Country In Focus: Czech Republic

„CZECH FILM EXPERIMENT – TWO, ZERO, TWO, TWO“

Times of change, historical and political turmoil, pandemics, scientific discoveries, experiments, and adventures – are all topics that the newest Czech documentaries explore and the reason why we chose the Czech Republic as our Country in Focus. An interesting fact is that the Czech National Television has the highest production share in these documentaries, which shows an ongoing interest in presenting these social problems and events to the public.

This year we chose eight feature-long and several short documentaries, animated films, and animated documentaries representative of the newest Czech documentary scene. Our aim is to bring closer to the MakeDox audience the atmosphere and the topics that interest the authors of these films, their way of work, the relationship with their protagonists, and the development of the initial idea into a complete film.

Primarily for this reason, we are honored to have the Czech Republic as a Country in Focus this year, starting the program with one of the most significant Czech documentary directors, also called “the mother of the time-lapse documentary film,” and that is the director Helena Třeštíková. As a festival, MakeDox has followed her work since the very beginning. We are thrilled we managed to arrange a live meeting with her this year at MakeDox, where she will also hold a masterclass and share the secret of how she films her documentaries, which can sometimes last for twenty years. This year we will open the Country in Focus program with her film René - The Prisoner of Freedom, followed by other Czech documentaries from the newest documentary production and Czech student films made under FAMU’s mentorship. In the Kids and Youth program, we will also screen several animated films and animated documentaries. As part of Country in Focus, we will see the feature-length documentaries Chickens, Virus and Us by director Filip Remundа, Living Water by director Pavel Borecký, Brotherhood by director Francesco Montagner, My Unknown Soldier by director Anna Kryvenko, Doggy Love by director Linda Kallistová Jablonská, and Kapr Code by director Lucie Králová. From the short and student films we will screen I Am Trying to Remember by the director Pegah Ahangarani – film from IranianCzech production, and the award-winning student film Love Dad by the director Diana Cam Van Nguyen.

As part of the MakeDox Kids and Youth program this year, we are honored to screen around ten short animated films and animated documentaries and thus bring this scene, which develops experimentally under FAMU’s mentorship, closer to the audience. We hope that with this year’s program and the presence of the authors of some of these films, we’ll satisfy the tastes and curiosity of the biggest cinema lovers.

“The Czech film experiment – two, zero, two, two” starts soon, so open your eyes and brace yourselves…

It’s going to be interesting!

BROTHERHOOD

FRANCESCO MONTAGNER

Jabir, Usama, and Useir are three young Bosnian brothers who grew up in the shadow of their father, a strict Islamist preacher. When he gets sentenced to two years in prison for terrorism, the three brothers are suddenly left alone. The newly acquired freedom leads them on the difficult journey to becoming men. What follows is an exploration of youth, manhood, and the search for identity.

Script: Francesco Montagner, Alessandro Padovani Photography: Prokop Souček Editing: Valentina Cicogna, Klára Tasovská, Jorge Sánchez Calderón Sound: Daniela Bassani, Marzia Cordò, Adam Levý Production: Pavla Janoušková Kubečková (nutprodukce) Co-production: Nadia Trevisan, Alberto Fasulo (Nefertiti Film, Italy)

Selected Filmography: Taurofilia (2019) The Importance of Everybody/ Důležitost Každého (2018) Animated Resistance/ Animata Resistenza (2014)

Festivals & Awards: CPH:DOX, Denmark (2022), Rotterdam IFF, The Netherlands (2022), Locarno IFF - Golden Leopard Award, Switzerland (2021), Ji.hlava IDFF - Best Czech Documentary Award & Best Cinematography Award, Czech Republic (2021), Verzio HRFF - Special Mention, Hungary (2021), AJB DOC Film Festival, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2021)

CHICKENS, VIRUS AND US

Slepice, Virus a My

At the onset of the Coronavirus crisis in 2020, we took refuge in the countryside with our three children. While surfing the internet, the children found a video from an Asian food market, showing dissected wild animals, including bats. They were shocked to see overcrowded animal cages destined for slaughter. In another video, they learned that the coronavirus had reportedly spread from wild animals to humans in a similar marketplace in Wuhan, China. Reflections on the relationship between humans and animals lead them to the decision to adopt chickens from the cage breeding farm and keep them as their local neighbours do. The children wanted to know why these chickens are pitiful and look so different from the hens in the neighbours’ gardens, and why people treat animals so ruthlessly.

