Movies by Jana Ševčíková, Jaromír Kačer a Alan Vitouš

Display Schedule

Code Completion Credits Range Language Instruction Semester
303MFSKV Z 1 7S Czech summer

Subject guarantor

Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ

Name of lecturer(s)

Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ

Learning outcomes of the course unit

To introduce students to the films of 3 unmistakable artists.

Mode of study

Module instruction: Dept. of Documentary Film.

Lecturer: Jana Ševčíková, Jaromír Kačer and Alan Vitouš (sponsor Alice Růžičková)

Time and Place: Friday, 22. 3. 2019, 10-17:00, FAMU Screening room

Requirement: Credit/1 – 100% attendance + class participation

Capacity: 60

Elective for: FAMU

Language of instruction: česky

Prerequisites and co-requisites

None

Course contents

Meeting with figures - Jana Ševčíková (screenwriter and director), Jaromir Kačer (camera) and Alan Vitouš (music) or reviews of works and communication with crews on the background of the screening of their films from 35mm copies:

Friday 22.3, 10-12:00 in the FAMU screening room

Piemule (1984, 43') - a film about a Czech minority which more than 150 years ago settled in the hills not far from Timisoara. Czech Tradesmen and farmers came to his area in 1822 with their entire families to find work, land and a new life. Director Jana Ševčíková traveled to Romania under difficult conditions at the beginning of the 1980s. Over several years she was able to capture the way of living of one remote village. During the 4 seasons she depicted in film working topics (cultivation and harvest), and religious rituals (Christmas customs, Lent, Easter and Wedding ceremonies). The director presents individual figures, their customs, behaviour and viewpoints. The complex structure of the film enables a highlighting of social aspects of life of this small, foreign enclave in Romania, their history, and moral depth of character. The isolation from foreign influence has resulted in the maintaining of language, culture and national identity.

Starověrci (2001, 46') - a documentary which came about over a period of five years in which the director in time lapse recorded the life of people of strict beliefs living in a Romanian village in the Danube delta. In the film it is apparent the length of filming. There is a deep understanding of life there; how time moves there. It is noticeable also how they don't notice time, but the manner of shooting and work with the material doesn't record any movement, no change aside from the natural line of the layout of baptism and burial.

Lunch 12:00-13:00

Friday, 22.3.13:00-17:00, FAMU screening room

Svěcení jara (2002, 55') - this documentary is primarily a portrait of the Japanese dancer and choreography Mina Tanaka. This film encompasses two performances of The Rite of Spring - one took pace at a Prague theatre and the other outdoors at Tanaka's mountain farm in Kakus. The time between is supplemented with creative work with other dance students. Tanaka is an important figure in alternative theatre. His performances with the group Mai-Juku are reactions to over-technological live which has been torn away from nature, the world which continues to open a chasm between man and others.

Gyumri (2014, 68') - 7. December 1988 begain in the Armenian town of Gyumri with the results of an earthquake for thousands of people, among which a third were children - Deteriorating families reacted by giving newborns the names of those siblings who had died which led to a problem of identification and still today many believe that the soul of the brother or sister lives with or in them. This documentary shows life after a catastrophe which the director shot over the course of 3 years.

Recommended or required reading

Jana Ševčíková (*1953, Prague) completed the Secondary School of Film in Čimelice and in 1983, FAMU in Prague, documentary film studies. She is held in special regards among Czech documentary filmmakers. In school she had problems with her non-traditional view of the world, trying to observe the foundation of items. Among professionals she is valued as a unique talent and personality moving between norms and categories. She is completely independent and creates only projects she is convinced that she „must film,“ most in her own production which was, earlier in Czechoslovakia very difficult. She has an intense interes in ethnography and life in difficult circumstances. Her films evoke fundamental questions of human existence which regard man as an individual and a member of society anywhere in the world.

