When I Grow Up

Moravian Hellas(cs)

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.

The Shadow over Prague(cs)

The Nazis decided to awaken the dark forces of the Old Prague legends in order to use (and abuse) them to destroy the world. The only one who can stop them is Perak.

Night on the Town(en)

In a run-down hotel for transients, a man sleeps fitfully in bed. He rises to use the toilet down the hall, and while he's there, a burglar enters his room. He returns to find the burglar leaving through the window; the burglar falls to the street beneath. The man leaves the hotel and walks past the fallen burglar to a seedy bar, where he drinks too much and has a hedonistic vision of sex and death. He awakens on the bar-room floor and drags himself out. Is this the end for him?

The Enchanted Bell(cs)

After a magic bell from Tibet is stolen, a little girl and an elephant undertake a dangerous journey to bring the bell home.

Garden Party(fr)

In a deserted rich house, a couple of amphibians explore their surroundings and follow their primal instincts.

A Little Love(en)

Through interspersed conversation and prose, this experimental documentary follows a poet and a neuroscientist as they explore the definition of love, what it means, and why it matters.

Honey Bunny Duracell(cs)

A vivid encounter with former three time Czech National Boxing Champion. Experience the rise and fall in the career of a female fighter.

The Limited Bird(en)

John's first independent work from 1989. Won Best of Fest Shorts at the Cinequest Film Festival, CA. The film is comprised of highly rendered drawings with very little moving parts to tell a complex story of relationships "gone to the birds".

77777(cs)

CERN, or The Factory for the Absolute(cs)

Human action is often influenced by the desire for knowledge. This desire is in itself a positive impulse and could be said to be the basis of all progress. Let's move this statement to the ground of scientific research at CERN, and see if it applies here - and then test the common experience that human stupidity permeates every social stratum and, in the case of the elites, is a potential threat.

Hry prachu(cs)

Film in hand. Carnival in the global village.

We Are Human, After All(cs)

During a very harsh winter, a hare has to deal with the bitter cold, hunger and the threats posed by hunters and other animals. One day he sees the easy, comfortable and safe lives that rabbits lead. He decides to go and stay with them in the hutch.

Test(cs)

A Box of Film(cs)

A film about filmmaking.

The Mumps(cs)

In the diary of a six-year-old girl, Marie, we learn what important things happened during one holiday month before she started first grade and how she perceived the changes in her family.

Bacchus(xx)

Alex, a young woman bored with modern life, is lured by Bacchus into a colorful and mysterious world to explore her deepest desires.

Dřevorubec(cs)

The animated fairy tale tells the story of a woodcutter who cuts down a forest, carves a forest maiden out of one of the trunks and suddenly realises that he has served an evil master all his life. At the last moment, he defies fate and saves the revived tree. The artwork is based on the traditions of Czech puppet film. The plot is underscored by the haunting music of an acoustic guitar.

Ľudia a telefon(sk)

Lov(cs)

Two Elephants(cs)