FILIP REMUNDA

Script: Jan Gogola jr. Photography: Martin Tokár, Filip Remunda Editing: Hana Dvořáčková Sound: Michal Gábor, Václav Flegl Music: Moby Production: Filip Remunda, Vít Klusák Co-production: Petr Kubica, Jiřina Budíková (Czech Television)

Selected Filmography: Once Upon a Time in Poland/ Jak Bůh hledal Karla (2020) Czech Journal: The Okamura Brothers/ Český žurnál: Bratři Okamurovi (2019) Steam on the River/ Pára nad řekou (2015) The Good Driver Smetana/ Dobrý řidič Smetana (2013) Czech Dream/ Český sen (2004)

Festivals & Awards: Finále Plzeň Film Festival, Czech Republic (2021), One World IDFF, Slovakia (2021), Ji.hlava IDFF, Czech Republic (2021), Oulu International Children’s and Youth Film Festival, Finland (2021), WATCH DOCS.Human Rights in Film IFF, Poland (2021)

DOGGY LOVE

LINDA KALLISTOVÁ JABLONSKÁ

Jana embarks on the 1200 km long Finnmarksløpet race. It is the longest dog sled race in Europe and she sets off with little chance to finish it. The weather is extremely cold, the polar plains are swept up by snowstorms, the dogs are falling in snowdrifts and Jana struggles to keep the last bits of her energy from exhaustion. And yet, or perhaps just because of that, she feels happy.

Script: Linda Kallistová Jablonská Photography: David Cysař Editing: Jakub Voves Sound: Jan Paul, Petr Šoltys Music: Marek Doubrava Production: Evolution Films Co-production: Czech Television

Selected Filmography: The Beginnings (2014) Earthlings, Who Are You Voting For? (2010) Welcome to North Korea! (2008) Left, Right (2006)

Festivals & Awards: International Sport Film Festival, Slovenia (2022), One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, Czech Republic (2020), FICMEC, Spain (2020)

KAPR CODE

Kapr

LUCIE KRÁLOVÁ

A documentary opera featuring the contradictory life of progressive composer and prominent communist Jan Kapr (1914-88), a Stalin Prize laureate, and later banned in socialist Czechoslovakia. The opera songs reflect Kapr’s key life junctures, those establishing an artist’s fate. The nature of memory and narration are explored using Kapr’s personal, never-before-seen amateur films manifesting his humor, inner struggles and desire to leave traces for eternity.

Script: Lucie Králová Photography: Tomáš Stanek, Adam Ol’ha, Petr Příkaský, Jakub Halousek, Martin Řezníček Editing: Adam Brothánek Sound: Richard Müller Libretto: Jiří Adámek / Austerlitz Music: Petra Šuško Production: Mindset Pictures, DOCUfilm Praha Co-production: TVIRUSfilm

Selected Filmography: Listen to The Dream (2018) How To Behave? (2017) New Eternity (2016) Czech Man (2016) Searching For Surreal (2015)

Festivals & Awards: Kraków Film Festival - DocFilmMusic Golden Helm Award, Poland (2022)

LIVING WATER

PAVEL BORECKÝ

The vibration of machines echoes across the desert. Ever since Jordanian nomads settled in the spectacular landscape of Wadi Rum, they grew dependent on complex water infrastructure. The source is right below their feet, yet they struggle to meet basic needs. In the meantime, deep water extraction feeds private large-scale farms, animates visionary development and secures growing urban population. Bedouins, farmers and city dwellers: they all expect to have a fair share, but digging for “blue gold” unleashes an environmental timebomb.

