I. A Calendar»
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
3. 8.
The performance of Spanish guitarist Paco de Lucía in the sold-out Municipal House in Prague ended with applause and ovations. The musician, called the king of the flamenco, performed in his seven-member group including singers Duquende and David de Jacoba and dancer Farruco. The guitar of Paco de Lucía has been featured in many films by Carlos Saura; the composition Entre dos aguas is also known thanks to the film Vicki Cristina Barcelona (2008, USA – Spain) by director Woody Allen. Paco de Lucía is the holder of several honourable doctorates at prestigious universities and a statue was built of him in his native town of Algeciras near Cádiz.
3. - 7. 8.
The courtyard of the Rabí castle in Klatovy region hosted the 12th annual open-air Mini-festival of Hstorical Films – Rabiograph. A screening of five Czech and foreign films were prepared for visitors. Audiences could see, among other films, the Czech adventure comedy by Karel Janák Little Knights’ Tale (Ať žijí rytíři, 2009), historical drama from the second-half of the mid 16th century on the life of doctor and scientist Zénon Ligre L’ oeuvre au noir (dir. André Delvaux, 1988, France – Belgium) or the Czech historical detective story from the period of the reign of King Přemysl Otakar II, In the Name of the King (Jménem krále, dir. Petr Nikolaev, 2009).
4. 8.
Palace Cinemas Slovanský dům multiplex in Prague hosted the opening ceremony of the Czech feature film Kajínek (dir. Petr Jákl ml., 2010). The film, inspired by the story of an infamous Czech prisoner, was also screened at the summer cinema of the Konopáč u Prachovic campground where Jiří Kajínek grew up.
6. 8.
Czech students had a unique opportunity to learn 3D animation from Hollywood experts. Instructors from the companies such as Pixar, Lucas Film and Blue Sky came to Litomyšl (Czech Republic). These instructors included Andy Schmidt, who works for Pixar, and Aaron Walsman from Blue Sky. The organizers from the Anomalia platforma of Bohemian Multimedia, spol. s r.o. are trying to renew the tradition of animated films in the Czech Republic, but with the help of the latest technology. It is their view that Czech schools don’t offer this and teach animation techniques from the end of the last century. Viewers could see the films that the animators created on 3. 9. at the European Training Centre. It also consisted of the screening of short Pixar films and a few words at the end by Rich Quade, instructor and professional animator from Pixar.
8. 8.
The weeks of Czech design began with the opening of an exhibition entitled an Archive of Mircales in the Czech Pavillion at the World EXPO 2010 in Shanghai. Ten Czech designers were presented in a multimedia hall in the direction of Designblok Prague and of the group Olgoj Chorchoj. The exhibition took a year’s work with ten leading designers working on it. The curator of the exhibition was Jana Zielinski, who is one of the founders of the regular Prague exhibition of Czech design – Designblok. Among the artists were fashion designer Liběna Rochová, minimalist jewellery designer of Czech origin Eva Eisler, designer Hana Zárubová, glassblower Rony Plesl, photographer Salim Issa and others. Linking the installations was a white terrain under a glass tree and the black-and-white film story by director Tomáš Luňák projected on its background. He worked on, for instance, the film Czech Protector (Protektor, dir. Marek Najbrt, 2009) with his special effects.
9. 8.
In Beroun (Czech Republic) the Mír cinema once again began screening films, having undergone extensive reconstruction in past months. The construction work included the building of a new entrance vestibule with a spacious corridor, ticket office, snack bar and cloakroom for employees, as well as a new staircase to the first above-ground floor and basement, technical facilities for operating the cinema, projection room and WC facilities. The ceremonial opening of the cinema, renowned for, among other things, the Trilobit awards ceremony, was attended by then Beroun mayor and now culture minister of Czech Republic Jiří Besser, along with his predecessor Václav Riedlbauch. On the same day Jiří Besser ended his tenure as mayor and officially assumed the job of minister with the event at the Mír cinema.
9. 8.
The Svět cinema in Valašské Meziříči (Czech Republic) offered its visitors screenings of films in digital quality and in 3-D format. The digitising costs were over three million crowns.
10. 8.
Indian director Imtiaz Alí, who is one of the most popular directors in his country, began filming Rockstar in Prague. The leading role will be played by star Ranbir Kapúr. The producer of the film is Hiren Gándhí, and the film music was composed by Alláh Rakha Rahmán, Oscar-award winner for the music to the film Slumdog Millionaire (dir. Danny Boyle, co-directed by Loveleen Tandan, 2008, Great Britain). The Prague production company Punk Film, s. r. o. oversaw the shooting of the Bollywood-type film. The Indian film crew consisted of 70 people and 60 Czech film professionals were also used. In addition to Prague locations (Maltézské Square, Charles Bridge, Vrtbovská Garden, New Castle Steps, interior of the State Opera) Liberec, Loučeň, Sychrov, Karlštejn and Ostré u Úštěku also appear in the film. The Indian production spent more than a fifth of its total budget of USD 200 million (nearly four billion crowns) in the Czech Republic. Part of the film’s story takes place in Prague, where the protagonists meets after many years with his love from long ago.
