and actions, in order to face the risks and threats of the world today? Can we remain critical and objective while at the same time giving possible threats their proper weight? How should we deal with politicians, journalists, and the leaders of groups whose main aim is to produce fear? And can we prevent the slow erosion of freedom in the name of safety and security?
Guests: Jonathan Ledgard, Ondrej Remiáš, Bence Ságvári, Ivana Svobodová, Christian Weißgerber
Moderator: Paulína Tabery
Walls and Freedom (Documentary dialogue with Francisco Cantú)
The fall of the Berlin Wall and the dismantling of the Iron Curtain symbolized the establishment of freedom. What does freedom mean today when the United States, Hungary, and other countries build walls along their borders and people who yearn to make it to Europe are drowning in the Mediterranean Sea? Can our freedom of movement within the EU and our comfortable visa-free travel to many other countries be considered freedom when similar rights are denied to people on the run? To what extent do borders protect freedom and to what extent do they contradict it? And can a country that has fortified itself against the outside world in order to guarantee its citizens an “island” of freedom be truly considered free? Francisco Cantú focuses our attention on borders and on the suffering of people who try to overcome them.
Guest: Francisco Cantú
Moderators: Marek Hovorka, Filip Remunda
Fear Among Us (Presentation and discussion)
Fear is a natural emotion among adults as well as children. It is an instinct of self-preservation thanks to which we are aware of various dangers. At the right level, it can encourage a reasonable and inventive reaction, but if it is too much it can be paralyzing. The members of Genesis, a Bosnian non-governmental association, teach children how to distinguish true fear from purposefully created imaginary threats. Let’s learn with them how to work with fear and not be afraid of it.
Guests: Draško Stojčević, Ljubica Vašić
Moderator: Predrag Duronjić
15 Years of Cultural Transformation (Panel discussion)
Fifteen years ago, the Czech Republic joined the European Union. Our culture and art have become a part of the greater European space. What social and artistic expectations came with EU accession and to what extent have they been fulfilled? Fifteen years that have seen the transformation of politics and of society – has this change influenced art and how it is perceived? Fifteen years of the transformation of our relationship to Europe and our place within it, and also the transformation of people’s ideas of what culture means. In cooperation with Creative Europe Desk CZ on the occasion of fifteen years of the Czech Republic in the EU.
Guests: Martin Kohout, Pavla Melková, Adam Svozil
Moderator: Petr Fischer
Does Russia Divide Us?: Voxpot (Video screening and discussion with the filmmakers)
Premiere of an episode from the Voxpot journalism channel. The Voxpot team went to Russia, Finland and the Czech Republic, where they explored strategies of Russia’s information activities outside its borders. Where are the limits of Russian information policy and state propaganda, what does this country follow, and when to blame more local players for polarized society than the Kremlin?
Guest: Vojtěch Boháč
Moderator: Ivo Bystřičan
Made in China | From Confucius to Xi Jinping ⇈back⇈
What are contemporary China and Chinese society like? From Confucianism to a reformed Chinese state that, according to its leaders, serves the interests of ordinary people but, according to its critics, serves the interests of the ruling class. What is it like to live in a country that, in the past four decades, has become the second strongest world economy, has become a leader in the field of technology, is expanding into nearly every area at home and abroad, and has quickly implemented effective methods for the automated surveillance of society? What defines China’s boom and which groups of inhabitants have benefited from it? Can we talk about China as a totalitarian regime? Might the Chinese approach to running society make inroads into our world? How should we view China today?
I’ll Have Chinese (The inner world of Ivo Hucl)
Poet and curator Ivo Hucl has a long history of studying the Far East. In 2018, he met the photographer, writer, and Chinese dissident Liu Xia, widow of the Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo. What is his view of contemporary China? Hucl will talk about the texts that inspire him.
China for the World, the World for China (Opening speech and conversation among guests)
How has civil society in China changed in recent years? Is the emerging middle class essentially a loyal bulwark of the regime because it has the current system to thank for its rise? Or does it possess the seeds for a social movement that will eventually push for democratic reforms? And is any politics from below even possible within such a sophisticated system of control? How is China’s political and economic structure changing? And won’t an authoritarian and strongly hierarchical regime be more capable of implementing the obligations arising from the Paris climate accords?
Opening speech: Stein Ringen
Guests: Wei-lun Lu, Alice Rezková
Moderator: Alfred Gerstl
Dancing with China (Panel discussion)
Some Czech politicians and businessmen develop intensive relations with China. Does cooperation with this expansionist state bring about risks or benefits for the whole of society? What kind of relationship with China is maintained by the EU or by Germany, our biggest neighbouring country? Can we tackle the incongruous situation in which democratic countries with declared respect towards human rights cultivate their relations with China based on their defined economic interests? What are these interests and are they transparent enough? And, on the other hand, what is the objective pursued by China? Can we fully understand the imperialist dimension of China’s cultural and economic activities abroad?
Guests: Haruna Honcoop, Tomáš Rezek, Vít Vojta, Clifford Coonan
Moderator: Richard Turcsányi
Inspiration Forum 2019 Guests
Bohdan Bláhovec
Miroslava Bobáková
Vojtěch Boháč
Ivo Bystřičan
Francisco Cantú
Jan Beránek ⇈back⇈
Co-founder of DUHA – Friends of the Earth, where in the 1990s he led an energetic campaign including events aimed at terminating work on the Temelín nuclear power plant. From 2003 to 2005, he led the Czech Green Party. He then began working for Greenpeace as a leader of their climate campaign in Eastern Europe, and later conducted a global campaign for nuclear energy and climate change from Amsterdam. As a specialist in radiation protection, he led the Greenpeace team of experts in Fukushima. He is now in charge of Greenpeace’s strategy for organizational development in Amsterdam.
→ Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act
→ An Unpleasant Young Voice: Video Footage of Speeches by Young Activists
Bohdan Bláhovec ⇈back⇈
Documentary filmmaker, FAMU graduate. His feature debut Show! won the Czech Film Critics Award. He is one of the pioneers of slam poetry in the Czech Republic. As an occasional actor, he collaborates with the Heroes Studio or the Chemical Theater. Hosted a TV show about literary events ASAP.
