The 28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival begins in two weeks. The programme will provide greater than 300 movies and consists of a revealing retrospective of Swiss filmmaker Anne Marie Miéville and a showcase of award-winning Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang. The competition will likely be attended by director Kirsten Johnson, the writer of this yr’s Ji.hlava competition trailer, amongst different friends are administrators Roberto Minervini, Albert Serra and Andrei Ujică. The 28th IDFF Ji.hlava will happen on October 25 – November 3, lasting for the first time ten days.
This yr, the Ji.hlava IDFF will provide 340 movies in each competitors and non-competition sections, of which 129 in the world premiere, 23 in the worldwide premiere and 11 in the European premiere.
The 28th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival begins in two weeks. The programme will provide greater than 300 movies and features a revealing retrospective of Swiss filmmaker Anne Marie Miéville and a showcase of award-winning Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang. The competition will likely be attended by director Kirsten Johnson, the writer of this yr’s Ji.hlava competition trailer, and administrators Roberto Minervini, Albert Serra and Andrei Ujică. The 28th IDFF Ji.hlava will happen on October 25 – November 3, lasting for the first time ten days.
This yr, the Ji.hlava IDFF will provide 340 movies in each competitors and non-competition sections, of which 129 in the world premiere, 23 in the worldwide premiere and 11 in the European premiere.
“The programme of Ji.hlava shows the extraordinary power of documentary film. Documentary filmmakers replace the literalness of reality with playfulness and originality of thought. They show us the world as we could hardly see it ourselves – unless, like them, we would like to spend long years with a camera in those places,” says Marek Hovorka, the competition’s director. “Dialogue has been important to Ji.hlava since its beginning, so of course the screenings will be followed by talks. I am delighted that the audience will be able to meet many filmmakers in person, including Kirsten Johnson, Tsai Ming-liang, Roberto Minervini, Andrei Ujică and Albert Serra.“
Trailer of the 28th Ji.hlava directed by Kirsten Johnson
Each yr, Ji.hlava invitations one director to honour the competition with a competition trailer. After Jean-Luc Godard, Godfrey Reggio, Artavazd Peleshyan, this yr’s Ji.hlava spot was directed by American documentary filmmaker and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson. “Kirsten Johnson’s trailer plays with Kafkaesque transformation on the border of life and death, dream and fantasy. She moves the scene from the family archive to an imaginative world, allowing for a different reading each time. The minute-long film becomes a poem that gets stuck in our heads like a memory of our own childhood and its endless imagination,” says Hovorka. Director and cinematographer Kirsten Johnson, who was awarded the Jury Prize for Innovation in Nonfiction Storytelling at Sundance for her newest movie, will current her ideas on the transformation of movie from the celluloid to the digital period throughout her Masterclass at Ji.hlava.
Tsai Ming-liang
Another visitor of this yr’s Ji.hlava will likely be the award-winning director, a number one consultant of the Taiwanese New Wave, Tsai Ming-liang. Seven of his movies, in addition to a Masterclass, will likely be provided in the Tribute: Tsai Ming-liang part. The programme consists of the basic Good Bye, Dragon Inn (2003), a cinephile farewell letter to Taipei cinema (Critics’ Award at the Venice Film Festival), in addition to the later Where (2022), which belongs to the director’s well-known “Walker” collection of movies, the hero of which is a Buddhist monk strolling very slowly. Between gradual cinema, conceptual artwork and efficiency, his movies take care of themes of loneliness, time and reminiscence. The Tsai Ming-liang retrospective was supported by the Ministry of Culture Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Prague.
Roberto Minervini
Back in 2020, Ji.hlava introduced a tribute to Roberto Minervini, a celebrated Italian director based mostly in the USA, which was ultimately solely held on-line attributable to the covid pandemic. This yr, Minervini will attend Ji.hlava in particular person to share with audiences his working strategies throughout a Masterclass. He can even introduce his newest movies The Damned, depicting the US Civil War in 1862 (Directing Award in the Un Certain Regard part at Cannes this yr), and his earlier documentary Stop the Pounding Heart (2014), a few strongly spiritual Texas household of goat farmers. “My approach hasn’t changed. I work with narratives and build stories around them,” Minervini explains his strategy to directing, which is particular to the intermingling of documentary and fiction filmmaking methods.
