One World: Simon Lereng Wilmont Masterclass at FAMU 23. 3. 2023
Every year One World brings dozens of documentaries about human rights and human rights violations to cinemas. This year's theme is „The Cost of Safety“. The organisers want to draw attention to the problems society is facing now, which the festival cannot ignore - whether it is the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis or climate change.
Students can register for this Module in the KOS here:https://sp.amu.cz/en/predmet303MJSCB.html
On Thursday, 23 March 2023, 20:00 - 21:30h, a masterclass will be held in the U1 classroom (in English) by director Simon Lereng Wilmont, who made the Sundance 2022 winner „A House Made of Splinters“, which was nominated this year for the Oscar for Best Documentary.
Simon Lereng Wilmont was born in Copenhagen, Denmark and graduated from The National Film School of Denmark as a documentary filmmaker. He is the author of award-winning films set in Ukraine, such as Distant Barking Dogs (2017) and House of Splinters (2022), for which he won, among others, the Grand Prize for Directing at Sundance 2022 and One World 2022. He was nominated for an Academy Award this year and has also received nominations for the European Film Awards, the Independent Spirit Award and the IDA Awards. His debut film, Distant Barking Dogs, premiered at the 2017 IDFA Festival, where it won Best First Appearance. Since its premiere, the film has won over 35 awards worldwide and has been nominated for European Film Awards, an Emmy Award and made the Oscar shortlist. It has also won a Peabody Award.
From Friday, March 23 to Sunday, March 26, 2023, there will be screenings of films from One World for the jury at the FAMU Screening Room, students and faculty are welcome - free admission:
Thursday, March 23. FAMU Screening room
10:30 - 12:00 Pongo Calling (dir. Tomáš Kratochvíl, 2022, 78´)
„Most Roma take humiliation as part of their lives,“ says Štefan Pongo, describing the reasons why he and his family moved to the UK 15 years ago. As a truck driver, he lives a happy life here with his wife and children. However, prejudice and discrimination against Romani people do not leave him in peace.
Štefan Pongo's activism began in 2018, when he challenged Roma*s on social media to post photos of themselves at work. He was responding to President Miloš Zeman's racist statements that the vast majority of Roma people do not work. Thousands of people responded to Pong's call at the time. From behind the wheel, he has since organized a demonstration in Brussels, delivered humanitarian aid to settlements in eastern Slovakia, and filmed video blogs in which he aptly named topics related to the Romani ethnic group. The documentary captures Pong's tireless enthusiasm as well as his clashes with his temperamental wife, who had her own ideas about the compatibility of her husband's activities with family life.
Friday, March 24. FAMU screening room
11:00 - 11:40 Hope to the End (dir. Veronika Stehlíková, 2022, 97´)
Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has intervened in the lives of four characters in the film. Each of them tries to cope with the incurable disease in order to make the most of their remaining time.
Veronika Stehlíková's time-lapse documentary presents life with the neuromuscular disease ALS, which causes a gradual weakening of the muscles and ends in total paralysis. There is no cure yet. The average life expectancy is two to five years. Alena, Jarča, Tomáš and Vladimír are aware of this irreversibility. Over the course of four years of filming, they have not lost hope. With all their strength, both physical and mental, and with the support of their family and friends, they continue to travel, dance, love... From their perceptive observation of everyday situations, not only touching, but also unexpectedly humorous moments casually emerge.
11:50 - 13:10 Happy Man (dir. Soňa G. Lutherová, 2023, 81´)
In this time-lapse observation, director and social anthropologist Soňa G. Lutherová presents an intimate portrait of a family in which one of the parents is going through a process of transition.
Marvin is a trans man living in a long-term marital relationship with his partner Ivan and their two children in Sweden. The unexpected separation from his homeland for several months and the slowing down of the entire process of physical and legal gender reassignment during the covid-19 pandemic intensifies the cohabitation between partners and offspring, relationships with relatives and closest people at work. The period of muted timelessness offers the film's female protagonists* a space for mutual support, acceptance of Marvin's gender identity and redefinition of roles within the family. Writing LGBTQ+ novels, in which he has created his male alter ego, plays an important role in Marvin's discovery and experience of his trans authenticity.
Saturday, March 25. FAMU screening room
10:00 - 11:50 Happily Ever After (dir. Jana Počtová 2022, 95´)
How many people does it take to love and what forms can a relationship take? Jana Počtová's time-lapse film is a mosaic of six stories whose protagonists*decided*to set their own boundaries of partnership.
The documentary shows that love can take many forms. The life attitudes of the main characters break down the idea that a long-term monogamous relationship is the only possible form of cohabitation. Polyamory, open marriage or a long-term love affair represent a fulfilling lifestyle for many of the protagonists*, but at the same time they still have to cope with society's misunderstanding or conflicts within relationships. The director herself actively enters the documentary, as a voice from the outside, openly asking questions that reveal the joys but also the worries of what it means to be with someone but not own them.
Sunday, March 26. FAMU screening room
10:00-11:50 Stop Time (dir. David Čálek, 2022, 92´)
A documentary about five Czech men and women shows the months when life came to a standstill because of the Covid-19 pandemic. How did actress Vanda Hybnerová, singer-songwriter Radůza, theologian Tomáš Halík, ski resort operator David Chmelař and café owner Havel Parkán cope with the situation?
From one day to the next they lost the opportunity to work, they lost their clients, they transferred their activities to the digital environment, but above all they had to learn to wait. Life in the lockdown era is brought to life through the fate of personalities trying to reconcile their professions with anti-pandemic measures. While Radůza starts to make money with her hobby, Tomáš Halík serves mass online in an empty church. The characters in the documentary oscillate between skepticism about the decisions of politicians and violation of bans. But hope does not leave anyone. Ironically, the main protagonist of the documentary about the pandemic is not an unknown virus, but the people themselves who refused to resign.
For further screenings of the film (annotations and showtimes) from 1 March, please visit https://www.jedensvet.cz/program