The 18th edition of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival was held 23–28 October 2014. As in the past, the festival was organized by JSAF, o. s. The 19th annual festival will take place on 27 October – 1 November 2015.
Over the course of its existence, the Jihlava festival has become an indispensable Czech and international documentary event, and has actively contributed to the promotion and distribution of documentary films. The Jihlava festival is a co-founder and member of the prestigious union of seven important European documentary festivals, Doc Alliance.
“This year’s festival was unique in many ways. The exceptional program included dozens of valued guests and was seen by thousands and thousands of viewers. We broke another audience record and literally reached the limits of the festival cinemas, with dozens and even hundreds of people with festival passes not making it into all the screenings,” says festival director Marek Hovorka. “This is a big challenge for us for next year, and raises the question whether Jihlava might be able to offer one more mid-sized festival venue.”
The 2014 JIHLAVA IDFF IN NUMBERS
̵ The Jihlava festival was attended by 3,420 accredited guests, including 714 film professionals, 128 festival guests and 183 journalists
̵ the festival screenings were attended by a total of more than 37,000 viewers, and we sold some 2,200 individual tickets
̵ the festival was organized with help from 134 volunteers
̵ the eighth annual Media and Documentary seminar was attended by 72 students
̵ the festival showed 266 films of all lengths out of a total 2,800 submitted films
̵ the festival films came from 42 countries around the world
̵ 57 films were shown as world, international, or European premieres
̵ the Czech Joy competition section for Czech documentaries showed 14 films
̵ the Opus Bonum international competition section featured 16 films
̵ the Between the Seas competition for the best documentary from Central and Eastern Europe screened 16 films
̵ the Fascinations competition section showed 32 short films
̵ this was the fourth year that the festival teamed up with Czech Radio to present a section on radio documentaries
The festival’s closing ceremony was recorded by Czech Television, and was later broadcast on the ČT Art channel.
CENTER FOR DOCUMENTARY FILM
The Center for Documentary Film, located in Jihlava’s renovated Dukla Cinema, began its activities at the 18th Jihlava IDFF. The educational research center will organize lecture series and thematic projections for students, seniors, and the general public. The CDF hopes to become a regular destination for school field trips while increasing the public’s literacy in the field of audiovisual arts. The center’s library possesses more than a thousand books on the theory, history, and critical analysis of media and film, and a well-organized videotheque of hundreds of documentary films for in-library viewing.
ECHOES OF JIHLAVA
The festival is also organizing extensive post-festival screenings entitled Echoes of Jihlava, to be held at more than six locations in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Just eight days after the country’s largest documentary festival comes to an end, it moves to other towns. Audiences in Olomouc, Liberec, Prague, Bratislava, Žilina and Brno will thus have a chance to see some of the films that were shown at this year’s festival: The Gospel According to Brabenec, Pavel Wonka Commits to Cooperate, Mat Goc, Four Days at Hotel Pavouk, František of His Own Kind and Lets Block.
A complete program can be found online at:
www.dokument-festival.cz/ozveny
CZECH JOY IN CZECH CINEMAS
In November, several other documentaries fr0om Jihlava will make their way into Czech cinemas as part of the Czech Joy in Czech Cinemas project. Five new documentary films will go on a tour of Czech theaters, with the first screenings held in November at Prague’s Lucerna and Atlas cinemas. The films are this year’s festival opener, Alice Nellis’s Auditioning for Parenthood, Jaroslav Kratochvíl’s visually suspenseful Long Live Hunting!, and Jiří Stejskal’s My Home, which explores the fate of a Ukrainian farm surrounded by a modern high-rise housing estate. Also on the list are this year’s winning film, Martin Dušek’s Into the Clouds We Gaze, and David Čálek’s documentary detective story Pirating Pirates about a new Somali “business”.
Czech Joy in Czech Cinemas was born in 2011 as a collaborative effort between the Jihlava IDFF and the Verbascum Imago distribution company. “The first year of Czech Joy in Czech Cinemas showed what a great idea it was. The number of people who saw those five films showed other distributors and theater-owners that documentaries belong into theaters,” said festival director Marek Hovorka.
More information on the project and on the various films can be found at www.ceskaradost.cz.
FROM THE FESTIVAL
“Technology is our fate, and I ask you to stand up to fate,” said Godfrey Reggio during his master class. In fact, his entire lecture focused on technology and its impacts.
“In today’s era, the underground is maybe even more important than before. We are not living in good times,” says Vratislav Brabenec, the main protagonist of The Gospel According to Brabenec, in remembering the words of his late friend Ivan Martin Jirous. The premiere of Miroslav Janek’s latest film was very popular among audiences.
“I would like to quote Victor Erice, who remarked in Locarno that we all share a common language, the language of cinema. We come from different countries and don’t understand each other, but we can speak with each other through film,” said Jaime Rosales at one of the regular breakfasts with the filmmaker involved in “The Complete Letters” film correspondence project.