11. 8.
Petr Korč resigned from his post as chairman of the Association of Czech Film Clubs (Asociace českých filmových klubů – AČFK). The association’s management will be taken over by hitherto vice-chairperson and the association’s second statutory representative Radana Korená. The association’s council will decide on the new chairperson on 1. 9. at its meeting in Prague.
12. 8.
The Czech animated puppet film One Nigh, One City (Jedné noci v jednom městě, 2007) by Jan Balej received the award for the best animated film at the 6th film festival – Fantaspoa in Porto Alegre, Brazil.
12. 8.
Czech documentary film Heaven Hell (Nebe Peklo, 2010, ČR) of director David Čálek was inducted into czech film distribution.
14. - 15. 8.
Film fans filled the building of the former Sokol athletic centre in the central Bohemian town of Český Šternberk. Under the auspice of mayor Štěpán Kopeček and with the financial cooperation of the Youth in Action programme, the informal group Fukino tried to revive the building that had served as a cinema just five years before. The event called Cinema Open! was to draw attention to the long-term trend of closing small one-room cinemas in cities and towns around the Czech Republic. Hundreds of these cinemas have closed due to the radical change brought on by the transfer of classical film to digital copies. Former cinemas in these towns are changing into slot machine bars or market halls and, above all, their buildings are becoming dilapidated, as are the standards of the local cultural activities. The Cinema Open! workshop was led by documentary filmmaker Tereza Nvotová. The participants in the workshop attempted to map their relation to cinema and its use. The result was a documentary film that was screened at the end of the entire event. In addition to foreign films, a Czech film was screened upon request. Of the three films, A Cottage Near the Woods (Na samotě u lesa, 1976) by Jiří Menzel won. The project was coordinated by journalist and documentary filmmaker Jan Foukal.
19. 8.
Prague’s Světozor and Lucerna cinemas hosted the ceremonial premiere of the Czech feature film The Greatest Czechs (Největší z Čechů, dir. Robert Sedláček, 2010).
20. 8.
Various places in Prague will be revived for the third time with the Live Cinema project organized by the International Festival of Documentary Films in Jihlava (14. mezinárodní festival dokumentárních filmů, Czech Republic). This project is led by the idea to bring together film themes with the place of the screenings, so, for instance, Olga Špátová’s documentary Eye Over Prague (Oko nad Prahou, 2010, CR) on Jan Kaplický futile attempt to push through his design for a new building for the Czech National Library (Národní knihovna České republiky) will be screened on Letenská plain in Prague. The same will be done for the documentary Czech Peace (Český mír, 2010, CR) by Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda on the American radar presented at the conclusion of the festival on August 28th under the Žižkov transmitter and the film entitled CERN or The Factory for the Absolute (CERN aneb Továrna na absolutno, 2010, CR) by director Jan V. Sacher on the Swiss particle accelerator screened two days earlier at the National Technical Library. The filmmakers also took part in all the screenings.
20. - 22. 8.
Vizovice (Czech Republic) hosted the Trnkobraní, one of whose events was the unveiling of a wooden sculpture of Czech actor and mime Bolek Polívka in larger-than-life size. The sculptor of the work is Slovak artistic wood carver Cyril Kocúrek from Kežmarok (Slovak Republic).
21. - 28. 8.
The 9th Film Festival and Special Seminar on Film and History – Christians and Pagans (9. filmový festival a odborný seminář Film a dějiny – Křesťané a pohané) took place in castle Orlík u Humpolce (Czech Republic). The festival was organized by the company Castrum o. p. s. with the support of the town of Humpolec. A number of Czech and foreign films were presented as part of the individual cycles. The cycle God-Forsaken or Progressive? The Character of the Priest in Film presented Czech films – Forgotten Light (Zapomenuté světlo, dir. Vladimír Michálek, 1996) and The Devil’s Trap (Ďáblova past, dir. František Vláčil, 1961). The cycle Christianity in a Mirror of Classicism and Apocrypha featured in its programme Quo vadis (dir. Jerzy Kawalerowicz, 2001, Poland – USA), the cycle Christianity: Modernism and Pop-culture presented viewers with the following films among others: Il Vangelo secondo Matteo (dir. Pier Paolo Pasolini, 1964, Italy), the Czech fairytale An Angel of the Lord (Anděl Páně, dir. Jiří Strach, 2005), while the cycle Christianity and the Hammer brought the Czech film The Witch Hunt (Kladivo na čarodějnice, 1969) by director Otakar Vávra.