Script: Veronika Janatková Photography: Pavel Borecký Editing: Pavel Borecký Sound: John Grzinich Music: Shadi Khries Production: Anthropictures, Art Salam (Paris), Al Jazeera Documentary (Doha) Co-production: Pandistan, Institute of Social Anthropology UNIBE, Center for Strategic Studies UJ

Selected Filmography: In the Devil’s Garden (2018) Solaris (2015)

Festivals & Awards: CineEco FF - Water Value Award, Portugal (2021), CPH:DOX, Denmark (2021), Vision du Réel, Switzerland (2021), Visioni dal Mondo, Italy (2021), Ji.hlava IDFF, Czech Republic (2020)

MY UNKNOWN SOLDIER

Můj neznámý vojín

How does it feel to become an occupier without your intention? Through known as well as never published archival materials from the whole of Europe and Russia we see a family story of the director about how high politics destroys the lives of ordinary people. A couple of years ago, she discovered a family secret about her grand-uncle who came to occupy Czechoslovakia in 1968 as a Soviet soldier. Searching for her great-uncle’s story, the author touches upon themes like fragmentation of personal and national memory, inherited guilt, interpretation of history, media manipulation, today’s relationship with Russia, and the attitudes of Czechs and Slovaks towards foreigners - all very current topics.

ANNA KRYVENKO

Script: Anna Kryvenko Photography: Radka Šišuláková Editing: Daria Chernyak Sound: Viktor Krivosudský Music: Andris Dzenitis, Yair Elazar Glotman, David Střeleček Production: Michal Kráčmer Co-production: Sergei Serpuhov, Wanda Adamík Hrycová

Festivals & Awards: IDFF CRONOGRAF - Special Jury Prize, Moldova (2019), ZagrebDOX, Croatia (2019), DOK.fest München, Germany (2019), DOK Leipzig, Germany (2018), Ji.hlava IDFF, Czech Republic (2018)

RENÉ

HELENA TŘEŠTÍKOVÁ

René’s life had been captured on camera since he was seventeen. The camera followed his hopeless journey between prison and the outside world. In 2008 the film comes to an end, leaving the now 37-year-old René a sick man who still gets in trouble with the law and who is also the author of two published books. Director Helena Třeštíková records René’s personal developments against the backdrop of significant political transformations taking place in Central Europe.

Script: Helena Třeštíková Photography: Martin Kubala, Petr Pešek, Stano Slušný, Václav Smolík, Marek Dvořák, Ondřej Belica, Miroslav Souček, Vlastimil Hamerník Editing: Jakub Hejna Sound: Vadimír Nahodil, Pavel Sádek, Jan Valouch, Václav Hejduk, Miroslav Šimčík, Štěpán Mamula, Daniel Němec, Zbyněk Mikulík, Petr Provazník, Jan Valouch Music: Tadeáš Věrčák Production: Negativ Film Productions - Kateřina Černá, Pavel Strnad Co-production: Czech Television - Anna Becková

Selected Filmography: Anny (2020) Forman vs. Forman (2019) A Marriage Story (2017) Doomed Beauty (2016) Mallory (2015)

Festivals & Awards: IFF AsterFest - Bronze Horseshoe Award for Best Film, North Macedonia, (2009), Camerimage, Poland (2009), Ji.hlava IDFF - Audience Award, Czech Republic (2008), Leipzig DOK Festival - Golden Dove Award for Long Footage, Germany (2008), European Film Awards - European Film Award for Best Documentary, Europe (2008)

Czech Republic / 2021 / 102’ RENÉ - THE PRISONER OF FREEDOM

René: Vězeň svobody

René tries to avoid prison at all costs. He enters relationships that have a chance of lasting longer than a few weeks. But how does this coincide with his scathing contempt for people and the system? During the thirteen years that Helena Třeštíková had been watching the hero, René has changed not only physically but also mentally. Can we say that at the age of fifty, he will mature?

