22.10.2020 24th Ji.hlava IDFF kicks-off in five days – this year happening online! The programme will offer over 270 films, Q&As, Inspiration Forum discussions and a programme for children. The festival will open with A New Shift by Jindřich Andrš, features tributes to Roberto Minervini and Karel Vachek and the audience will be treated to a preview of a documentary about Milan Kundera.
“Even though we are going online, we want to bring Ji.hlava’s unique atmosphere to our audience who will be able to join discussions with filmmakers as well as during the Inspiration Forum,” says festival director Marek Hovorka. “To keep Ji.hlava rolling, we will be streaming live from our Lighthouse studio on the Jihlava’s main square. From morning till night, we will bring information about the current events: interesting films and discussions, and the filmmakers themselves will be talking about their work,” continues Marek Hovorka. The live service will include both the discussion platform Inspiration Forum and the programme Ji.hlava for Kids. “The film world found itself in an unprecedented situation. Most of the festivals were cancelled or truncated while some fully adapted to the online environment. This is also case of the 24th edition of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival and it is clear that this will require many changes and a different approach from past editions. The current and future development will show how we all are able to join forces and keep the Czech film industry alive. And not only alive but also competitive in the upcoming years,” says Helena Bezděk Fraňková, director of the Czech Film Fund, the partner of the Lighthouse.
This year’s exceptional edition will open with a world premiere of a film by Jindřich Andrš called A New Shift. “The director follows up on his previous film The Last Shift of Thomas Hisem, screened at Ji.hlava two years ago,” says Hovorka. The time-lapse documentary A New Shift follows the main protagonist who has lost his job and retrains as a programmer. “The film was shot over the course of almost four years. We started shooting intensively in 2017, just before the closure of the Paskov coal mine. This was the initiation moment of our story: Thomas’s mine where he had worked his whole life closed down and he had to decide what to do next,” says the director about his film. “Thomas made an impression on me immediately at the programming course because he was very straightforward like a typical miner, and charismatic,” he adds. A New Shift will be released in cinemas after the festival.
14.10.2020 The 24th Ji.hlava IDFF kicks-off in two weeks! Despite the recent forced shift of the event to digital space, the full-fledged festival programme with over 59 world and 26 international premieres remains. What can the viewers look forward to?
We would like to inform you that the programme of the 24th Ji.hlava IDFF has been announced today at a press conference in Prague.
The festival programme features over 220 titles, including the latest of Czech and international documentary crop, South Korean film retrospective, a comprehensive showcase of Afro-American docs as well as new documentaries focusing on topics that are more than relevant these days: coronavirus pandemic, China and Hong Kong, climate change, and films asking the fundamental question – where is our home?
While some of the films will be geo-blocked for the viewers in the Czech Republic only, the festival will offer to audiences worlwide streaming of more than 80 World, international or European premieres from the Ji.hlava’s competition sections. The streaming will be made in cooperation with leading European VOD portal DAFilms.com.
You can now browse all competition and non-competition sections and films online.
The 24th Ji.hlava IDFF will take place online between October 27 and November 8, 2020.
More information is available at www.ji-hlava.com and at the festival’s Facebook and Instagram. Contact us (trailers, stills, photos, interviews) at Ji.hlava IDFF Press service / pressservice@ji-hlava.cz
06.10.2020 What will be the source of this year’s inspiration and which issues will be discussed at Ji.hlava? The potential of Africa, feeding the humankind, influence of intelligent technology, and the position of women in religion. What will happen if we stop using the “crisis narrative”? The 10th Inspiration Forum will take place as part of the 24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival on October 27 – November 1.
The Inspiration Forum will celebrate 10 years since its first edition. Six major topics will be presented and discussed over the course of six festival days. “The Inspiration Forum as well as the whole Ji.hlava Festival is getting ready for its upcoming edition that will happen physically on-site. Personal meetings are irreplaceable as an inspiration, and films are primarily made for the big screen. However, this can only happen if safe environment is guaranteed by the festival organizers,” says Marek Hovorka, the Director of Ji.hlava IDFF, who continues: “Digital technology will connect the audience and guests of the Inspiration Forum with speakers who cannot join the discussions directly in Czechia due the pandemic. Of course, we expect fewer visitors, but the situation can also be seen from a different angle: this year, Ji.hlava will offer enough seats to watch films and enjoy discussions which were too packed in the previous years. Consequently, visitors can look forward to a unique and concentrated experience, pure inspiration.”