Andrei Ujică
After 13 years, Romanian director Andrei Ujică returns to Jihlava, the place his The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceauşescu gained the Best Central and East European Documentary Award in 2010. This time, Ji.hlava viewers can stay up for TWSD: Things We Said Today, which premiered a month in the past at the Venice Film Festival. This cinematic essay explores what remains to be current immediately of the divided America of the Sixties. Andrei Ujică, one of the most unique filmmakers working with archival and found-footage materials, will element his technique throughout his Masterclass.
Albert Serra
The Catalan movie director and writer of final yr’s Ji.hlava trailer, Albert Serra, can even current his new movie Afternoons of Solitude in particular person. The movie about the toreador star Andrés Roca Rey is an aesthetically fascinating probe into the world of corrida. The movie depicts not solely the preparatory rituals and flashy costumes, however above all the well-known bullfighter in the bull ring. The express depiction of the violence perpetrated on this controversial custom raises the query of whether or not the animal or the human is the originator of the brutality of corrida.
Opus Bonum: Life in Belarus and in a psychiatric clinic
What will competitors sections provide this yr? The Opus Bonum part, which presents the traits and tendencies of world documentary movie, consists of 13 movies.
Tomasz Wolski’s movie A Year in the Life of a Country, makes use of lesser-known archival footage to return to December 1981, when the Polish authorities declared a state of emergency in response to the rising affect of the Solidarity commerce union motion. In a collage edited with a aptitude for the absurd, the director consists of not solely the dramatic clashes between protesters and the repressive equipment, but in addition the incontrovertible fact that some of the residents have been extra involved about empty retailer cabinets than about unfreedom.
The French movie I’m Not With You, directed by the duo Olivier Dury and Marie-Violaine Brincard, can even be about unfreedom, set in a closed ward of a psychiatric hospital. The movie’s protagonists and antagonists dialogue and monologue about their desires and torments, and the filmmakers painting them not as harmful sufferers however as people with distinctive interior lives.
Out of the competitors, Belarusian director Nikita Lavretsky’s ten-hour opus Ulysses will likely be screened, displaying the on a regular basis weight of life in up to date Minsk.
All 13 movies in the Opus Bonum part may be discovered right here.
First Lights: A recent documentary wind
The First Lights competitors part will characteristic 11 movies. “First Lights returns to the programme thanks to the extension of the festival. The section is dedicated to authors’ first and second feature films. According to statistics, only thirty percent of directors continue to make films after their debut, which is terribly low. That’s why we want to support the emerging generation of filmmakers and show how differently they approach film and how they bring documentary film to life with their straightforwardness,” says Marek Hovorka.
In the Belgian movie Me + You, the pair of administrators Zohra Benhammou and Romy Mana depict 4 years of change in the lives of two sisters whose bond is shattered after one of them turns into an orthodox Muslim.
In Comrades, Polish director Joanna Janikowska observes a number of younger members of the Italian Communist Party and exhibits us a brand new face of activism.
Australian filmmaker Audrey Lam’s Us and the Night affords a robust experimental flavour in a playful, poetic documentary set in the world of libraries, an imaginary universe made up of aisles, ebook spines, letters, phrases and tales. Night after night time, two vacationers enterprise into it, typically their steps cross they usually stay briefly dialog, typically they wander alongside their very own routes of ideas and fantasies.
All 11 movies in the First Lights part may be discovered right here.
Czech Joy: The American dream and life in Putin’s Russia
The Czech Joy part, which presents new Czech documentaries, options 21 movies. Zora Čápová’s Pit Stop Reporter captures not solely the work of award-winning reporter Ivana Svobodová, but in addition her conflict with the world of creators and shoppers of “alternative media” who deeply despise the journalist and her world.
World Between Us by Marie Dvořáková captures the “American dream” of Czech photographer Marie Tomanová, who lives in New York. “In the movie, I attempted to seize the dramatic development of the flip from virtually inventive insignificance to the first nice success, which nonetheless will not be definitive. All this in the context of the New York surroundings, removed from dwelling. Our documentary thus bears witness to the moments that form the profession of younger artists, with all the uncertainties and obstacles they’ve to beat on the strategy to their dream,” says Marie Dvořáková. The movie can even be screened in the First Lights part, which presents the yr’s excellent documentary debuts.
Forest is a Polish-Czech co-production by Lidia Duda which captures the idyllic life of a younger household in an previous home close to the Białowieża Forest in jap Poland. Europe’s oldest forest is a refuge for them and their three kids, however immediately folks begin showing there alongside the animals: refugees who are usually not welcome in Belarus or Poland. Confused, hungry, injured. A household used to defending all residing creatures sees it as their obligation to assist them. Even at the threat of shedding the paradise they’ve created. The movie, then nonetheless in improvement, acquired the Ji.hlava New Visions Award again in 2022.