She completed her documentary film studies at FAMU with the poetic-ethnographic essay Piemule (1983). Becasue of disagreements with the heads of Short Film Prague, she was forced to cut a 80 minute documentary up in 19 places. For this she chose independent Czech filmmakers. During the former regime she lived from cleaning flats and buildings. She remains true to her independece today. She is the director and producer of her own films. Her work has frequently been awarded at a number of important film festivals, primarily abroad. Paradoxically, her works are better know around the world than in the Czech Repubic. Filmography: Světské děti (1981), Tulakona (1986), Jakub (1992), Starověrci (2001), Svěcení jara (2002), Gyumri (2008).

Jaromír Kačer (*1961, Prague) studied at the Camera Dept. of FAMU where he collaborated in school filmings of Lichá směna (dir. K. Snop), Tatínek neprotestoval (dir. J. Suchý), and visual drama ideas Vlček (dir. Z. Tyc) and single cameraman excursions into the world of animation (artistic collaboration with M. Pavlátová) - recording Tady. He entered the world of full-length film in 1989 with the remarkable black and white ballad Vojtěch, řečený sirotek, dir. Zdeněk Tyc, which is considered one of the most signficant films at the end of the century. After completing studies he worked at Laterna Magica where he learned film effect elements of the MInotaurus show. He then was active in documentary and feature films. He collaborated with the documentary filmmaker Jana Ševčíková on the film Jakub, Right of Spring - Min Tanaka, Starověrci and the latest film Gyumri which in 2008 received the CULT award for best documentary film in the L'Altro Cinema section of the festival in Rome.

He is one of the co-authors, with Jaroslav Hykl, on the film music for Noah's Ark at the National Museum, a fable from modern times Róza strážné strašidlo and the artistically stylized documentary film of Jan Vachal - Magie dřevorytu. Also to be mentions he is part of the image guide to the Prague Castle - step by step and Emperor Charles IV as wel as long-term practice on a significant part of the documentary series - Wine Travels. Jaromír Kačer also works on a trilogy of Gustav Mahler under the direction of Pavel Kačírek where the basis of narration skillfully balances between the telling of a historical film and a documentary. With Ivan Vojnar he filmed the documentary V zahradě and Herci and in 1997 filmed his full-length feature Cesta pustým lesem, for which he received the highest cameraman award at the festival in Barcelona. For the film Sentiment, directed by Tomáš Hejtmánek, inspired by a meeting with the legend of Czech cinematography, František Vláčil, filming its exterior and on-location sections. Kačer also became a cameraman for childrens' television films Archa pro Vojtu and Bubu - Christmas story, by the director Monika Elšíkova.

Alan Vitouš (*1946, Prague) - in the family of the Jazz clarinetist Josef Vitouš /1906-1981/ and model and lyricist, Ludmila Vitoušova /1914-1996/ was born a musician and mult-genre artist in one person. Czech percussionis Alan Vitouš studied at the Prague Conservatory, percussion instruments. In 1962-1965 he was part of the most promising Czech jazz group of all times JUNIOR TRIO with brother Miroslav Vitouš and Jan Hammer. At the beginning of the 1980s he worked with Jiří Stivín and in 1985 he founded his own group VITOUŠ TRIO with Jana Koubokova and Vojtěch Havel. At the turn of the 1990s he performed with the Japanese dancer Min Tanaka (Prague, Tokyo) and returned to collaboration with Miroslav Vitouš (CD Alan Vitouš featuring Miroslav Vitouš 1990, tour around Europe and Japan 1990, Strings of Autumn, Praha 2003). During 1992-1994 he played concerts and recorded with the French musician Miquel Montanar in the „Eastern Wind“ project. For a collaborative project with the Chinese singer Song Feng Jun he was awarded second prise at the prestigious competition in Shanghaj in 1995. Since 1989, Alan Vitouš has worked with the actor Jaroslav Dušek (Vizita theatre) and currently also a foundational member of the Slet Bubeniku project.

Assessment methods and criteria

100% attendance and class participation.

Note

-

Further information

This course is an elective for all AMU students

Schedule for winter semester 2018/2019:

The schedule has not yet been prepared

Schedule for summer semester 2018/2019:

Date Day Time Tutor Location Notes No. of paralel
22.03.2019 10:00–17:00 Alice RŮŽIČKOVÁ Projection Room
Lažanský palác 		projection of 3 films with english subtitles parallel1

The subject is a part of the following study plans