Special Event

In this partly autobiographical documentary, the director traces the history of Generation 90, a group of Slovak filmmakers who studied in the 1990s. Kuboš conducts interviews with his contemporaries, including Jaroslav Vojtek, Peter Kerekes, and Zuzana Piussi, which he intersperses with their work, while at the same time placing both in a broader cultural and political history. A playfulness and respect for documentary film as such shines through the film.“Generation 90 is now the dominant one, I think it co-determines not only the face of Slovak cinema but also the face of documentary filmmaking. I can't imagine a bigger break, a jump into the water. Something like that doesn't happen often historically.” — Pavel Branko

Young artists apply to the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague hoping that by studying at the prestigious school they will achieve fame, recognition, and the satisfaction of self-expression. The observational documentary follows the admissions process of three studios headed by strong art figures who attempt to get authentic expression out of the applicants instead of empty verbiage. However, it is not only the teachers and young artists who share their views on contemporary art but also the studio staff and the peculiar porters. In the process, the kaleidoscope of debates and opinions reveals the difficulty judging artistic creation as well as the changing power mechanisms in educational institutions. “Will the world be a better place if you paint?”

In 2013–2014, Evgeny Afineevsky captured the protests of Ukrainians against the authoritarian regime of Viktor Yanukovych which lasted for several months. Continuing the event of the emotional Winter on Fire documentary, the director has filmed another testimony to the courage and unity of the Ukrainian people. After summarizing the eight turbulent years that followed the Euromaidan, the director focuses on the initial stage of the Russian invasion to Ukraine in February 2022. The stories of civilians, soldiers, journalists, doctors as well as foreign volunteers paint a horrific picture of a humanitarian catastrophe but also of extraordinary resilience. Unsettling shots of destroyed cities and dismembered bodies are accompanied by a voiceover by Helen Mirren.“I’m trying to express the voices of innocent people. Soldiers, doctors, mothers, children, journalists, priests, and people under siege. I want leaders to witness this with their own eyes. You can visit a broken building, but if you have no connection to the people that lived inside it, why would you care?” — Evgeny Afineevsky---Source: https://deadline.com/2022/09/evgeny-afineevsky-interview-freedom-on-fire-venice-film-festival-russia-ukraine-conflict-1235108759/

This multi-layered portrait of Jean-Luc Godard shows the world of one of the pioneers of the French New Wave as a laboratory of ideas. In the maze of his parallel lives, we meet him as a star who burst into the world of film, as a left-wing radical and advocate of Maoism, and as an experimenter with new technologies through which he reinvents the medium of film. Despite the hectic activity of the director, who made over 140 films, Godard’s portrait has a subtly nostalgic tone. Part of his world is solitude, which, according to documentary filmmaker Cyril Leuthy, is necessary to create a work of art. “In all my films, there is something about loneliness. It is something that interests me because perhaps I feel it too. Perhaps it is a good way to reach and touch the audience… to be an artist, you need loneliness.” ---Source: https://businessdoceurope.com/venice-ff-godard-seul-le-cinema-by-cyril-leuthy/ 

According to Jan Švankmajer, museum exhibits are ordered rationally, while the Kunstcamera is an irrational showcase. This holds true also for this film with which the leading Czech surrealist personality decides to finish his cinema career and his close cooperation with the producer Jaromír Kallista. Very playfully, he approaches works of art, curiosities and everyday objects that he and his wife Eva had assembled over many decades inside a former Renaissance granary in the Bohemian village of Horní Staňkov. These immobile objects come to life thanks to Švankmajer’s traditional methods of composition and Antonio Vivaldi’s music. Dalí, Štýrský, Toyen, dog’s food bowl and the creaking floor all create an organic whole, stirring imagination and creative passion.“I have always been fascinated by the image of Rudolph II’s Kunstcamera. Not necessarily by the real art treasures included in the Emperor’s collection, but by the non-artistic, sometimes even lowly portions of objects, artefacts and other curiosities that used to be its part.” Jan Švankmajer---Source: https://program.lfs.cz/detail/?film=The-Kunstcamera

The film by the Armenian genius Artavazd Peleshian, made after 27 years of creative silence, is a complex epic treating the spectacular and destructive force of nature. The film is composed of black-and-white images depicting major vicious natural phenomena: floods, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions or tornadoes. At times very terrifying pictures are accompanied by classic symphonic or opera soundtracks. The film in its entirety resembles a monumental art mosaic characteristic of Peleshian’s famed distant editing method. Using the latter film technique, this poetic work confronts its viewers with the inferiority of humankind, dismantling our illusions about us being able to command nature.“Sometimes people say that film is a synthesis of other art forms; I don’t think that’s true. In my view, it started at the Tower of Babel, where the division into different languages began. For technical reasons it first appeared after the other art forms, but in its nature, it precedes them. I try to make pure cinema, owing nothing to the other arts. I look for a setting that may create an emotional magnetic field around it.” — Artavazd Peleshian---Source: https://photogenie.be/cinema-has-never-been-modern-artavazd-pelechians-nature/

A sarcastic report on living in an enclosed reservation behind the iron curtain. Against the backdrop of a first-plan confrontation between natives and inquisitive strangers, Hanák, in a sequence of amusing visual and audio situations, uncovers the weariness of a socialist society tired of building “brighter tomorrows”.

They live in poverty, away from civilization and in their own bubbles. We might call them weirdoes, outcasts, or idealists. Depicted in this kaleidoscopic portrait are nine people living at world's end in remote Tatra villages. However, the series of lyrical, black-and-white images of solitude, backwardness, and old age do not evoke feelings of sadness or compassion, but rather a celebration of resilience, vitality, and a desire for life above all else. Inspired by Slovak artist Martin Martinček's photographic series, the documentary never graced the screens of Czechoslovak cinemas due to its painting an “unflattering” image of Slovakia. 17 years after its completion, it was finally screened both at home and abroad to great critical acclaim.“In the previous regime, the hardest thing to do was to push through what everyone already knew but were not allowed to talk about. There is a desire for freedom embedded in my films' characters. Maybe that's why my films were banned.” — Dušan Hanák---Source: http://www.filmsk.sk/cislo/nove-cislo-5-2018/rozhovor

This black and white film is a wordless meditation on death, memories, and their absence. The Währinger Jewish cemetery is bathed in sunlight and permeated by the singing of birds. Photos of unknown people, which the director discovered at a flea market and transferred from glass negatives to film stock, capture the past in its boundless anonymity. The film also recalls the genocide that attempted to erase Jewish culture from human memory.“In honor of refugees past, present and future, facing the loss of life, loved ones, language, and homeland, in kindred empathy with their children, and in thanks to all those who offer compassionate sanctuary.” (Eve Heller)---Source: https://www.sixpackfilm.com/en/catalogue/2772/