Filip Remunda‘s new movie Happiness to All additionally displays present world occasions. Vitaly, a nuclear physicist and champion in hardening, makes his residing as a bricklayer and lives in poverty. While his mother and father, outstanding scientists, reminisce about the glory of the regime they willingly served, the avowed patriot from Novosibirsk is regularly altering his thoughts about Putin’s Russia and his imaginative and prescient of restoring the Soviet empire. “Vitaly is afraid of freedom. Like millions of his fellow citizens, he succumbed to the despair brought on by the wild 1990s, and frustration led him to radicalisation. Vitaly’s story is a reminder of how much life conditions and political circumstances can affect our perception of the world and our future. And while some stories may seem distant, their essence is often closer than we think. Before the film was completed, Russia attacked the entire territory of Ukraine, which gave the story an even more tragic feel,” says Filip Remunda about the movie, which was shot in Siberia between 2016 and 2023. The movie can also be featured in the Opus Bonum part.
The theme of the conflict in Ukraine, in addition to dwelling, is explored in the interactive work Fragile Home, which makes use of digital actuality to take viewers into the midst of the conflict in their very own condominium. Following its presentation at the Venice Film Festival, the Czech-Ukrainian artistic duo Ondřej Moravec and Victoria Lopukhina will convey the pretend front room to audiences of Ji.hlava. “It’s important for me to keep bringing up the topic of the war in Ukraine. I see people around me getting tired of the news that it is not moving towards a good end. And I feel the heaviness of it. That’s why we created a project that is not only about the war in Ukraine, but also about what home means to all of us in general,” Moravec says.
The movie Dajori directed by Martin Páv and Nicolas Kourek, follows the story of a Romani girl, Maria Hučková, who tries to interrupt out of the vicious cycle of poverty and create a brand new dwelling for herself and her sister’s 9 kids. The movie captures the on a regular basis challenges and joys of motherhood and asks whether or not love can overcome systemic obstacles.
All movies from the Czech Joy part may be discovered right here.
Testimonies: Hummingbirds and bloody fights in Indonesia
Testimonies, a contest part devoted to essential social, financial, environmental, and political phenomena, will characteristic 15 movies. They take care of decolonisation, the standing of girls, in addition to local weather, environmental and labour points.
The Bones, directed by Jeremy Xido, provides an perception into the world of the dinosaur bone commerce. This thrilling documentary charts the profitable fossil commerce, together with the unlawful one through which poachers don’t hesitate to promote even the most essential artefact into personal arms.
The story of a girl who cares for injured hummingbirds in Los Angeles is instructed in the Australian movie Every Little Thing by Sally Aitken. The movie unravels a visually fascinating and magical story of love, fragility and therapeutic.
South Korean filmmaker In-Soo Radstake will current Selling a Colonial War which takes us again to 1945 when Indonesia declared independence. In response, the Netherlands despatched 1000’s of troops into the nation. Four years of bloody combating ensued, leading to 1000’s of casualties. The Dutch authorities subsequently employed all the instruments of censorship and propaganda to justify the unlawful conflict as a humanitarian mission.
All movies in the Testimonies part may be discovered right here.
Fascinations & Exprmntl.cz: Brand new experimental documentaries
Every yr, Ji.hlava maps ingenious methods of portraying actuality in experimental documentaries. A definite dystopian line runs via the Fascinations worldwide competitors part – each in themes and imagery. “It is surprising how often this year thinking about the future is the main creative force. The films combine environmental, scientific, social and humanitarian perspectives,” says Andrea Slováková, the part’s programmer, pointing to the French movie Chronicles of the Dark Sun by artist Gwenola Wagon, through which people should defend the solar’s insufferable warmth from turning the Earth into an uninhabitable desert.
The Exprmntl.cz part will current 14 most attention-grabbing Czech experimental movies. “Czech experiments are imaginative, thoughtful and imaginative: from subtle, personal, intimate statements, through editing collages, socially critical essays to stylized art films,” provides Slováková. The part will characteristic, amongst different movies, Franc Milec’s cosmic horror movie referred to as Ecopoiesis, which explores the speculation of the risk of creating a brand new ecosystem for all times from the parts and matter of inanimate nature.
All 24 movies in the Fascination part may be discovered right here.
The Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz part is intimately right here.