“When I make my films, I don’t usually see a specific person beyond the images that I create. This is the first time that I experience such a truly unique relationship,” Chinese documentarian Wang Bing – who corresponded with Rosales – said about the unique nature of “The Complete Letters”.
“Russia today is far better at repressing revolution than in creating it. I always very meticulously and conceptually plan the time and place for my performances, but during the actual event I allow the authorities to interfere and, through their actions, to demonstrate the mechanisms of power. In this way, they complete the artistic act,” Petr Pavlensky said in describing his engaged art during a lecture held as part of the Inspiration Forum.
THE AWARDS
CZECH JOY
Best Czech documentary film of 2014
The jury gave the award to Martin Dušek’s Into the Clouds We Gaze (Czech Republic, 2014).
Jury statement:
“Martin Dušek pulls the viewer into the subculture of young people living empty lives in northern Bohemia; their view of responsibility and their own lives are presented authentically and with empathy. The director has managed to bring together his entire filmmaking team with a distinct sense for the language of film. The rejection of a greater level of a clear directorial hand thus produced a convincing outcome.”
Summary of winning film:
A melancholy portrait of a fan of auto tuning, the film is also a metaphor for the social situation in northern Bohemia. In a problematic region lacking interpersonal ties, a homemade car part can be of more meaning than one might think. The film’s observational format is based on visually compelling and expressive images.
The jury awarded honorable mention to Martina Malinová’s Lets Block (Czech Republic, 2014), explaining its decision as follows:
“With a great deal of personal engagement, director Martina Malinová has created a valuable report on the meaningfulness and futility of contemporary social activism. The film’s value rests also in the director’s ability to take a critical look at a community of which she herself is a member.”
Summary:
Miroslav Brož’s quixotic struggle to improve the status of the Roma in the Czech Republic takes the form of a protest against a pig farm on the site of a former concentration camp in the town of Lety. The lack of participants in the planned blockade leads to frustration and lost hope. Uncertain reality is contrasted with the anonymity of social networks. Czech activism up close and personal.
Jury:
Tereza Czesany Dvořáková – film historian
Petr Hruška – Czech poet, laureate of the State Prize for Literature
Bohdan Bláhovec – documentary filmmaker and slam poetry pioneer
Ivo Mathé – media producer, screenwriter and university teacher
Martin Kolář – Jihlava-based theater artist
BETWEEN THE SEAS
Best documentary from Central and Eastern Europe in 2014
The Between the Seas jury chose Hubert Sauper’s We Come as Friends (2014).
Jury statement:
“Hubert Sauper is a fly in the storm of Africa’s supposed development. He rides the chaos with daring, conviction and persistence, using his curiosity to show the competition of claims and interests now vying for the world’s youngest country, and his privilege as an alien in Africa to unmask the true face of that privilege. We Come as Friends embodies its maker and his methods: it is reportage cinema at its most fleet, mischievous, provocative, compassionate and plaintive.”
Summary of winning film:
The director flies into Sudan at the time of the referendum on dividing the country into two: Sudan and South Sudan. Rather than focusing on this political act, however, he focuses more on the economic and environmental exploitation of local resources by Western and Chinese companies, which has had immense consequences, from the desperate living conditions of the local inhabitants to corrupt and impassive public officials. A caustic exploration of the heart of darkness into which the country’s beauty and wealth are changed by those who “come as friends”.
Jury:
Raymond Bellour – French theorist
Albert Serra – Catalan director
Deborah Stratman – American artist and filmmaker
Nick Bradshaw – film critic, editor at Sight & Sound magazine
Kateřina Šedá – Czech artist
OPUS BONUM
Best international documentary film of 2014
The award went to I Am the People (Je suis de la peuple, 2014) by Anna Roussillon
Jury statement:
“It offers an innovative introduction to the turbulent times of the Arab Spring. The hardship of peasants’ life and work, and the wisdom and tenderness of the film’s heroes, help us to understand how unbreakable ordinary men have to be in order to pass through dangerous and uncertain times.”
Summary of winning film:
January 2011 in Egypt was marked by anti-government demonstrations. While tens of thousands of protestors gathered in Cairo, poor villagers in the country’s south followed the tense situation on Tahrir Square on their TV screens and in the daily newspapers. It is from their perspective that this documentary captures the political changes in Egypt, from the toppling of President Mubarak to the election of Mohamed Morsi. The film reveals the villagers’ hopes and disappointments, and shows that despite the wild events, very little has actually changed in their lives.
Special mention went to Chasing After the Wind (Persiguiendo al Dragón) by Juan Camilo Olmos Feris and to 20 Cents (20 centavos) by Tiago Tambelli.
Chasing After the Wind is a meditation on the value of community and the transformation of a traditional, though dangerous, place into a tourist destination, the film attempts to capture the spirit of the Getsemaní district in the Colombian town of Cartagena through 60-something drug dealer Gustav.