→ As Long As They’re Pigs: The Wide World of Wankers
Miroslava Bobáková ⇈back⇈
Graduate of ethnology at Comenius University in Bratislava. Bobáková focuses on issues relating to women’s rights, civil society development, particularly through the promotion and development of women’s rights organizations, women’s groups and initiatives, feminist philanthropy, support activism and active citizenship in a system of shared governance.
→ Women’s Voices
Vojtěch Boháč ⇈back⇈
Studied international relations and political science at Masaryk University in Brno. Boháč wrote for Právo, A2larm, The Moscow Times, and other media. Last year, he founded the reportage channel Voxpot with Aneta Václavíková, which focuses on global journalism. As a reporter, he worked in many armed conflict zones, including Ukraine, Afghanistan, and the Middle East.
→ Does Russia Divide Us?: Voxpot
Ivo Bystřičan ⇈back⇈
Independent producer, filmmaker, and lecturer. His main field of interest consists of documentary films with social and historical themes. He collaborates with Czech Television as programming director for documentaries, and also leads film workshops and lectures using various platforms. In addition to creative films, he has made dozens of television documentaries, many of them shot outside Europe. Bystřičan is currently focusing on international coproduction opportunities for documentary film.
→ Does Russia Divide Us?: Voxpot
Francisco Cantú ⇈back⇈
Former US border patrol agent, essayist and author of the book The Line Becomes a River in which he reflects on his experience of patrolling the US-Mexican border. Recipient of the 2019 Los Angeles Times Book Prize and a finalist for the Orwell Prize for political writing. He lives in the US/Mexican borderlands where he coordinates the Field Studies in Writing Program at the University of Arizona.
→ Walls and Freedom
Matej Cíbik ⇈back⇈
Slovak philosopher. He works in the Center for Ethics at the University of Pardubice and at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. He specializes in contemporary political and moral philosophy, especially liberalism, theories of justice, nationalism, and the role of gender in society. He studied in Prague, at the Central European University in Budapest, and at the London School of Economics. In 2017 AKAmedia (Bratislava) published his book Liberáli a tí druhí (Liberals and the Others).
→ The New Language of Post-Liberal Politic
Petr Cífka ⇈back⇈
Director, producer and author of the program The Wide World of Wankers (Branky, body, kokoti). He is the head of video content at Czech News Center. He was the author of the film My Freedom. He is also the author of blog 1000 things that piss me off and The Last Reason not to Kill myself, published in book and dramatized at the Palmovka Theater.
→ As Long As They’re Pigs: The Wide World of Wankers
Ondřej Císař ⇈back⇈
Sociologist and political scientist working at the Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences and the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. He studied at Masaryk University in Brno. He is the editor-in-chief of Sociological Review and the author of numerous publications. He focuses on issues relating to social movements and political mobilization in post-communist countries and the methodology of social sciences.
→ After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989?
Clifford Coonan ⇈back⇈
Berlin-based writer and journalist who specializes in the relationship between Europe and Asia. He is currently a China analyst and editor with Deutsche Welle. As foreign correspondent he spent more than 15 years in Beijing reporting for The Irish Times, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety.
→ Dancing with China
Magdaléna Daňková ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist; studied journalism and cultural management at Masaryk University in Brno and studied abroad in Bordeaux. Daňková has been working at Economia Publishers for five years.
→ The Doomed Generation Z
Tereza Dočkalová ⇈back⇈
She studied acting at the Janáček Conservatory, then worked in the Aréna Chamber Theatre, both in Ostrava. Since 2014 she has been a member of the ensemble at the Theatre Under Palmovka. There she can be seen in roles such as Dora in the Žítkovský Goddesses or Ibsen’s Nora. She is the recipient of two Thalia awards. Since 2018 she has been the host of the satirical program The Wide World of Wanker, where she comments on sexist remarks and the persistence of gender stereotypes.
→ Wankers Unplugged
→ As Long As They’re Pigs: The Wide World of Wankers
Veronika Dombrovská ⇈back⇈
She studied social anthropology and currently studies environmental science. Member of the Limity jsme my (We Are The Limits) movement and frequently collaborates with foreign collectives struggling for climate justice. She practices a lifestyle of voluntary modesty; she lives in a community house without waste, rationally handle water and minimize electricity consumption.
→ Energetic Screenwriting
Predrag Duronjić ⇈back⇈
Duronjic lived in Derveni, in the northern region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, until he was 14 years old. After the outbreak of war he moved around the countries of former Yugoslavia, and in 1995 emigrated to the Czech Republic, where he still lives. He is a carpenter by profession. He loves nature and the gifts it offers, in particular products derived from hops. He is also a musician and adheres to the life creed “Ako želiš pobijediti not smiješ izgubiti”.
→ Fear Among Us
Petr Fischer ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist. His work earned him the Rudolf Medek Prize and the Ferdinand Peroutka Prize. He was the main commentator for Lidové noviny, worked for the Czech BBC, and headed the both the cultural sections of Hospodářské noviny and Czech TV for three years His television program Konfrontace Petra Fischera aired on Czech Television. Between 2016 and 2018 he served as editor-in-chief of Czech Radio Vltava.
→ The New Language of Post-Liberal Politics
→ 15 Years of Cultural Transformation
Alisa Ganieva ⇈back⇈
A novelist originally from Caucasian Dagestan, now living in Moscow. She writes about the realities of contemporary Russia. Her novels The Mountain and the Wall and Bride and Groom attracted wide media attention and have been translated into many languages. In addition to writing, Ganieva also participates in civic activism and is a member of the board of the Moscow PEN Centre.
