I. A Calendar»
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
3. 8.
According to the assessment of the American film magazine Hollywood Reporter, the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze) is the best film school in Europe. Out of the twenty-five best schools in the world, it placed seventh. The first three positions were held by the American Film Institute (USA), University of Southern California (USA) and the Peking Film Academy (China).
3. - 13. 8.
The 64th International Film Festival took place in Locarno (Switzerland). Although Czech films were not represented at the festival, the Contemporary Filmmakers section included the documentary film by director Martin Witz entitled The Substance: Albert Hofmann’s LSD, (2011, Switzerland), containing clips of Czech popular-science film footage with information on experiments with LSD in the former Czechoslovakia. The document maps the history of the substance that the chemist Albert Hofmann discovered by chance in 1943 as a secondary product of his research. According to the testimony of Professor Stanislav Grof (currently a research worker in the USA) in the film, Czechoslovakia was one of few European countries in which the new substance was tested in the 1950s and 60s.
14. - 31. 8.
The Czech representative office in collaboration with the National Film Archive, Prague (Národní filmový archiv) in Los Angeles (USA) organized a screening of films by Czech director František Vláčil (19. 2. 1924 – 27. 1. 1999). Among the films screened were Clouds of Glass (Skleněná oblaka, 1958), Sirius (1974) and Shadows of a Hot Summer (Stíny horkého léta, 1977).
18. - 21. 8.
The 10th Film Festival and Special Seminar on Film and History – Frontier (10. filmový festival a odborný seminář Film a dějiny – Hranice) took place in the castle Orlík near the Czech City Humpolec. The annual festival focused on the Czech and Slovak border region and on transformations in its significance from the times of the National Revival up to the present day. It also focused on the current problem of the border between the advanced West and third-world countries, especially the closely guarded Mexican-American border and the borders between the EU and its neighbours. Seven Czech films were included in the programme, including Rough Life at Planina (Drsná Planina, dir. Jaroslav Soukup, 1979), Smugglers of Death (Král Šumavy, dir. Karel Kachyňa, 1959) and The Stolen Frontier (Uloupená hranice, dir. Jiří Weiss, 1947). Expert lectures were given before the screening of the films – some of the talks were accompanied by clips from primarily foreign films.
18. - 28. 8.
The Slovak-Czech film Nicky’s Family (Nickyho rodina, dir. Matej Mináč, 2011) received the viewer’s award ex aequo for best documentary film at the Montreal World Film Festival (Canada). It competed in the Documents of the World section with another fifty-three films and shared the victory with Marina Goldovskaya’s Bitter Taste of Freedom (2011, USA) on the murdered Russian journalist Anna Poltikovskaya.
20. - 28. 8.
As part of the Classic Puppet Animation programme the Kavalan International Short Film Festival in Taipei, Taiwan showed in collaboration with the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague the films The Hand (Ruka, dir. Jiří Trnka, 1965) and The Romance from the Darkness (Romance z temnot, dir. Břetislav Pojar, 1986).
21. 8.
Russian actor Fyodor Bondarchuk, the son of famous director Sergei Bondarchuk, took part in the final shooting of the feature-length Czech film set in the post-war Sudetenland entitled 7 Days (Sedm dní, dir. Jiří Chlumský, 2012). In the film, Fyodor Bondarčuk played Major Uvarov, who was a Russian commander after World War II in the Šumperk region in Czechoslovakia.
21. 8. - 8. 9.
The Czech Center in Tel Aviv organized for the second year the Czech Film Festival in Israel. Viewers in Jerusalem, Haifa and Sderot were presented with films such as Lidice (dir. Petr Nikolaev, 2011), The Greatest Czechs (Největší z Čechů, dir. Robert Sedláček, 2010), Tobruk (dir. Václav Marhoul, 2008, CR – SR) or An Earthy Paradise for the Eyes (Zemský ráj to napohled, dir. Irena Pavlásková, 2009). The event also featured a short screening of films by students recently graduated from FAMU (Filmová a televizní fakulta Akademie múzických umění v Praze). Over thirty screenings were held all over Israel.
22. - 27. 8.
In collaboration with the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague the 26th OFF International Film Festival in Odense (Denmark) screened films by Czech director Jiří Trnka (24. 2. 1912 – 30. 12. 1969) – The Song of the Prairies (Arie prerie, 1949), Novel with a Double Bass (Román s basou, 1949) and The Hand (Ruka, 1965), Karel Zeman (3. 11. 1910 – 5. 4. 1989) – An Invention for Destruction (Vynález zkázy, 1958) and The Springer and the SS (Pérák a SS, 1946) and Jan Švankmajer – Dimensions of Dialogue (Možnosti dialogu, 1982) and Darkness, Light, Darkness (Tma, světlo, tma 1989).
22. - 28. 8.
