In the Musical Documentary competition appears Slovak-Czech The Band, directed by Ladislav Kaboš, produced by Michael Kaboš (KABOS film & Media) and Svatava Maria Kabošová (MEDIA FILM). The documentary, co-produced by Radio and Television Slovakia and Czech Television, chronicles the birth of the Gypsy Band Lomnické Čháve in difficult social circumstances of a Roma settlement in Eastern Slovakia.

Celebrated documentary A New Shift, directed by Jindřich Andrš, takes part in the Impact competition. A story of Tomáš, a miner forced to radically change his life after the closure of the Paskov mine, is produced by Miloš Lochman, Karel Chvojka, Augustina Micková of moloko film and co-produced by Bystrouška, Czech Television and FAMU. The Czech Film Fund supported the winner of Ji.hlava's Czech Joy 2021 for production with EUR 23 000.

Two other competition include Czech documentaries. While Martin Páv’s Wolves at the Borders is part of the European Stories competition, Forget Me Not by Adela Križovenská will compete in the competition for New Talents. Wolves at the Borders, produced by Zuzana Kučerová of Frame Films and supported by the Czech Film Fund with EUR 50 000, looks at the contradictory reactions to wolves slowly returing to countryside in the Broumov region. Forget Me Not, animated student film of FAMU deals with the impact of communism in the Czech society.

Visegrad Focus

The Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia have been selected to form this year’s focus of the FIPADOC. In order to create an exceptional Focus, FIPADOC is partnering with key actors in each region – in the Czech Republic it is the Institute of Documentary Film and the Czech Film Fund.

Two Czech documentaries are part of the focus: Ticket to the Moon by Veronika Janatková and The Good Death by Tomáš Krupa. Janatková’s German-Czech film, produced by Stefan Kloos of Kloos & Co. Medien and co-produced by Veronika Janatková and Czech Television on the Czech side, and ZDF / Arte. The documentary focus on people who wanted to participate in the space race on both sides of the Iron Curtain in the second half of the 20th century.

Industry programme

In the non-competitive part of the programme, Hana Jakrlová and Alice Tabery of CINEPOINT takes part in the International Pitches with Musica O Muerte: Destined to Freedom. The documentary tells a story of Gorki, a Cuban rocker who has fought against the communist regime in his homeland for many years.

Director Greta Stocklassa will introduce her Blix, a portrait of a Swedish polititian and diplomat produced by Radovan Síbrt and Alžběta Karásková of PINK, in the International Pitches – History.

How to co-produce with Visegrad Group countries (20. 1.2021, 11:00-12:30) will answer Vratislav Šlajer (Bionaut) along with his colleagues from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia. The panel will be moderated by Zdeněk Blaha (IDF, The Czech Republic), and Blaha will also take part in the event Panorama of Festivals and Markets in Central Europe (20. 1. 2021, 12:30-14:00).

While Anna Kryvenko will participate in the Dealing with the (archival) past in Central Europe (21. 1. 2021, 16:00-17:30) panel with her My Unknown Soldier (2018), Pavla Klimešová will discuss Caught in the Net in the Documentary in Central Europe: Hybrid Forms and Innovation (20. 1. 2021, 16:00-17:30). Markéta Štinglová of Czech Television and Hana Kastelicová of HBO Europe take part in the Broadcasters in the Visegrad Countries – And Beyond (22. 1. 14:30–16:00).

In addition, producer Kristýna Michálek Květová (Cinémotif Films) and director Veronika Lišková (Daniel's World) will appear in the Window on Ex Oriente (21. 1. 2021, 18:00-18:30) with their project The Visitors.