HELENA TŘEŠTÍKOVÁ

Script: Helena Třeštíková Photography: David Cysař Editing: Jakub Hejna Sound: Richard Müller Music: Tadeáš Věrčák Production: Negativ Film Productions - Kateřina Černá, Pavel Strnad Co-production: Czech Television - Alena Müllerová

Selected Filmography: Anny (2020) Forman vs. Forman (2019) A Marriage Story (2017) Doomed Beauty (2016) Mallory (2015)

Festivals & Awards: DOK.fest Münich, Germany (2022), Millennium Docs Against Gravity, Poland (2022), IDFA, Netherlands (2021)

ONION AWARD JURY

- for the Best Film in the Main Program

John Appel directed more than 40 documentaries for cinema and ТV and was the cinematographer on numerous films. He graduated from the Dutch Film and Television Academy. As a director, he is known for The Last Victory (2004), nominated for Best Feature Length Documentary at the European Film Academy, Wrong time, Wrong place (2012), which opened IDFA in 2012, Voices of Holland (2018), and Once the Dust Settles (2019). His breakthrough came with André Hazes/She Believes in Me, which won the Joris Ivens Award for Best Feature Length Documentary at IDFA 1999 and became a big cinema hit in the Netherlands. His more personal film The Player (2009) was crowned Best Dutch Documentary at IDFA. Appel is regularly mentoring at workshops, at places like Film Academy, Aris-toteles Workshop, Close Up, STEPS, and Balkan Rough Cut Boutique. He is a guest lecturer at the UBB University in Cluj, Romania.

Carmen Gray is a freelance arts and culture journalist, film critic, and programmer who grew up in New Zealand and now lives in Berlin. She has written on cinema, often focused on Eastern Europe, the Balkans, and the Caucasus, for many publications, including The New York Times, Criterion, The Guardian, Sight & Sound, MUBI, and Modern Times Review. She was previously the Film Editor of Dazed & Confused magazine in London. She is on the selection committees of the Generation section of the Berlin International Film Festival and the Winterthur International Short Film Festival in Switzerland and is a program adviser for Open City Docs in London. She also works as an industry adviser on films at the editing stage for First Cut Lab.

Jana Cisar is a film producer and executive producer. Through her collaboration with directors such as Michael Klier, Volker Koepp, Angela Schanelec, Viola Stephan and Peter Zach, she has experience in various branches of the film industry. Since 2021 she has been a lecturer for the Dok.Art Initiative and at IFS Cologne.

YOUNG ONION AWARD JURY - for the Best Film by First or Second-Time Director

Daniel Vadocky has a degree in Philosophy from the University of Trnava and Film Studies from the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava. He has lectured on Philosophy and Aesthetics at the Department of Film and has published articles on world cinema, film history, and theory in various magazines and newspapers. He was a festival programmer of the Short Film Competition at the Art Film Fest in Slovakia. He also worked as a Head of Sales at the National Film Archive and as a Sales Agent for Negativ Film Productions, both based in Prague. He currently works as a Festival and Sales Manager for Pluto Film.

DANIEL VADOCKY

Born in Kyiv in 1983, she moved to Germany with her mother in 1995. After studying history and literature in Berlin, she worked as an assistant director and production assistant on various feature films. Having worked on several short documentaries, “Garagenvolk” was her first feature-length documentary and her debut film as director. Garagenvolk won the Heino Carow prize at the Berlinale in 2020 and later on the European Audentia Award for Best Female Director and Werner Herzog prize. Garagenvolk also received a prestigious Moral Approach Award at MakeDox in 2021.

Joan González is the founder-director of DocsBarcelona, a film festival with 25 editions, and El Documental del Mes, a network of 80 cinemas that have been premiering documentaries since 2005. In 2013, his contributions to documentary culture in Southern Europe were recognized with the EDN International award. He has been a film editor, director, and executive producer, and he likes to hold workshops at Universities and Film Festivals to help grow projects. His latest project is Nextus - Learning By Documentaries, a DocsBarcelona educational project. In 2021, he was appointed an honorary member of the Catalan Film Academy.

SLICED ONION AWARD JURY - for the Best Short Film

Marion Czarny has been working for FIPADOC since 2008 where she oversees the elaboration of all editorial content for the young audience and emerging directors. She coordinates educational screenings and workshops, manages the Young Europeans Jury operation and curates an international selection of student films (New Talent). Holder of a postgraduate degree in Cultural Project Management, she worked for the Forum des Images between 1999 and 2001, and in the Educational Action Department and Programme Management. She was an editorial assistant for 3 cinema magazines and curated several film festivals: Paris Festival (2001/2002), Rencontres Internationales de Cinéma (2003), and Ohrid French Film Festival in Macedonia (2008/2009).