Anne-Marie Miéville retrospective: stepping out of the shadow
The 28th Ji.hlava IDFF will provide a number of retrospectives. In addition to beforehand introduced revelatory showcase of movies made throughout the interval of the fascist Slovak State, a serious retrospective of the work of Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda, or a precursor to the cinema created by AI, the competition viewers can even stay up for ten movies by the Swiss filmmaker Anne-Marie Miéville, who was the life and inventive accomplice of Jean-Luc Godard.
“In the past, the work of many women artists has been reflected in a very marginal way, not least because they often lived with men who were in the same artistic field. This fact was then reduced by the media and critics to the phrase ‘they were the muses of their men’. Fortunately, we now live in an age that restores equality to women artists in the reflection on their work and replaces ‘inspiration by the masters’ with thinking about artistic dialogue between equal partners. Běla Kolářová is no longer ‘just the wife’ of Jiří Kolář and ‘ Lee Krasner’ is more than just the life partner of Jackson Pollock. In this context, we have chosen to focus on the film work of Anne-Marie Miéville, whose retrospective is a revelatory one and presented for the first time in a wider international context,” says Marek Hovorka.
Miéville first met Godard in 1970 at the Cinematheque in Switzerland. In 1971, they grew to become shut and started experimenting primarily with the media of video and tv. They arrange a studio and manufacturing firm, Sonimage, and this collaboration gave beginning to many collaborative and unbiased works over the following years. Ji.hlava will current the first Sonimage movie, the political essay Here and Elsewhere (1976), which displays on the impact of tv on cinema and society.
The most up-to-date title is the Miéville’s quick six-minute Souvenir d’Utopie (2006), an summary look into the corners of a “state of birth”, into the in-between areas the place the crumbs of inventive artefacts collide, the place three-dimensional fashions, textual content, pictures and color smudges combine. And with the assist of stunning modifying, occasional forays into jazz and classical music or sudden sounds, it teases the viewer’s creativeness.
See the full retrospective of Anne-Marie Miéville right here.
Short Joy: Available on-line, the winner will likely be determined by on-line voting
All nominated quick documentaries from the Short Joy part – of their world or worldwide premiere – will likely be accessible solely and at no cost on dafilms.com from October 10 till November 3. In addition, it is going to be potential to vote till October 24 to resolve the winner or runner-up of the DAFilms Audience Award, which will likely be introduced at the competition’s opening ceremony. All voters will likely be entered right into a draw to win three annual DAFilms subscriptions. “Short Joy shows every year that even a small format is enough to tell big stories and convey big pictures. Screening films in abandoned Greek factories and tunnels (The Empty Houses Are Ours To Do What We Want With Them), an Indian story about the birth of a child in a village where only deaf-mutes live (Only if the Baby Cries…), a testimony about domestic violence (Place without Memory), or a journey through a Laotian forest (The Woodland Threshold). Each of the 23 films carries a distinct theme and has a unique authorial style,” says Andrea Slováková, programmer of the part.
List of Short Joy movies may be discovered right here.
Inspiration Forum: Active citizenship and the artwork of conflict
Inspiration Forum, the Ji.hlava dialogue platform, will provide a packed programme with dozens of audio system specializing in key matters that resonate in the fields of digital know-how, nature conservation, well being and conflict and battle.
What friends and hosts to stay up for specifically? “With sociologist Thorsten Peetz, a professor at the University of Bamberg, we will talk about the digitisation of our intimate relationships,” says head of the Forum Tereza Swadoschová introducing the debate on how applied sciences designed to “save time” are altering the means we relate, and what emotional penalties this brings.
Juraj Lukáč, founder of the Slovak forest conservation affiliation VLK, will give attention to the subject of nature safety. Lukáč has opposed conventional forestry, which prioritises financial pursuits over ecological ones, and his presentation will provide inspiration for all those that wish to become involved in environmental safety. He will share his wealthy expertise from greater than 30 years of combating for forest conservation and present how a residents’ initiative can affect forestry coverage.
Ruwaida Kamal Amer, a journalist and filmmaker from Gaza, will convey distinctive perception into the lives of girls in conflict zones. Ruwaida, who has gained worldwide awards for her work, will share private tales of girls in Gaza whose lives have been fully modified by conflict. Her presentation will provide an intimate take a look at how conflict impacts households, communities and identities, and the challenges they face every day.
See the full programme of the Inspiration Forum 2024 right here.
The 28th Ji.hlava IDFF will happen on October 25–November 3, 2024. More info at www.ji-hlava.com and on the competition’s Facebook and Instagram profiles.
For extra information go to www.ji-hlava.com or contact us at [email protected].