20 Cents is about protests against the decision to raise the price of public transit ticket by 20 cents in São Paolo. Over several days, this observational documentary places the viewer directly into the middle of the chaotic events. The cadence of kinetic footage of angry mobs, accompanied by tribal rhythms and heavy-metal riffs, is enough to give the viewer a sense of vertigo.
In line with festival tradition, the jury consisted of one person; this year’s juror was director Želimir Žilnik, a leading representative of the Serbian “black film”.
FASCINATIONS
Best experimental documentary film of 2014
This year, the section’s family jury gave the award to Deborah Stratman’s Hacked Circuit (2014)
Jury statement:
“A Steadicam walks us down a street at night in Burbank, Los Angeles, discreetly accompanied by haunting phrases of music and fragments of Gene Hackman’s voice as the camera turns a corner and enters a sound studio where a sound mixer and a foley artist are recording acoustic details of Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation. On a screen in the studio we see Gene Hackman dismantling a house in search of a hidden bug, a climactic and desperate scene, after the tables have turned and the surveillance expert himself has become the one under ongoing observation. The camera proceeds to move out the backdoor and returns to everyday life of the street while we hear Hackman talking about how the NSA accesses private information. In a single 15-minute shot, Deborah Stratman’s “Hacked Circuit” brilliantly pierces the glamor of Hollywood production, demystifies cinematic illusion and raises the troubling specter of contemporary US governmental surveillance of everyday life. The film is aptly dedicated to Walter Murch, the exceptional sound designer and editor behind The Conversation, and Edward Snowden.”
Summary of winning film:
A film about the limits of privacy, shot in one take, with the camera moving inside and outside of a sound studio and with audio fragments from Francis F. Coppola’s 1974 film The Conversation and other cinematic references.
Special mention for best Czech experimental film went to The Sexual Struggle of Commodities (2014) by Pavel Sterec and Vilém Novák.
Jury statement:
“The Sexual Struggle of Commodities by Pavel Sterec and Vilem Novak presents a technically ingenious and imaginative vision of three-dimensional imaging and a subversive alternative to the reductive commodification and spectacle of everyday life. The filmmakers provide us with a utopian vision of mind-bending possibilities, allowing for a rethinking of how we conceive gender, architecture, and various forms of ancient and futuristic tools. This work offers an exciting, action-packed alternative to mainstream 3-D filmmaking and production, in a world where Hollywood dominates with reactionary stories and computers punch out functional guns.”
Jury:
Peter Tscherkassky – Austrian experimental filmmaker
Eve Heller – filmmaker and artist
FIRST LIGHTS
In the new section for best debut film, the five-member jury chose I Am the People, which also won in the Opus Bonum section. The jury explained its decision as follows:
“For its respectful and sincere relationship the director managed to establish with a family. For its human, cinematic portrait of everyday life in an Egyptian village on the background of country’s historical moments. And for creation of a sensitive equilibrium between the filmmaker and the family whom she captured.”
SHORT JOY
This year, the Short Joy section of short films was made a competition section. The first-ever Short Joy jury consisted of members of the Rafani art group, who chose the film Babash.
Jury statement:
“Many of the films in the Short Joy section were about the need for communication – sometimes over distances using technology, at other times up close with a weapon in your hand. Sometimes impersonal and virtual; at other times almost too direct. Babash, which is named after the film’s main protagonist, is about the possibility of communicating with a mute face. Which isn’t exactly easy. We have no idea what those two talk about within the confines of their Los Angeles apartment – or whether they even talk in the first place. But we like stroboscopic effects and the use of a monochrome screen. A few seconds of fluttering wings, intercut with fields of color, gave us a short joy.”
AUDIENCE AWARD
The audience award went to Veronika Lišková’s film Daniel’s World(Czech Republic, 2013).
Summary of film:
Twenty-five-year-old literary academy student Daniel is dealing with his non-traditional sexual orientation, the perception of which in society is colored by a number of prejudices. He introduces his family, friends, and society to his lot as a homosexual pedophile – and through his creative writing, himself as well. This documentary empathetically captures public and private moments of his confessions. Daniel’s deep self-reflection and emphasis on other than purely sexual values enabled the creators to present the situation of a pedophile completely and humanely. His charm, self-deprecating view, and sense of exaggeration give the film a surprising lightness and wit.
SPECIAL LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
The special lifetime achievement award was presented at the festival’s closing ceremony to American director Godfrey Reggio.
RESPEKT AWARD
The Respekt Award for the best domestic television, video and online report of the past year was announced at the festival’s opening ceremony. Editor-in-chief of Respekt magazine Erik Tabery presented the 2014 Respekt Award to Dalibor Bártek for his reportage Millions for Immunity.
2014 AWARD FOR THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FESTIVAL POSTER
Based on a vote by the film festival representatives who attended the Festival Identity workshop, the Most Beautiful Festival Poster of 2014 is the poster for DOK.fest 2014.
The DOK.fest 2014 poster also won the audience award.