MARION CZARNY

Angeliki Vergou is the coordinator of all Agora Docs industry events at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, including the Thessaloniki Pitching Forum, Agora Docs in Progress and Meet the Future. She is also the head of the Crossroads Co-production Forum of the Thessaloniki International Film Festival. She has been working at both festivals in various departments and positions since 2001. She is a graduate of the Hellenic Open University with a diploma in European Culture and Civilization (2018). She has participated in Sources 2: Training Mentors for Screenwriters (2013) and was an assistant trainer at MFI’s Script 2 Film Workshop (2019), script consultant trainee at the Midpoint Institute Feature Launch Workshop (2020) and MFI Doc Lab assistant trainer (2021).

ANGELIKI VERGOU

A documentary sales specialist with seven years of experience in the field, Suzanne previously worked ffor the companies Doc & Film International and Mediawan Rights. During these tenures, she worked on titles such as Fuocoammare by Gianfranco Rosi (Golden Bear 2016), Frederick Wiseman’s documentaries, and most recently Kubrick by Kubrick by Gregory Monro (Tribeca FF 2020, International Emmy Awards for Best Arts Programming 2021). She joined sales company Cercamon in November 2021 to spearhead the launch of a feature-length docs catalog within the company.

SUZANNE NODALE

ONION SEED AWARD JURY - for the Best Student Film

Alba Cakalli was born and raised in Prizren. Formerly a volunteer, she started her career at DokuFest as a program assistant and now leads the role of a festival producer. Throughout the years, Alba has also been part of many cultural organizations (RroK, Prizma Medium, Bekim Fehmiu Theater, Zambaku i Prizrenit) and engaged in different film crews (In Between, Pavend, Home) co-produced by DokuFest. Through her engagements, Alba is constantly involved in empowering youth against any social development challenges they may face.

As part of Lightdox team, Nevena oversees distribution and sales in Central & Eastern Europe, Asia, LATAM, and Africa. She embraced the challenge of mastering the most promising and excitingly evolving markets full of creativity and innovativeness. She graduated Painting at the Academy of Arts Banjaluka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and holds a Master’s degree in Stage Design from Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. Nevena has been working in sales and distribution of documentary films since 2015, with a deep focus on VOD and festival distribution.

Zlatko Gjeleski completed primary and secondary school in Kichevo and graduated from the Department of General and Comparative Literature at the Blaze Koneski Faculty in Skopje (2010). He has been actively engaged as a film critic since 2008 and as the editor and publisher of the magazine Koshmar. He writes and publishes music and film reviews in digital and print form for Plagijat, Gragjanski, Kinopis, Film Plus and Filmski Pechat. Since 2011 he has been the host of the film radio show Danse Macabre on Kanal 103 Radio. He is the director of the short films On the Other Side and Memoirs and the organizer of the horror film review Mrak Fest. He was a member of the jury committees of the film festivals: Filmaj, Mobile Festival, Philosophical Film Festival, Flipbook Film Festival and Cinedays, where he received the Award for Best Film Critic (2013). He has published three collections of short stories: Morbidism (2013), The Collector of Fear (2015), and Ponor (2019). His short stories have been awarded, published, and translated into several Balkan anthologies. His first collection of film essays and reviews, Videology (2019-2020), will be published in 2021.

ZLATKO GJELESKI

MORAL APPROACH AWARD JURY - for the Film with Best Moral Approach

Artan Sadiku is a researcher and an activist with a doctorate in philosophy. His primary study interests are theories of the subject, feminism, and radical practices in politics and art. He worked at the Institute of Social Sciences and Humanities in Skopje, where he led the School for Politics and Critique. He was one of the key actors in the protest movements AMAN!, #protestiram, and Akademski Plenum. At the moment, he is a part of the organization board of CRIC - Festival of Critical Culture. He works as an external collaborator for the Museum of Contemporary Art in Skopje, and he is also a president of the JADRO Association of the Independent Cultural Scene. He is a regular participant in regional and international festivals, conferences, and journals such as Subversive Fest, the Anarchist Book Fair, Le Monde Diplomatique, Journal Identities, and Bilten.