→ Identity in Motion
Alfred Gerstl ⇈back⇈
A specialist on International Relations in Southeast and East Asia. He works at the Department of Asian Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc. He has taught International Relations with a focus on (South)East Asia at universities in Australia, Germany, and Russia. His research interests include IR theories, regional cooperation in East Asia, traditional and human security, the South China Sea dispute and the Belt and Road Initiative.
→ China for the World, the World for China
Adéla Gjuričová ⇈back⇈
Professor at the Institute for Contemporary History of the Czech Academy of Sciences. She studies the political and social history of late socialism, the 1989 revolution, and the post-communist transformation. She focuses on the history of Czechoslovak parliamentarianism and psychiatry under socialism. Currently she leads a Czech team as part of the European project JPICH “European History Reloaded”, which addresses historical narratives in contemporary audiovisual culture.
→ After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989?
Zoe Gudović ⇈back⇈
Artist, performance artist, political activist, and cultural producer. Since the 1990s Gudovic has been active in the field of socially engaged theater and artistic practice. She is an expert on feminist art in public space, drawing attention to violence against women. She founded the group Queer Beograd, is a member of Women at Work, and is the presenter of the radio program Ženergija.
→ Women’s Voices
Tomáš Halík ⇈back⇈
Professor at the Charles University Faculty of Arts, member of the Presidium of the Czech Christian Academy, and rector of the Church of the Most Holy Saviour. His primary focus is on interfaith dialogue. During the communist regime, he played an active role in religious and cultural dissent. After 1989, he was a guest professor at, among others, Oxford, Cambridge, and Harvard. In 2014 he was awarded the Templeton Prize for his life’s work.
→ How to Transform Fear
Dominik Hána ⇈back⇈
Student of Faculty of Law at Masaryk University, an active supporter of the Pirate Party, and the face of Vyjdi ven (Go Out) in Jihlava. Hána gained experience with politics from student simulations, negotiations with European institutions established by organizations including the European Youth Parliament.
→ The New Language of Post-Liberal Politics
Sini Harkki ⇈back⇈
Finnish activist. Leads Greenpeace campaigns in Finland with a focus on climate change and forests. She has 20 years of experience as an environmental activist and campaigner. She worked to protect some of Europe’s northernmost forests and has also focused on climate solutions. She seeks cultural and social change leading to long-term sustainability of life on the planet.
→ Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act
→ An Unpleasant Young Voice: Video Footage of Speeches by Young Activists
Tomáš Holub ⇈back⇈
Holub studied theology and philosophy. He de- fended his doctoral dissertation on the topic of Christian ethics entitled “Ethical Aspects of the Fight Against Terrorism in Light of the Teachings of the ‘Just War’”. He was the first Czech military chaplain and from 1996 to 2006 the head chaplain of the Army of the Czech Republic. In 2016 he was named Bishop of the diocese of Pilsen. He enjoys sharing his office with the public, in particular through his Twitter account.
→ A Church for the Third Millennium
Haruna Honcoop ⇈back⇈
Czech-Japanese filmmaker. Hancoop studied Sinology at Charles University, where she focused on modern Chinese history and literature. She debuted with her experimental cross-media project Built To Last – Relics of Communist-Era Architecture, which took four years to develop and was filmed in 11 countries of the former Eastern Bloc. Her film True or False addresses Czech-Chinese relations. She is currently working on a documentary film entitled Olympic Half-Time in Beijing, Tokyo and Europe.
→ Dancing with China
Srećko Horvat ⇈back⇈
Born in 1983 in the former Yugoslavia, he is a philosopher and political activist. He has published more than 10 books, translated into 15 languages. His most recent books include Poetry from the Future, Radicality of Love, and What Does Europe Want? His articles have been published by leading media, such as The New York Times, The Guardian, Al Jazeera, and others. He is co-founder of DiEM25.
→ New and Better Worlds
Marek Hovorka ⇈back⇈
Director of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, founded in 1997. He studied documentary filmmaking at FAMU from 1998 to 2005. Hovorka is the co-founder of Doc Alliance, a network of European documentary film festivals, the film market East Silver, and DAFilms, an online distribution platform for documentary films.
→ Identity in Motion
→ New and Better Worlds
→ The Hope of the Forest
→ Walls and Freedom
Sophie Howe ⇈back⇈
The first Future Generations Commissioner for Wales since February 2016. Her role is to act as a guardian of interests of future generations in Wales and to intervene in the cases in which short-term gains of the policies under implementation may prove detrimental to long-term sustainability and public well-being. Howe is the world’s first future generations’ representative with statutory powers.
→ The Future Has a Veto Right!
Ivo Hucl ⇈back⇈
A poet, curator, cultural activist, and founder of the Nameless Teahouse in Šťáhlavy, Czech Republic. Prior to 1989 he worked in blue-collar jobs and his texts were published as samizdat literature. To date, he has published five collections of poems and two books of essays. Immediately after the 2010 publication of his first book, Island Poems, he won the Bohumil Polan literary prize. His works reflect long-term interest in Eastern culture, as does the spiritual character of his work.
→ I’ll Have Chinese
Marta Jalowska ⇈back⇈
Actress, performer, and feminist activist. Jalowska is co-founder of the feminist theater group Teraz Poliż and the Czarne Szmaty collective, which interprets Polish national symbols with a queer perspective. She manages the website Polish Queens and Queerness and has curated exhibitions about Polish female chocolate factory workers and a century of female suffrage.
→ Women’s Voices
Petra Jelínková ⇈back⇈
Translator, gender equality project coordinator, and activist. Jelínková is a member of the Limits Are Us movement where she focuses primarily on climate justice, the role of women in public space, gender-based violence, and LGBT issues. She experiments with linking politics, radical imagination, and ecofeminist art.
→ Women’s Voices
Jiří Jeřábek ⇈back⇈
As a member of Greenpeace, he is engaged in coal energy, climate change, and the involvement of the financial sector in environmental protection. In the past, he dealt with themes of transport, environmental economics, and renewable energy sources for environmental organizations in Poland, Germany, Belgium, and South Korea. He studied economics and environmentalism.