As part of the Lussas Doc Film Festival – Etats Généraux du Film Documentaire in Lussas (France) and in collaboration with the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague there were twenty-four Czech films including Prague in the Glare of the Lights (Praha v záři světel, dir. Svatopluk Innemann, 1928), Aimless Walk (Bezúčelná procházka, dir. Alexander Hackenschmied, 1930, Czechoslovakia), The Fog (Mlha, dir. Radúz Činčera, 1966) and Citizens with Coats of Arms (Občané s erbem, dir. Vít Olmer, 1967).
24. 8.
The CineStar Anděl cinema in Prague held the ceremonial premiere of the Czech feature film Men in Hope (Muži v naději, dir. Jiří Vejdělek, 2011).
24. - 28. 8.
The 8th International Festival of First Features and Student Films – FRESH FILM FEST (8. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST) took place at the Akropolis Palace in Prague. The festival is the direct successor of the more than thirty-year tradition of the Karlovy Vary International Festival of Student Films CILECT RIFE. The organizers selected Defiance as the main theme of the festival; this stemmed from the feeling that student work is often too conventional and conservative and not radical enough. Defiance therefore appeared in the protagonists of the films as well as in the approach of the young filmmakers. The festival maintains close contact to leading film schools around the world (FAMU, FEMIS, NFTS, Columbia, NYU), but also strives as much as possible to support films from countries with lower audiovisual production (Afrika, Latin America and Central and Eastern Europe). Even before the festival itself started, viewers could see free of charge some of the short films during the Fresh Film Walk, e.g. along Rašínovo quay in Prague. The competition and non-competition sections featured 120 films viewed by 7,000 visitors. The festival consisted of the following sections Fresh Generation (international competition of first and second feature films), Confrontations (international competition of feature and documentary student films), Theatre Optique (international competition of animated and experimental student films) and Fresh Czech (Czech student competition). Czech films included Cagey Tigers (dir. Aramisova, 2010), Symptoms (Příznaky, dir. Tomasz Wiński, 2011) and Rousek (dir. Tomáš Klein, 2010). Competitions were supplemented by workshops, concerts and exhibitions. The Polish Institute hosted lectures by Katarzyna Kozyra, Polish artist, sculptor, photographer, author of video-installations, films, performances and other art projects. Kozyra was also a member of the festival’s Theatre Optique jury. For awarded Czech films see The 8. mezinárodní festival debutů a studentských filmů – FRESH FILM FEST.
25. - 28. 8.
The 28th International Mountaineering Film Festival 2011 (28. mezinárodní horolezecký filmový festival 2011) was held in Teplice nad Metují (CR). Selected for the festival were 40 films from 12 countries – Australia, Austria, Brazil, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and USA. The festival opened with the screening of the Czech film The Hospital at the End of the World (Nemocnice na konci světa, dir. Otakar Štěrba, 2008), and viewers could also see Co się wydarzyło na wyspie Pam? (dir. Eliza Kubarska, 2007, Poland), which won the grand prix. The opening of the exhibition of photographs from Gilgit-Baltistan concerned the project of The Hospital at the End of the World. The authors of the project and exhibition were Czechs Dina Štěrbová and Vit Dokoupil. In the autumn of 2006, the year after an uncommonly destructive earthquake hit Pakistan, both began to implement the project of a small mobile hospital for the Balti mountain nation that continuous to live in horrendous conditions even without natural catastrophes. Those accepting invitations to the expert jury included director of the RTA television studio (RTA, s.r.o.) Simona Bartošová, filmmaker and mountain climber, Dariusz Zaluski, director and producer Steve Lichtag and mountain climber and filmmaker Pavol Pekarčík. For awarded films see 28. mezinárodní horolezecký filmový festival 2011.
26. - 28. 8.
The Litoměřice Film Festival – With an Appetite (Filmový festival Litoměřice pojedenácté – S chutí) – was held for the eleventh time in the Czech Republic. The eleventh annual festival changed its scope, organizational team and graphic design. It offered “film delicacies” – films looking at food and beverage as a theme that can be shown from a wide range of perspectives: whether as one of the most important needs for people or as a favourite part of life. The screened films included The Big Cheese Heist (Velká sýrová loupež/Die Große Käseverschwörung, dir. Václav Bedřich, 1986, CSSR – Germany), the feature film consisting of a number of stories entitled Coffee and Cigarettes (dir. Jim Jarmusch, 2003, USA – Japan – Italy) and the documentary film Cooking History (Jak se vaří dějiny/Ako se varia dejiny, dir. Peter Kerekes, 2008, SR – Austria – CR).
31. 8.
The National Film Archive organized at its Ponrepo screening hall at Bio Konvikt (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague an informational matinee entitled EFG – the On-line Gateway to European Audiovisual Heritage – Past, Present, Future. Tomáš Lachman, M. A., head of the National Film Archive’s departement of written records (Národní filmový archiv - Oddělení písemných archiválií), presented the European Film Gateway’s web portal. The portal provides fast and easy on-line access to digitised objects including photographs, posters, text documents, film weeklies, feature and documentary films – from collections of 16 European film archives and film libraries, including the National Film Archive (Národní filmový archiv) in Prague. As of September 2011 there were some 600,000 items accessible through this portal.