Borche Stamenov, born on September 03, 1977, is an IT specialist and a philanthropist. He is the founder of the Donate a Computer movement, which he started in 2016 in an attempt to enable every child in Macedonia to have equal quality education. Through Donate a Computer, Borche gathers used computers for repair and upcycling and donates them to children in socially challenged families that cannot afford one. In 2021 the initiative transformed into a civil society organization with a team of volunteers under his leadership. So far, there have been 1800 donated computers. These activities brought him many awards and recognitions at the state level - one of those awards is the European of the Year award for 2021, awarded by the delegation of the European Union in Macedonia.

Saska Cvetkovska is an international award-winning investigative reporter and editor-in-chief of the Investigative Reporting Lab, a non-profit media organization operating in North Macedonia and the Balkans notable for its female leadership, young staff, and innovative storytelling. Saska has worked on many national and cross-border investigations that exposed domestic and transnational crime, corruption, illicit trade of arms, and disinformation wars. Her current responsibilities are focused on increasing the impact of investigative reporting by creating new narratives of the stories through film and campaigning. As part of those efforts, Cvetkovska and her team are currently producing the most popular Macedonian investigative documentary serial Newsroom, tasked to increase trust in media and maximize the impact of investigative reporting. Cvetkovska is a member of the Board of Directors of OCCR as a member centers representative, an international media organization affiliated with the Investigative Reporting Lab.

MAIN PROGRAM

A HOUSE MADE OF SPLINTERS

A House Made of Splinters

SIMON LERENG WILMONT

In a war-worn and impoverished corner of Eastern Ukraine where addiction casts a long shadow, there sits a safe haven for children temporarily removed from their parents. Three kids await their fate - will they go back or move on to a new home - while a group of dedicated social workers create small moments of joy and respite from childhood all but lost.

Script: Simon Lereng Wilmont Photography: Simon Lereng Wilmont Editing: Michael Aaglund Sound: Heikki Kossi, MPSE, Peter Albrechtsen, MPSE Music: Uno Helmersson Production: Monica Hellström Co-production: Sami Jahnukainen, Donkey Hotel Tobias Janson, STORY Darya Bassel & Vika Khomenko, Moon Man

Selected Filmography: The Distant Barking of Dogs (2017) The Fencing Champion (2014) Chikara - The Sumo Wrestler’s Son (2013) Dormitory Master (2009) Above Ground, Beneath the Sky (2008)

Festivals & Awards: Sundance Film Festival - World Cinema Documentary Best Directing Award, USA, (2022), Göteborg Film Festival - Best Nordic Documentary Award, Sweden, (2022), Thessaloniki International Film Festival - Golden Alexander Best Film Award, Greece, (2022), One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival - Best International Documentary Award, Czech Republic (2022), FIPRESCI Award (2022)

BURNING MEMORIES

Burning Memories

ALICE SCHMID

At the age of 16, Alice was a victim of abuse. Fifty years later, this repressed experience unexpectedly makes its way back into her conscience. How is it possible to repress an incident for one’s entire life? Alice walks with her accordion through the desert, searching for answers, looking at a phenomenon that affects many women in a similar or related way.

Script: Alice Schmid Photography: Karin Slater, Aurelio Buchwalder, Kaleo La Belle Editing: Anja Bombelli Sound: Patrick Becker, Reto Stamm Production: Alice Schmid Co-production: Sami Jahnukainen, Donkey Hotel Tobias Janson, STORY Darya Bassel & Vika Khomenko, Moon Man

Selected Filmography: The Girl From Änziloch/ Das Mädchen vom Änziloch (2016) The Children From Napf/ Die Kinder vom Napf (2011) I Am a Mouse/ Ich bin eine Maus (2007) Shall I Stay or Shall I Go? (2005) I Have Killed/ Ich habe getötet (1999)

Festivals & Awards: DOK.fest München, Germany (2022), FIPADOC, France (2022), Swiss Film Award - Best Film Score Award, Switzerland (2021), Swiss Films - Best Film Score, Switzerland (2021), Solothurn Film Festival, Switzerland (2021)