→ Energetic Screenwriting
Naďa Johanisová ⇈back⇈
Johanisová studied biology at Charles University, but soon changed her focus to the economic context of the environmental crisis, the criticism of mainstream economics, the theory of degrowth, and economic alternatives in theory and practice. She is the author of the books Economist Dissidents and Ecological Economics. She works in in Brno at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University. She worked long-term with the magazine Sedmá generace (Seventh Generation).
→ Will Technology Destroy Us or Save Us?
Miriam Kanioková ⇈back⇈
Studied sociology at Masaryk University in Brno and the Central European University. She is a PhD candidate in social work from the University of Ostrava. Kanioková is an expert on policymaking and participation at the Bratislava City Hall. She worked on a concept for social housing in a town in the Czech Highlands undergoing repopulation and a proposal for services for homeless people near the Brno railway station. She conducted an analysis of environmental and social determinants of health among the Roma in the Slovak Republic.
→ Breaking Free from 1989
Dariusz Karlowicz ⇈back⇈
Polish philosopher, publisher, columnist. Editor-in-chief of the philosophical magazine Teologia Polityczna which analyzes the relationships between philosophy, religion, and politics. President of St. Nicolas Foundation Lecturer of political philosophy in Warsaw University and also popularizes philosophy through the television.
→ The New Language of Post-Liberal Politics
Anna Kárníková ⇈back⇈
Director of DUHA – Friends of the Earth, where she is responsible for the management and strategic development of the organization. She represents DUHA when meeting with donors and partner organizations. She came to the non-profit sector came after working for the Office of the Government and the German Friedrich-Ebert- Stiftung Foundation. She earned her degree in European studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University and in Environmental Policy at the London School of Economics. She keeps bees with her husband in Prague’s Stromovka Park.
→ What to Really Do
Kapka Kassabová ⇈back⇈
Poet and writer of narrative non-fiction. Her books explore human geographies. Her latest, Border: A Journey to the Edge of Europe, won the British Academy’s Al-Rodhan Prize for Global Cultural Understanding and numerous other prizes. Her next book is To the Lake: a Balkan Journey of War and Peace. She grew up in Bulgaria, was educated in New Zealand, and now lives in the Highlands of Scotland.
→ Bringing Together the Divided
Jana Smiggels Kavková ⇈back⇈
She has been active in women’s rights since 2005, and from 2009 to 2017 she worked as the director of Forum 50%, an organization promoting greater representation of women in politics. She chaired a network of 35 women’s organizations, the Czech Women’s Lobby, which is also represented in the European Women’s Lobby. She is a member of the Czech Chamber of Gender Experts. Since September 2018 she has worked as an advocacy expert at the RUBIKON Center, which helps enforce systemic changes in the prison system.
→ Emancipation, Differently Each Time
Zuzana Kleknerová ⇈back⇈
Kleknerová studied political science and history in Hamburg and Prague. Before joining the Czech media, she worked for several publications in Germany. Until August 2016 she led the foreign section at Aktuálně.cz, where she also held the position of deputy editor-in-chief. She is the Head of Content at Economia, which publishes Hospodářské noviny and Respekt and operates the websites Aktuálně.cz and iHNed.cz.
→ Female Journalists
Martin Kohout ⇈back⇈
He studied sociology at Charles University and documentary filmmaking at FAMU. In his three feature films, he examined the post-socialist transformation of Czech society. The films deal with the privatization processes and the participation of citizens in the functioning of the previous regime. At present, along with documentary filmmaker Jan Rendl, Jan Strejcovský, and Jakub Wagner, he is working to get independent documentary films and other artistic projects off the ground.
→ 15 Years of Cultural Transformation
Fawzia Koofi ⇈back⇈
An Afghan parliamentary lawmaker, accomplished author, and outspoken advocate for the rights of women and children and democracy. She heads the parliament’s Women Affairs Commission. Koofi started her political career in 2001 when she began to promote a “Back To School” campaign targeted at the rights of women in Afghanistan to an edu- cation. By 2002 she took employment as a Child Protection Officer with UNICEF, and in 2005 she was elected as a parliamentary representative.
→ Emancipation, Differently Each Time
Karolína Koubová ⇈back⇈
Karolína Koubová studied theatre management at JAMU, Brno. She curated the conception of the DIOD theatre which opened in 2011. Besides further developing the DIOD theatre, she became the leader of the local political organisation Fórum Jihlava. In 2014, she became the city councillor and since 2018 she has served as a city mayor. She is part of the theatre ensemble De Facto Mimo and also the trainer of aerial silks.
→ Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism”
Zuzana Kříčková ⇈back⇈
At the age of fifteen, she began to experiment with drugs as an escape from her family conflicts. For twenty years, she went back and forth from the streets, a treatment facility, and her family. She transformed her drug addiction into workaholism. She is now primarily a social worker at a community centre for women and trans people. In addition to working at Sananim, which helps people trapped in drug addiction, she works on the Living Library project and is a member of the action group ASLIDO, which addresses the plight of the homeless.
→ Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism”
Jonathan Ledgard ⇈back⇈
Novelist and expert in the fields of technology, nature and development economics. For twenty years he worked as a foreign correspondent for The Economist, ten years of which was spent in Africa. As a director at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale in Lausanne, he created the concept of cargo drones and droneports in Africa. His latest novel Submergence was named Book of the Year by the New York Times. He is now a visiting professor at the Czech Technical University, where he explores the relationship between artificial intelligence and nature.
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Ondřej Liška ⇈back⇈
Studied political science and religious studies at Masaryk University in Brno. From 2007 to 2009 Liška was Minister of Education of the Czech Republic; between 2009 and 2014 he was chairman of the Green Party; currently he works in international philanthropy. He was the initiator of civic activities and worked with Czech and international NGOs in the fields of human rights, the environment, education and social inclusion.
→ Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act
Tereza Lízalová ⇈back⇈
Student in her final year of high school. Lízalová is interested in the issue of climate change and the environment in Jihlava and its surroundings. Her aim is to raise public interest in the matter and encourage policy action. Together with Jasmina Neuwirthová and Monika Freithová, she founded the Jihlava chapter of the Fridays For Future Movement. In Jihlava she organized a student strike and organized an environmental workshop for the public and governmental representatives.
→ Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act
Wei-lun Lu ⇈back⇈
Research assistant at the Center for Language Education and the Masaryk University Faculty of Arts in Brno. Lu received a doctorate in linguistics at the National University of Taiwan. He was a scholar at Rice University and a visiting researcher at the University of Leiden. He applies a discursive-analytical approach to the study of culture and language. He specializes in translations and cognitive linguistics.
→ China for the World, the World for China
Bill McKibben ⇈back⇈
An American author and environmentalist. His book The End of Nature (1989), regarded as the first educational book for a general audience about climate change, has appeared in 24 languages. He is a founder of 350.org, the first planet-wide, grass- roots climate change movement, which has organized more than 20,000 rallies around the world. He lives in the mountains above Lake Champlain with his wife, the writer Sue Halpern.
→ What to Really Do
Pavla Melková ⇈back⇈
Architect and expert in the field of conservation, planning, and urbanism. Melková lectures at the Czech Technical University and the University of Applied Arts, both in Prague, and is the author of several books, such as Bastion XXXI at Calvary, Experience Architecture and the Manual of Public Area Creation in Prague. In 2012 she established the Office of the Public Space at the Prague Institute of Planning and Development.
→ 15 Years of Cultural Transformation
Stanislav Mišák ⇈back⇈
Director of the ENET research centre at the Technical University of Ostrava. This university institute develops new methods and equipment to ensure energy self-sufficiency and raw material independence of the region or even the entire country. All this with effective utilization of waste management, the maximum share of local renewable energy sources, and encouraging accumulation of resources in managing the flow of energy in accordance with the energy concept of the state or the EU.
→ Energetic Screenwriting
Mia Nguyen ⇈back⇈
Nguyen was born in the Czech Republic, but when she was six years old, her father fell ill with cancer, and so the whole family returned to Vietnam. The father eventually succumbed to the disease, and she grew up with her younger brother and mother in Hanoi. She returned to the Czech Republic as a teenager, where she had to relearn Czech and how to fit in with her Czech peers.
→ The Doomed Generation Z
Aleš Palán ⇈back⇈
Journalist and writer. For his guide to the Bronx of Brno entitled Brnox, he received the Magnesia Litera Award along with Catherine Gray; he was nominated for the same award for his interviews with the Florian brothers Být dlužen za duši (Being Indebted for the Soul) and his novel Ratajský les (Rataj Forest). He received the Czech Literary Fund Award for his book of interviews with the Reynek brothers, Kdo chodí tmami (Who Walks in the Dark). His latest book, Jako v nebi, jenže jinak (Like Heaven, But Differently), features interviews with loners from Bohemia and Moravia.
→ A Wilderness of Solitude
Šárka Pálková ⇈back⇈
Pálková studied journalism and media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University in Prague. She has worked for the Týden.cz, Lidovky.cz, Czech Television, and iDNES news portals. Since the summer of 2018 she has been the head of domestic news at the online news portal Aktuálně.cz.
→ Female Journalists
Jakub Patočka ⇈back⇈
Patočka studied sociology at the Faculty of Arts at Masaryk University. In 1989 he was one of the founders of the DUHA – Friends of the Earth and for ten years was its chairman. In 1991 he founded and until 1999 headed the magazine Sedmá Generace (Seventh Generation). In 1999 he became editor-in-chief of Literární noviny, which he led for ten years. Since 2009, Patočka has been the editor-in-chief of the online newspaper Deník Referendum. He is the co-author of Žlutý baron (The Golden Baron), about Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš.
→ Female Journalists
Josef Pazderka ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist and reporter. He studied History at Charles University and International Development at Oxford Brookes University. He has worked at People in Need, and since 2005 has been with Czech Television. From 2006-10 Pazderka was a Czech Television correspondent in Russia, and between 2012 and 2016 he reported on Poland, the Baltics and Eastern Europe from Warsaw. From November 2016 he served as deputy editor-in-chief of Aktuálně.cz and became its editor-in-chief in April 2018.
→ A Church for the Third Millennium
→ How to Transform Fear
Jiří Pehe ⇈back⇈
Political scientist, novelist, and commentator. He is a regular commentator on politics in the Czech Republic and abroad. From 1988 to 1994 he worked as the head of the analytical department for Central Europe at the Research Institute of Radio Free Europe in Munich. Between 1997 and 1999 he was the director of the political department of the Office of President Vaclav Havel. Since 1999, he has been the director of New York University in Prague.
→ After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989?
Petra Procházková ⇈back⇈
Czech humanitarian worker and journalist. She became known primarily for her reporting from armed conflicts that arose after the collapse of the Soviet Union in the Caucasus region, including Chechnya, Abkhazia, and Nagorno-Karabakh. She worked for many years for Lidové noviny; currently she writes for the online news server Denik N. She has received numerous prestigious journalism awards for her work.
→ Female Journalists
Vojtěch Prokeš ⇈back⇈
Sociologist and co-founder of Behavio Labs. He studied sociology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, focusing on the field of corruption and social trust. Founded in 2015, Behavio Labs deals with the application of behavioral sciences in marketing research and other areas.
→ The Doomed Generation Z
Daniel Prokop ⇈back⇈
Sociologist focusing in particular on social inequality, poverty, and the transformations in public opinion. He is an expert in quantitative methods and introduced a number of innovations to Czech election surveys. He works at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. For a series of analytical articles about Czech society entitled An Introduction to Practical Sociology published in Salon Právo, he received the 2016 Journalists’ Award.
→ Will Technology Destroy Us or Save Us?
Marek Pros ⇈back⇈
Head of the lifestyle section at Aktuálně.cz; studied journalism and international relations at Masaryk University in Brno and spent several months at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland. Pros has been working at Economia Publishers for eight years.
