JUBILEE 15TH JI.HLAVA INTERNATIONAL
DOCUMENTARY FILM FESTIVAL
The 15th annual Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival takes place 25-30 October 2011. Over the course of its existence, the Jihlava festival has become an indispensable part of the Czech and Slovak documentary scene, and has actively contributed to the promotion and distribution of documentary films. As always, this year’s most important event for auteur documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe will present a diverse range of Czech and foreign films, with many world, international, Central European, and Czech premieres.
The 15th-anniversary Ji.hlava IDFF will screen 229 films of all lengths (selected from more than 2,500 submissions) from 41 countries around the world, including 23 world premieres and five international premieres.
“Documentary films are society’s best ‘anti-virus program’. It is in their nature to provide permanent feedback, and to ask questions that avoid relativizing. The amount of information should not paralyze, but should deepen our perception. We kept these goals in mind when selecting the films for this year’s 15th anniversary festival.”
Marek Hovorka, director, Ji.hlava IDFF
1. THE FACE OF THE FESTIVAL
This year, the festival slogan has been replaced by a call for action. The 2011 festival cries out: “Release Panahí!”
“The festival has joined protests for the release of renowned Iranian director Jafar Panahí, who has been sentenced to six years in prison, ordered to pay a monetary fine, and banned from making films, writing scripts, traveling abroad, or providing interviews to the media. This is an unacceptable way of silencing the critical voice that should be one of the roles of cinema,” says festival director Marek Hovorka in explaining why the festival poster calls for Panahí’s release.
The festival’s visual design has (for the 11th time) been created by well-known graphic designer, illustrator, and publisher Juraj Horváth. This year’s design features distinct colors and several layers of images that combine to create multiple points of view. Horváth describes his idea through poetry:
“what is going on in the shop window reflection?
how many pictures strike you?
restless dreaming
revolt
a rush of running, falling people…”
“Whereas the slogan for the tenth festival was ‘Never been better,’ today it is important to realize that the party is over, that the era of social harmony is coming to an end, and that we must pay close attention to the things happening around us,” states festival director Marek Hovorka in describing the poster’s theme, adding, “The festival poster always determines the entire festival’s basic mood and, in our opinion, reflects the specific mood of the era while avoiding superficiality. This year, we have decided for a theme of unrest, a certain sense of isolation and tension from our collective race forwards (or back) – attack (or retreat) – just as we have seen during recent protests in Madrid or the looting in London or Berlin. This is also why we welcomed Lukáš Kokeš and Klára Tasovská’s idea for expanding on this motif in the form of a burning bush. In my view, this distinctive image works on two fundamental levels. One is the helplessness that leads a person to set a bush or tree ablaze – it is an act of futility. The other is its reference to the Old Testament story of the burning bush as the Word of God. It can also be seen as a metaphor for self-immolation intended to arouse an apathetic society.”
The authors of this year’s festival spot explain their explanation as follows: “This year, Madrid, London, and many cities in the Near East were ablaze. Social unrest is accompanied by fire, which doesn’t always have to represent destruction and chaos. To me, combustion brings to mind the idea of ‘getting fired up for a cause.’ People should be inflamed by the things going on around them, to get fired up for a cause,” explains Tasovská. Kokeš adds: “I was also thinking of the way we say that something is a ‘burning issue’... today’s problems are truly burning issues, and it is time to act. With the burning bush, we also return to God’s appearance in the Bible, which represents a new beginning, a new story – if we understand him properly. With some exaggeration, the only thing that can help us now is some kind of God. We need to pay close attention to what catches fire and becomes a burning issue...”
2. ORGANIZATION
The festival is organized by the JSAF civic association. In 2010, the Ji.hlava IDFF issued more than 2,600 festival passes, including 182 journalists and 690 film professionals from the Czech Republic and abroad. Last year, we added a new venue, the second auditorium at the DKO House of Culture. Because last year’s statistics showed a 25% increase in the number of festival passes as compared to 2009, we have added another venue for this year’s screening and accompanying program as well – the multipurpose auditorium (seating capacity: 160) created by renovating the former Sokol Cinema. Screenings will also take place at our traditional venues: both auditoriums at the Dukla Cinema (Jana Masaryka 20), both auditoriums at the DKO (House of Culture, Tolstého 2), and in selected Jihlava homes as part of the third annual “Your Home Festival.” As usual, the festival headquarters will be at the Vysočina County Gallery (Komenského 10), where film professionals and journalists may access the videotheque of the East Silver documentary film market. Workshops and presentations in the “Section for Film Professionals” will take place at SUŠG Jihlava (Secondary Graphic Art School; Křížová 18), VŠPJ (Jihlava College of Polytechnics; Tolstého 16), and DiOD (Tyršova 12). Theater performances will take place in the festival tent and the Bufet Theater’s “Autobuf” bus, the musical program is being hosted by the Soul Music Club at its new address (Tolstého 23). A new tent with a festival café will be erected on the main square. This year’s price for a festival pass (accreditation) for the festival’s entire duration is CZK 450.
- director of the Ji.hlava IDFF is Marek Hovorka
- program director of the Ji.hlava IDFF is Petr Kubica
- executive director of the Ji.hlava IDFF is Katarina Holubcová
The following awards will be presented as part of the 2011 Ji.hlava IDFF:
- Contribution to World Cinematography
- Best International Documentary Film
- Best Central and Eastern European Documentary Film
- Film New Europe Visegrad Prix 2011
- Best Czech Documentary Film
- Best Experimental Documentary Film
- Spectators’ Prize
- Respekt Prize (in conjunction with the weekly Respekt magazine)
- Most beautiful 2011 festival poster
- Spectators’ Prize for most beautiful 2011 festival poster
The section for film professionals will present the following awards:
- The Golden Funnel
- IDFA Forum Award
- Silver Eye Award in the categories of short, mid-length, and feature documentary
- In collaboration with HBO and East Silver, the festival will award a prize for the best documentary subjects
Share with your friends: | 
