Ji.hlava 26

A gently joyous and reflective journey through the life and work of pioneering experimental filmmaker Barbara Hammer, Brydie O’Connor’s illuminating and impressively structured film utilises 16mm, 8mm, video and digital from the Barbara Hammer estate to celebrate the work of a forthright filmmaker and to dwell on her considerable legacy.

In Saudades Eternas, an international premiere in Ji.hlava, French director Emma Boccanfuso follows the remarkable Mother Courage-like Sueli, a flamboyant local woman living in a Rio favela and fighting to hold her extended family together, while running her own makeshift bar and enjoying plenty of gossip with the neighbours. “I very quickly found myself propelled into the heart of the home and the intimacy of this family,” the director tells BDE. “From there, a deep friendship was born, to the point that I have been coming back several times a year to see them for the past ten years.”

Czech filmmaker Filip Remunda has known Blanka Kulová, the daughter of maverick photographer Vlastimil Kula, most renowned for his nude and erotic photography, since they were teenagers. Now, Remunda and Kulová have collaborated on Love Exposed, a “tragicomic documentary” that explores the fiery relationship between daughter and father. By participating in the documentary, through her art and through therapy, she is trying to break a long-lasting cycle of family misery and misunderstanding. “She is fragile but also powerful,” the director says of his collaborator.

Cats and dogs feature very prominently in Life Is There, the lyrical and evocative new documentary directed by Ishtar Yasin Gutiérrez that receives its world premiere in Ji.hlava’s Opus Bonum competition. “I don’t want human beings in the centre of the story. I think that the animals are living with us,” the director tells BDE. “In the film, I talk about orphans. These animals are also like orphans, in really dangerous situations. I feel a real identification with them…also, I wanted to say that these animals are sacred for me.”

Who are the ‘good girls’? Those who conform to the strict rules of a Polish reformatory, or those who fight the system until they are eighteen and allowed to leave? Ania Winiarska’s documentary (world-premiering in Ji.hlava’s Opus Bonum competition) doesn’t judge or analyse, but remains steadfastly on the side of the girls within this suffocating correctional facility.

James Longley’s tale of a hard-working Afghan boy living in an orphanage alongside other sons of “martyrs,” undergoing a strict religious education, seemed like a bureaucratic nightmare to make, until US producer Alex Gibney stepped in. “I can't think of another producer alive who would have taken on a project with so many inherent risks,” Longley tells BDE. “Without an Alex Gibney, films like this - where the path is rocky and the outcome is initially uncertain - will stop being made.”

An absorbing and compassionate portrait of resilience, determination and skill, Eliška Cílková Andršová’s Up Again (Znovu vstaň) celebrates the ‘never give up’ spirit of young figure skater Barbora Vránková as she attempts to transition from young Czech skating star to making it in the big leagues of world championships. The film is selected for the festival’s Czech Joy competition.

In Éric Baudelaire’s Car la lune, a European premiere in main competition at Ji.hlava IDFF, blind students in Paris use both their cameras and creativity to illustrate their very particular perception of the world. “Any film, particularly a documentary film, has to be built on trust,” the director reflects to Business Doc Europe on his decision to hand over cameras to his subjects.

“The anniversary encouraged us to reflect not only on what Ji.hlava has achieved, but also on our responsibilities towards the future of documentary filmmaking,” the Ji.hlava Head of Industry tells BDE before doors open on the festival’s 30th edition. “At a time when artistic freedom, cultural institutions and public funding are increasingly under pressure, I believe festivals have a responsibility to support independent filmmaking and the communities around it.”

Marek Hovorka reflects on 30 years of Ji.hlava IDFF, one of the key staging posts for the international doc community, and arguably the loudest advocate for the export of great docs out of the CEE region. “Things have changed dramatically over those three decades,” he tells Business Doc Europe. “In the beginning, filmmakers submitted their films by sending us VHS tapes [and] one of the first big upgrades to our office was buying a fax machine. On the other hand, we already had our first website in 1999! So yes, thirty years is a long time.”