→ The Doomed Generation Z
Ivana Průchová ⇈back⇈
She studied comparative history at the Central European University. She is the author of the Farce After Velvet, study of Czech post-1989 satire. She also dealt with the symbolic dimension of the opening of the first McDonald’s restaurant in Hungary in 1988. She participated in the creation of the Queuing for Change, documentary on social memory of the event.
→ A Bizarre Political Menu: Jindřich
Šídlo’s Happy Monday
Fatima Rahimi ⇈back⇈
Journalist at Deník Referendum, presenter of the show Hergot! (Damn It!) on Czech Radio’s Radio Wave, and a student at Charles University. She is originally from the city of Herat in Afghanistan, and has lived in the Czech Republic since 2000. In her journalistic work she focuses on social issues relating to housing, education, migration, and women’s rights. She works to inform readers about the situation in countries like Afghanistan using her knowledge of the language and the local environment.
→ Emancipation, Differently Each Time
Ondrej Remiáš ⇈back⇈
He graduated from Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra. Since 2009 he has overseen the marketing of the Pôtoň theater in Bátovce in the Levice district. In 2004–2013 he was Secretary of the Council for Unprofessional Theater in Slovakia and co-organized theater festival in Slovakia. Since August 1, 2015 he has been the director of the Horácké Theater in Jihlava.
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Filip Remunda ⇈back⇈
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 The Tadpole, the Rabbit, and the Holy Ghost.
→ Identity in Motion
→ New and Better Worlds
→ The Hope of the Forest
→ Walls and Freedom
Ivona Novoměstská Remundová ⇈back⇈
She studied political science at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University in Prague. She has been actively involved in the non-profit sector for a long time (Amnesty International CR, the Czech Republic against Poverty campaign, the No Bases Initiative). Since April 2017, she works at the Institute of Documentary Film as one of the coordinators of the KineDok project and collaborates on documentary screenplays.
→ An Unpleasant Young Voice: Video Footage of Speeches by Young Activists
Tomáš Rezek ⇈back⇈
Analyst at the Research Center of the Association for International Affairs specializing in cyber security. He studied international commerce and commercial communications at the University of Economics in Prague. As part of his research he examined the cyber potential of world powers and security incidents affecting international relations. He now works as the manager of a department providing secure data services to more than ten banks abroad.
→ Dancing with China
Alice Rezková ⇈back⇈
A graduate in International European Studies and Diplomacy at the University of Economics in Prague, majoring in European Economic Integration. She completed a scholarship program at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology focusing on international trade and political economic strategies of Southeast Asian countries. She also did an internship at the China Africa Business Council in Beijing. She was led the Association for International Affairs think tank from 2007 to 2010. Currently, she focuses on international trade themes, economic diplomacy, innovation, and the sharing economy.
→ China for the World, the World for China
Stein Ringen ⇈back⇈
Stein Ringen is a Norewegian political scientist and an authority on states, governance and democracy. He has published on topics ranging from the Scandinavian welfare state via constitutional matters in Britain and the US to dictatorship in China, and on inequality, poverty, income distribution, public policy and comparative government. His journalism has appeared in the Financial Times, The Washington Post, The South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), ChinaFile (New York). El Pais (Madrid), and elsewhere.
→ China for the World, the World for China
Jan Romportl ⇈back⇈
Studied cybernetics and artificial intelligence at the Faculty of Applied Sciences of the University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and the philosophy of science at the Faculty of Philosophy of the same university, where he later worked as a researcher and educator. Since 2015, he has been building an analytical team intensively focused on the use and development of advanced machine learning in the field of telecommunication data. He also focuses on researching the safety of AI.
→ Will Technology Destroy Us or Save Us?
Eamon Ryan ⇈back⇈
Ryan has held the post of chairman of the Irish Green Party since 2011. He first won elective office in 2002 and has since defended his mandate several times. Between 2007 and 2011 he was minister of communications and energy. During his tenure, Ireland doubled its wind power capacity. The share of renewable energy at the end of his tenure was 17% of total consumption.
→ Don’t Stand By and Watch – Act
Hana Řičicová ⇈back⇈
Currently studying media. At Radio Wave, she works as a project manager and host of the morning program as well as the host of the program Volej [Call]. She is currently working on the projects Svatebky [Wedding Invitations] and Po sametu [After the Velvet].
→ After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989?
Bence Ságvári ⇈back⇈
Bence Ságvári is a Hungarian sociologist and data scientist. Senior research fellow at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Centre for Social Sciences. From 2011, he is the Hungarian national coordinator for the European Social Survey, one of the largest cross-national comparative social surveys in the world. His work includes research on social values and attitudes; survey methodology; social network analysis; and Big Data.
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Isabella Salton ⇈back⇈
Born in São Paulo – Brazil, Isabella Salton has been the executive director of Instituto Terra for the past 3 years. She holds over twenty-five years of experience within large Brazilian companies, in the areas of marketing, strategy, and structuring new projects and is currently bringing a vision to Instituto Terra, of how an environmental NGO can manage its economic feasibility challenges to restore vast and extremely devastated areas of the Atlantic Forest.
→ The Hope of the Forest
Martin Sedlák ⇈back⇈
Program Director of the Association of the Modern Energy Industry, an umbrella platform of associations in the fields of renewable energy, energy storage, smart grids, energy services, and cogeneration. He co-founded the Alliance for Energy Self-Sufficiency, an independent association addressing the development of the Czech and European energy industry. He is also a member of a project team focusing on the role of the energy industry in a circular economy.
→ Energetic Screenwriting
Kateřina Smejkalová ⇈back⇈
Smejkalová received her degree in Germanic studies and political science from the University of Bochum, Germany. Since 2014 she has worked as a researcher for the Czech representation at the German Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung. Smejkalová focuses on topics related to work, the sociology of technological development, gender issues, and also comments on social and political events in Germany. In addition to journalism, she also acts as an external consultant for the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs on topics relating to the digitalization of work.
→ Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism”
→ The Future Has a Veto Right!
