Four Czech documentaries at prestigious Canadian Hot Docs

27 March 2023

Czech Film Short Films

Four Czech documentaries at prestigious Canadian Hot Docs

Czech Film Short Films

Four Czech documentaries at prestigious Canadian Hot Docs

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Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (27 April-7 May, 2023) – North America's largest documentary festival – presents each year over 200 cutting edge films from around the world. This year the programme includes four Czech documentaries – three features and one short – appearing in various sections of this prestigious film event.

Czech Republic-Norway-Slovakia feature documentary The Visitors by Veronika Lišková will be screened in the festival section exploring timely topics of urgency – The Changing Face of Europe – organized in cooperation with European Film Promotion. The film follows the Czech anthropologist Zdenka in the world's northernmost city, Longyearbyen in Svalbard, Norway, where she moved with her husband and three children after receiving a two-year grant for scientific research. In addition to observing how climate change is altering life in the polar regions, the film's protagonist gets to know the very diverse local community. The film´s world premiere took place at Locarno FF – in the prestigious Semaine de la Critique programme – and received Jury´s special mention at Jihlava IDFF.

Among Special Presentations of Hot Docs, featuring high-profile subjects, award-winning films and filmmakers, and masterful perspectives on current events and pressing issues, is also Czech Republic-Germany-Sweden documentary Blix Not Bombs by Czech-Swedish millennial filmmaker Greta Stocklassa, the author of the award winning Kiruna – A Brand New World from 2019. Her new film portrays the today retired Swedish politician Hans Blix, a UN diplomat, who had played a crucial role in the fight against terrorism at the beginning of the millennium. He reflects on his career and the legacy he will leave for future generations. Just finished CPH:DOX hosted the world premiere of the film while the Czech premiere took place at the One World festival, still ongoing in Prague.

Marie-Magdaléna Kochová's Shells will be screened In Short Film Programme of the festival. In her  short film, an elevator of the nursing home turns into a stage as the old dancer explores the limits of his body, memory, and passing of time. Starring Jan Minařík, the soloist of Pina Bausch theatre and the greatest Czech 20th century dancer.

Another Slovak - Czech co-production will be screened in the Changing Face of Europe section. A Happy Man directed by the social anthropologist Soňa G. Lutherová brings an intimate portrait of a family in which one of the parents is transitioning. An unexpected separation of the protagonist from his homeland, as well as the slowing down of the entire process of physical and legal sex change due to the covid-19 pandemic, intensifies the relationships between partners and offspring, with relatives and closest co-workers. 

 

Related films

Blix Not Bombs

Greta had just turned 8 years old when she watched the unfolding of 9/11 on her TV in Stockholm. In the following months and years she saw her fellow countryman, the diplomat Hans Blix, become a major player in the global crisis,…

Director

Greta Stocklassa

Year

2023

Genre

Documentary

Shells

The elevator of the nursing home turns into a stage as the old dancer explores the limits of his body, memory, and passing of time. Trapped inside the four walls, he must face the helplessness of his own languishing shell.…

Year

2022

Genre

Documentary, Fiction

The Visitors

A young anthropologist, Zdenka, moves with her husband and three sons to Svalbard, Norway, to study how life is changing in polar regions. She has received a prestigious two- year grant to carry out extensive research on the…

Year

2022

Genre

Documentary

Related people

Marie-Magdalena Kochová

Film Contact
Czech Republic

Greta Stocklassa

Director, Writer, Story, Editor

Czech Film Center
division of the Czech Film Fund promoting Czech cinema worldwide

Email: info@filmcenter.cz
 

 

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