21. - 30. 8.
People with mental disabilities from region Vysočina (Czech Republic) shot a story on the bandit Nikola Šuhaj. The film crew met in Kolochava, the Ukraine where the events from the book by Czech writer Ivan Olbracht took place. The roles were played by clients of institutions for the disabled from four countries – Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland and the Ukraine. The film’s screenplay was written by Simona Tomanová, director of the Institute for Social Care in Těchobuz (Czech Republic). The film was prepared for the Mental Power Prague 2011 festival. The shooting of the film in Transcarpathia, the Ukraine took nine days. Among the 16 actors, six were Czechs. Four clients from Těchobuz and one from the Křižanov institution played gendarmes. One actress from the institution in Jinošov played a witch. The leading roles of Nikola and Eržika were played by Ukrainians. Some of the mentally disabled people had already met previously at the filming of the Young Prince (Malý princ, dir. Jiří Svoboda, 2009). The shooting of the film cost CZK 700,000 and the money was provided by sponsors.
22. - 28. 8.
The Světovar premises in Plzeň (Czech Republic) hosted the Revival animation workshop designed for children, students and, for the first time in 2010, adults. The workshop participants selected on the first day the stories for their scripts that they would work into storyboards and gradually try to make into a film using various animation techniques. The seven-day workshop was led by eight lectors, including Bedřich Glaser, Jan Švankmajer’s animator and Kristina Dufková, holder of the award for best Czech animated film from the Anifest 2009 festival (with the film A Tear Is Needed /Usnula jsem, 2009/). The results of the workshop participants’ efforts were presented to the public on 3. 9. at the event called Světovaření 2010.
25. - 29. 8.
The 7th International Festival of First Features and Student Films FRESH FILM FEST (7. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST) was held. Hosting the festival were Světozor and Aero cinemas, the Střelák summer cinema and the Divadlo Ponec theatre. Screenings were also held at the festival centre at the Palác Akropolis club. (7. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST) is an international competition film festival mainly focussing on student films and debut works. It annually presents a wide range of contemporary school and debut film works and features a number of professional products and educational programmes. The 7th annual festival screened over 150 films from all over the world, 50 of which were in the official competition festival sections. The festival’s leitmotif this year was the theme of heroes. Films vied at the festival in four competitions: Fresh Generation – the competition of debut and second feature films, the main international student competition, i. e. the competition of feature and documentary films, Theatre Optique – a competition of animated and experimental films and Fresh Czech – a competition of Czech student films in which the jury awarded the Czech Television Prize. As with every year, the viewers could choose a film that receives a viewers’ choice award. The competition of feature debuts and student films was supplemented by a special selection of films, in honour of filmmakers, retrospective screenings and a number of distribution premiers and unique presentations of films of renowned filmmakers. (7. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST) also offered the Critics’ Circle Choice section that was the result of collaboration with an association of British critics headed by chairman Jason Solomons from the daily The Guardian. Critics selected a collection of short films that have caught their eye in recent and whose filmmakers they consider as strong talents of British film. (7. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST) was a partner of the screenwriter workshop organized by Midpoint, a Central European screenwriter centre, created as a joint initiative of the film schools in Prague, Bratislava, Lodž, Bucharest and Budapest. The last round of the workshop was held at the end of August 2010 in Prague. There were no Czech representatives in the main international student competition. Films from FAMU (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) and from Tomas Bata University in Zlín (Univerzita Tomáše Bati ve Zlíně) were presented in the Fresh Czech section. In the Lesson section, in which a famous figure selects Czech films that he wants to recommend to viewers, director Petr Zelenka chose three of Jan Moravec’s films: The non-competition section featured films awarded at major festivals. These included the documentary Restrepo (dir. Tim Hetherington, Sebastian Junger, 2010), awarded at the Sundance 2010 festival and nominated for an Oscar. For awarded Czech films – see The 7th International Festival of First Features and Student Films FRESH FILM FEST (7. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST).
26. - 29. 8.
Český Těšín (Czech Republic) and neighbouring Cieszyn, Poland hosted a European gathering of sci-fi fans. The four-day festival kicked off with a parade of fans in masks from cult series and films such as Star Wars and Star Trek. The programme also featured films, forums and meetings with famous authors or translators. An exhibition of film posters was prepared on Svoboda bridge. A number of famous guests also appeared at this European meeting of sci-fi fans – including sci-fi writer Steven Erikson, the author of the series Malazan Book of the Fallen, American writer Orson Scott Card and sci-fi fan, Czech songwriter Jaromír Nohavica. The film part of the festival offered films in both towns on the border. An emphasis was placed on Czech, or Czechoslovak and Polish films.