Jan Sokol ⇈back⇈
Philosopher and signatory of Charter 77. He studies phenomenology, history of religion, philosophical anthropology, and ethics. He collaborated on an ecumenical translation of the Bible, translated a number of philosophical books, and publishes in professional journals. Since 1991 he has taught philosophy at Charles University; from 2000 to 2007 he was the first dean of the university’s Faculty of Humanities.
→ The Future Has a Veto Right!
Draško Stojčević ⇈back⇈
Draško Stojčević was born in 1975 in Banja Luka. After co-founding the Genesis creative team, he underwent a training for the design and production of the one-minute movies for young people. He produced a great number of these across Bosnia and Herzegovina in which he enlivened in a number of performances and TV serials. Pečurko, [the Mushroom Man] in The Game of Forest Dwarfs and the deminer in the The Strange Trial account for some of his roles.
→ Fear Among Us
Vítek Svoboda ⇈back⇈
Editor, moderator and editor of Radio Wave social networking. He is one of the authors of a series of reports and interviews called Po Sametu [After the Velvet] which will be broadcast on Radio Wave and published on their website in fall 2019. The series maps post-communist Czech history through the eyes of today’s young generation. He likes leeks, reading, Lana Del Rey, and listening to the conversations of others in public transport.
→ After Velvet: How to Interpret Czech History Since 1989?
Ivana Svobodová ⇈back⇈
Editor of the weekly Respekt. In her reporting, she focuses on events in small towns and villages of the Czech Republic. She also deals with issues of disinformation and hate on the internet. Svobodová researched Czech attacker Jaromír Balda, who in June and July 2017 felled trees onto train tracks and falsely claimed that it was the work of Islamic terrorists. Prior to Respekt, she worked at Týden magazine and at the daily Mladá Fronta DNES.
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Adam Svozil ⇈back⇈
He studied directing at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He is the recipient of the Mark Ravenhill Award for his production of The Ritual Slaughter of Gorge Mastromas. In addition to work on the radio, he has worked with many theatres, among others, are Studio hrdinů, Meet Factory, Aréna Chamber Theatre and the Theatre on the Balustrade. His production of Brief Interviews with Hideous Men, based on short stories by David Foster Wallace, is currently playing in the latter.
→ 15 Years of Cultural Transformation
Kateřina Šafaříková ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist. Šafaříková has long worked as an editor at Respekt and spent five years as a reporter for Lidové noviny in Brussels. Her long-term focus is on Czech foreign policy, the European Union, and topics with a social dimension. She was voted one of the ten best reporters in Brussels from 2004 to 2009 by the Foreign Press Association. In 2017 she received the Karel Havlíček Borovský Award for Journalism.
→ Female Journalists
Kirill Ščeblykin ⇈back⇈
Student of law and East European Studies at Charles University. He spent part of his studies in Heidelberg through the Erasmus program. He works at Deník N as foreign news editor. Previously, he worked as an editor of The Student Times. He and his colleague Filip Zajíček received an award from the Open Society Fund for the best interview of 2016 in the category of written journalism for their interview with Minister of Finance (now Prime Minister) Andrej Babiš.
→ Breaking Free from 1989
Jindřich Šídlo ⇈back⇈
Journalist and political analyst; studied journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University. Šídlo has been active in the media since 1992. He worked at Český deník, Respekt, MF DNES, Hospodářské noviny, and Czech Television. Since September 2016 he has been working at Seznam Zprávy and TV Seznam, where he presents his satirical program Happy Monday. In 2018, he won two Křišťálová Lupa awards for the program.
→ A Bizarre Political Menu: Jindřich
Šídlo’s Happy Monday
Bára Šichanová ⇈back⇈
Editor and presenter at Radio Wave. She hosts a streamed broadcast as well as a show about intimacy and relationships called Kvér (Rifle). In addition, she acts a moderator at debates, conferences, and film premieres. She has long worked with the One World festival, the Elpida and Nesehnutí organizations, Paseka Publishers, and the Prague Pride festival. She plays tennis competitively and is an enthusiastic fan, she runs, supports the USK Praha basketball team, reads, and listens to music and podcasts.
→ Breaking Free from 1989
Kateřina Šimáčková ⇈back⇈
Kateřina Šimáčková worked as an attorney for fifteen years. Subsequently, she was appointed judge at the Supreme Administrative Court of the Czech Republic. Since 2013, she serves as a judge at the Constitutional Court of the Czech Republic. Besides that, she teaches constitutional law at the Faculty of Law of Masaryk University. She often participates in public debate by giving interviews and public lectures. Her current focus is the relationship between law and gender.
→ Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism”
Martin M. Šimečka ⇈back⇈
After Velvet Revolution, a samizdat writer Martin M. Šimečka founded and headed the Archa publishing house in Slovakia (1990-1996). He worked as the editor-in-chief of the weekly Domino fórum (1997-1999) and the daily SME (1999-2006). He subsequently headed the Czech weekly Respekt (2006-2008) and in 2016 he worked there as an editor. He is the editor and head of the editorial board of the Slovak daily Denník N.
→ Breaking Free from 1989
Paulína Tabery ⇈back⇈
Sociologist focusing on the process of formation and change in public opinion, interpersonal and media communication and public opinion, and political communication. Tabery works at the Institute of Sociology at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and the Center for Public Opinion Research.
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Jonathan Terra ⇈back⇈
Political scientist, security analyst, strategic communication specialist, documentary film producer, media commentator, former diplomat. He has spent the past 30 years dealing with international and domestic political change after the collapse of communism. The rise of “illiberal politics” has led him to focus on information warfare as an element of contemporary politics. He recently completed a project for NATO on Russian hybrid influence in the Czech Republic. He also previously worked in strategic communications for the US State Department in Afghanistan.
→ The Future Has a Veto Right!
