Ji.hlava online presents Slovak documentaries

The 24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (October 27 – November 8, 2020) will take place online. The program will feature several Slovak and co-production films including three world premieres.

Czech Joy section, which presents the new domestic documentary works will offer four Slovak and co-production documentaries including two film portraits. World-renowned filmmaker and surrealist artist Jan Švankmajer is captured in the film Alchemical Furnace made by directing duo Jan Daňhel and Adam Oľha. The film is trying to identify Švankmajer’s creative methods and his sources of inspiration. Eternal Jožo (d. Jan Gogola Jr.) reveals the complicated personality of the Slovak music legend Jožo Ráž. „This is not a celebratory or a balanced portrait. In this film, I refer to a flesh and bone legend who has a platinum plate on his wall for selling music and a platinum plate in his head after an accident,” says Gogola. The Czech competition will also feature film essay White on White by Viera Čákanyová. During her stay in the Antarctic, she was chatting with artificial intelligence, discussing topics related to cinema, art and the meaning of life. Directors Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda will present Once Upon a Time in Poland, in which they are trying to understand Poles and their relationship with God. In the film, they turn to casual passers-by, nuns celebrating the anniversary of the baptism of Poland, a representative of the anti-Semitic Radio Maryja, and a priest accused of sexual harassment. Renowned Slovak writer Monika Kompaníková will be among the jurors judging the 13 documentaries of the Czech Joy section.

Documentary Refugees Are Welcome Here by Tomáš Rafa will world premiere within Between the Seas competition. The film captures the uncertain situation of refugees in refugee camps in Berlin. “When you are shooting with extreme right-wing groups,” says the director “the most important thing is to act as if you belong among them, and keep calm. I don’t take part in discussions and I only record their words because they themselves want it, I don’t ask questions,” says Rafa.

Opus Bonum section features White on White and Once Upon a Time in Poland.

This year’s Slovak participant of Emerging Producers, a promotional and educational project that brings together talented European documentary film producers is Zora Jaurová (MPhilms).