The 30th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival begins this Friday, 23 October, in the Czech city of Jihlava. Running until 1 November, the anniversary edition presents more than 350 films, including 106 world premieres.
The festival opens with the European premiere of Return to a Strange Land, directed by Olga Malířová Špátová. The documentary follows the choreographer Jiří Kylián as he creates with Sabine Kupferberg, his lifelong muse and dancer. Having made numerous choreographies for Kupferberg, Kylián, now 79, appears beside her as a protagonist for the first time. The film was shot on Terschelling, an island in the northern Netherlands tied to the 1970s, when both dancers emigrated there, and weaves archival footage from 1975 to the present into its reflections on ageing. «Through their art, Sabine and Jiří give audiences wings», says Špátová.
This year’s festival trailer was created by Japanese director Naomi Kawase as an appeal against war. She chose a Corsican lullaby from her personal collection of songs, one that speaks of waiting for someone who will never return. The video stems from her belief that children who grow up listening to lullabies should never become soldiers tasked with killing other people. Kawase received the festival’s Award for Contribution to Cinema in 2005.
The Award for Contribution to World Cinema goes to Czech documentarian Helena Třeštíková and Vietnamese-American filmmaker and theorist Trinh T. Minh-ha. Audiences can watch Bára – Diary of a Rockstar, a three-part television version of Třeštíková’s long-running portrait of the Czech singer. Trinh’s retrospective includes Reassemblage (1982), shot in Senegal, and Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989).
A mystery screening, Surprise / Film Event of the Year, has been prepared with distributor Aerofilms and is billed as a documentary that overturns established ideas about the form. The programme includes NAZA by Rachel Szor and Yuval Abraham, which won the Special Jury Prize at this year’s Venice Film Festival. Over three years, the directors recorded testimonies from 24 former and serving members of the Israeli armed forces. The title is an abbreviation used by Israeli intelligence for ‘collateral damage’, the number of people expected to die in a strike. «How can one group of people allow the complete dehumanisation of another?» the filmmakers ask.
Festival director Marek Hovorka credits thousands of contributors with its growth since 1997. «Like a film, a festival is a collective work», he says. More information is available at ji-hlava.com.