Sonam Tsering ⇈back⇈
As a little boy, he was recognized by the Dalai Lama as a reincarnation of a prominent Tibetan teacher. He started the path of Buddhist education in the tradition monastery in Dehradun. He left the monastery when he was nineteen to put his knowledge of Buddhism into practice in everyday life. He has lived in the Czech Republic since 2002. In February 2019 he founded a pop-up project called Café Tibet, which offers Tibetan food and is also the venue for lectures on Tibetan culture.
→ A Trip to the City
Richard Turcsányi ⇈back⇈
Deputy Director of the Bratislava Institute of Asian Studies and Director of the Strategic Policy Institute. At Masaryk University he received his doctorate in international relations. In the past, he took part in long-term research stays at the Universities of Toronto and Beijing and at the National Chengchi University in Taipei. Turcsányi focuses on Central Europe’s relations with East Asia and Chinese foreign policy.
→ Dancing with China
Saša Uhlová ⇈back⇈
Saša Uhlová graduated from Romani studies and afterwards conducted field research in the areas characterised by social exclusion. She was a teacher at the Romani Social School in Kolín for four years. Since then, she has been working as a journalist. In 2017, she investigated the labour conditions of unskilled workers in low-income professions in Czech Republic. As an outcome, she wrote a series of reports in A2larm and was the main protagonist of Apolena Rychlíková’s documentary The Limits of Work.
→ Emancipation, Differently Each Time
Magda Vašáryová ⇈back⇈
Slovak diplomat, former member of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, and former actress. Czechoslovak Ambassador to Austria and Ambassador of the Slovak Republic to Poland (2000–2005). Founder and Head of the Board of the NGO Via Cultura, founder of the Institute for cultural policies and chairwoman of the oldest Slovak women’s association Živena.
→ Central Europe and the Four-Letter Word “Feminism”
Ljubica Vašić ⇈back⇈
Born in 1975 in Banja Luka. He became a member of Genesis project in 1996 and since then he has worked on the implementation of a large number of TV serials. Children and young people easily recognize him since he embodied characters such as Professor Mudrić [Professor Brainy] from Whose Are the Angels or Borko [The Pine Man] from The Game of Forest Dwarfs.
→ Fear Among Us
Martin Veselovský ⇈back⇈
He started his career in media in 1992 at Voice of America and later worked for Evropa 2 radio. He later hosted the SOS show on TV Prima and Áčko and Sedmička programs on TV Nova. He worked for Czech public radio from 2000 to 2014. He also hosted Události, komentáře, the flagship program of the public channel ČT24, from 2008 to 2014. After leaving ČT24, he and Daniela Drtinová started the internet TV project DVTV.
→ A Church for the Third Millennium
Petr Vizina ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist and musician and a graduate from Charles University, Catholic Theological Faculty. He currently heads the culture news department of Czech TV. In the past he wrote articles for Lidové noviny, Hospodářské noviny, Respekt and Reflex. He also played drums in the bands Otcovy děti, Traband a Šarközi.
→ Female Journalists
Zbyněk Vlasák ⇈back⇈
Vlasák studied journalism and media studies at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, where he teaches today. Since 2009 he has been the editor-in-chief of Salon, the literary and cultural supplement to the daily Právo. He edited the anthologies Milionový časy, Povídky Pro Adru and Divočina. He has long worked with the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and is a member of the Association of Czech Film Critics.
→ Will Technology Destroy Us or Save Us?
Zuzana Vlasatá ⇈back⇈
Czech journalist, reporter for the online news server Deník Referendum. She also collaborates with the socio-ecological magazine Seventh Generation. She co-authored a biography of Czech prime minister Andrej Babiš entitled Žlutý baron (Yellow Baron), in which she exmines his business empire and business interests. She earned her degrees in media studies and environmental studies at the Faculty of Social Studies at Masaryk University in Brno.
→ Energetic Screenwriting
Tomáš Vocelka ⇈back⇈
Journalist and photographer, winner of the Czech Press Photo 2018 in the category Prague’s Changes. Vocelka has worked at Aktuálně.cz as editor and photographer in the Magazine section since September 2016. He began working in media shortly after 1989 at the North Moravian news weekly Region. Between 2000 and 2016 he worked at MF DNES in the position of lead editor, deputy editor-in-chief, and head of the Weekend supplement. As a photographer, he is the recipient of numerous international awards.
→ The Doomed Generation Z
Vít Vojta ⇈back⇈
Vojta studied Sinology, ethnology, and law. He is a lecturer and consultant in intercultural management, marketing, and communication with Chinese partners and Chinese inbound tourism. As an expert on the Chinese language and environment, he interprets at high-level government meetings and visits. In 2019 he founded the Sinoskop Institute with the goal of presenting a balanced contribution to the debate on China.
→ Dancing with China
Christian Weißgerber ⇈back⇈
Weißgerber was a leading figure of the German militant Neo-Nazi scene until 2010, when he droped out and deradicalized. Since 2012, he has been working in the line of prevention and elucidation of racist and nationalistic politics at schools, universities and conferences. He studied Philosophy and Cultural Studies in Jena, Berlin and Paris and is the author of the book Mein Vaterland! Warum ich ein Neonazi war (My Fatherland! Why I Was a Neonazi).
→ How to Deal with the Politics of Fear
Filip Zajíček ⇈back⇈
Zajíček shared the position of editor-in-chief of the student site The Student Times with Kirill Ščeblykin. Together they received an award from the Open Society Fund for the best interview of 2016 in the category of written journalism for their interview with Minister of Finance (now Prime Minister) Andrej Babiš. Until recently, he was editor of new projects in the Internet TV DVTV. He now works as the editor of the Deník N Friday supplement.
→ Breaking Free from 1989
Juraj Zamkovský ⇈back⇈
He has been active within the environmental movement since the late 1980s. He participated in the work of the headquarters of Public Against Violence. In 1993 he founded the civic association Friends of the Earth – Center to Support Activism (CEPA) and has since led programs that support civic activities, help communities threatened by commercial interests, and popularize the theme of sustainable development. Today he runs a program striving for energy self-sufficiency in the Poľana region.
→ What to Really Do
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