The Faces of Parkinson

Two instants separated by 99 days conflict with each other.

Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

An account of the experiences by poet and National Literature Award laureate Raúl Zurita, during his travels and his daily life, as he reflects on topics such as state terrorism and death

Vianočný dar

77777

Ženy v uniformě

Africa, a trans woman dedicated to musical representation and comic entertainment on Facebook exhibits her daily life through live broadcasts, having success and a large influx of viewers. This while she is getting ready for her special program in honor of her best friend Vicenta de Loris, since a year has passed since her life was taken from her.

Roma, and Britain. Following the application of new draconian laws, Documentarian Jacob Parvin seeks to uncover the beautiful culture and misguided stigma,a synonymous with Gypsy Blood. Jacob grapples with their own identity as a Gypsy and relationship with their grandmother, for what identity do Travellers hold in a modern world?

A documentary that threads on the hidden conundrums in the deaf world. Within the deaf and the hearing world is a fine line - so what's it like to live within as an in-betweener?

A portrait of 14-year-old Wen Bin and a Sri Lankan monk. They walk different landscapes of their residences - a temple, a home, a body.

The film explores the taboo subject of homosexuality within the Roma community through the personal story of a Roma activist who happens to be gay. Though his job has earned him respect among his peers, by coming out his status is in jeopardy. However, the desire to share his complex story prompted him to write a screenplay based on his life. Partly a documentary about his autobiographical script, the film switches between documentary and narrative storytelling. Owing to its distinctive style, the film offers a glimpse into the protagonist's world as he faces triple discrimination: as a Roma, as a gay man, and as a gay man in the Roma community.

With the banning of the religion in 1972, male Jehovah's Witnesses are made to spend their National Service in the detention barracks for two and a half years or longer. This documentary follows the lives of three male Jehovahs Witnesses and their lives in Singapore as well as the first Witness who was imprisoned in 1972.

A short documentary on how people view art and its value in today's society.

Ľudia a telefon

Through rhythmic re-composition of fragmented images, semi-surreal situations are explored in a documentary style of observation of a man's obsession with a powerful animal, the black horned bull, and the Spanish process of taxidermy through which he attempts to embody its beauty and strength, turning into a Minotaur. The subdued basement space in which the man meticulously studies the motionless flesh of the animal is preceded by a sunlit, empty arena in Spain, the stage in which the bull is presented in its full glory before facing man.

It used to be dark at night and light during the day, which is far from the case now. Light pollution and excessive use of light, especially in cities, negatively affects the health of not only humans, but also insects, animals and plants... The main topic of the documentary film Sleep Thieves is the issue of light pollution and the effect of light on sleep. We are accompanied through the film by two main experts, a chronobiologist, who mainly contributes knowledge about sleep and the effect of light on sleep, and a lighting engineer, who introduces us to wrong and right lighting. The next part is dedicated to e.g. the explanation of circadian rhythms, hormones associated with sleep, the importance of alternating light and dark, the effect of light on sleep, the issue of light pollution and correct and incorrect lighting both outdoors and indoors.

The film portrait of a face made of shit thematizes the individual's ideas about his own freedom. Antonín dolák, philosopher and YouTuber, feels free when he gets rid of all social conventions. He loses his face, takes off his mask and talks openly about the socially taboo topics that line his life. However, a conflict arises between him and the staff, when Dolak loses control over the depiction of himself.

This film is an imprint on the film strip, an imprint in the mind just like a memory of my father’s garden where a child is playing; an imprint of the father on the garden as a reflection of his character; an imprint of the garden on the father; an imprint of him on a person. As if the seeds were falling from his beard, skin, or hair and become the garden, roots, sprouting and growing, just like a child.

The film poem about pesticides reflects on the return to the natural food chain, in which insect pest serve as food for the higher order. The harmonic cycle of life and death, the temple that is the wildflower field resounding with the inebriating sound of crickets chirping and wheat spikes rustling in the wind, is invaded by the human, the ultimate consumer with no natural predator.

Director Tereza Tara fell ill at the age of twenty-five. She captured her ten-year-long journey to recovery, which took her deep into the past and to the edge of the abyss, in the form of a personal and poetic video diary. With her weakened kidneys, she visited doctors, psychosomatic experts, and an alternative healer who urged her to surrender herself into the hands of God. Gradually, she began to see the condition of her dual organs as a reflection of her unbalanced relationship with her mother, her partner, and her own body. She finally understood that if she wanted to find a cure for her diseased kidneys and start living a better life, she needed to understand herself better first.