26. - 29. 8.
The Film Festival Litoměřice for the Tenth Time – On the Edge (Filmový festival Litoměřice podesáté – Na hraně) opened with screenings. The festival combines several important anniversaries for the town Litoměřice (Czech Republic). It commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Czech poet Karel Hynek Mácha (16. 11. 1810 – 6. 11. 1836), 100 years of the Máj cinema in Litoměřice, which hosts most of the festival’s screenings, and the tenth anniversary of the festival. According to the organizers, the combination of the “on the edge” theme and the figure of Mácha offer at the festival films on genius artists and borderline psychic states. The screening of the first evening of the festival, even before the ceremonial opening, took place in a deconsecrated Jesuit church of the Annunciation. Following a lecture by Miroslav Kaška on the history of video art, excerpts of videos were shown by Filip Cenek, a teacher of the School of Fine Arts of Masaryk University (Masarykova univerzita) in Brno (Czech Republic). The opening evening ended with a collage of films found in the Czech town Terezín and an audiovisual performance by the group Do Shaska! The festival officially opened with the pre-premiere of the film The Illusionist/L’illusionniste (Iluzionista, 2010, France – Great Britain) by Sylvain Chomet. The festival’s other films included Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon (dir. John Maybury, 1998, Great Britain – France – Japan) and the film Traumstadt (dir. Johannes Schaaft, 1973, Germany) that had its Czech premier in Litoměřice. The film was based on the novel Die andere Seite by Litoměřice native, the writer, expressionist painter Alfred Kubin (1877 – 1959), who later studied and lived in Austria. In addition to the film screenings, the festival also offered workshops for the public. On the theoretical level of a filmmaking, a lecture focused on teaching animation at schools.
26. - 29. 8.
Teplice nad Metují (Czech Republic) hosted the 27th International Mountaineering Film Festival (27. mezinárodní horolezecký filmový festival 2010). Thirty-two films vied for the jury’s prize. The competition included films capturing endeavours in high mountains, climbing cliff walls and other adrenaline sports such as riding the rapids on rivers. Czech filmmakers sent the most films to the festival with eleven representatives in the competition. The festival offered more than just screenings: visitors could also seen a photography exhibition, take part in a forum and attend concerts. The programme also featured sporting activities such as races in bouldering, which is a type of climbing done without ropes on small blocks of rocks or on low cliffs just a few meters above the ground. The Teplice festival was founded in 1981 by mountain climber and photographer Miroslav Šmíd, who died in 1993 in climbing Lost Arrow in Yosemite National Park in California. For the awarding of Czech films – see the 27th International Mountaineering Film Festival (27. mezinárodní horolezecký filmový festival 2010).
27. 8.
Another Supraphon CD entitled Jan Werich – Delicacies – Funny Stories from the 1950s and 60s was released. The producer Naďa Dvorská prepared it with Ondřej Suchý. He provided her with rare recordings from his private archive. The album contains four of the original radio programmes Gramotingltangl and three from the archive of Ondřej Suchý. Ondřej Suchý also added from his sources the sound recording of the advertising film My Wife Penelope (Moje žena Penelopa, 1955). This promotional film was created in the mid 1950s and was an advertisement for travel deposit books; the images for it were created by Miloš Nesvadba. This film has not been presented in any collections of Werich’s works.
30. 8.
Prague’s Bio Oko premiered the documentary film Prague Needs a Revolution (2010), that maps barriers in Prague’s public transport system. The eighteen-minute film was shot by director Tomáš Škrdlant in collaboration with the Assistance association (Asistence o. s.) that helps the disabled in Prague.
30. 8.
A tragedy of a passionate woman in the shadow of dictator Benito Mussolini is the subject of the Italian-French film Vincere (Zvítězit, 2009) that was screened for journalists in the National Film Archive’s Ponrepo screening room at Bio Konvikt in Prague (Národní filmový archiv). The film, directed by Marco Bellocchio, recalls the dark side of the life of the Italian fascist leader. The film, which the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) bought for distribution of film clubs and film-based civic association, unveils the story of the Mussolini’s secret son Benito, who died in the institute for the mentally ill. The story also focuses on the figure of Ida Dalserová, who fell in love with the fascist leader at the start of his career. She helped him fulfil his dreams; she sold everything she owned and devoted everything she had to his activities.