1994

In the autumn of 1968 some film-makers got together to present portraits of long-haired young men living a life outside the accepted norms. These same men encounter each other again after twenty-six years.

© Nadace F&S

They graduated fifteen years ago from a secondary school in Ostrava. How do they feel today, what did they expect from life and what did life bring them? How does that generation perceive the social and economic changes, how are they part of them, what satisfaction or disappointment have come their way?

© F&S Foundation

The inhabitants of the village of Sidonie lived in peace until their lives were changed by a boundary mark which has brought many complications and confusion. Part of the village has remained on the Slovak side and part on the Czech side. This small but otherwise remote village is inhabited by about 250 people. These are united in mixed marriages, friendships, joint schooling and work on both sides of the border. Czechs have built their houses over the river on Slovak territory and vice-versa. This documentary film does not try merely to give a picture of the moods and emotions of the local inhabitants. At a time when, in parts of Europe, borders defy reason, the film reflects upon the complexities of the official decision to divide the former Czechoslovak state.

© F&S Foundation

Over the course of six years, the film-makers traced the story of a boy who hardly knew the meaning of freedom – he either spent his life in a children’s home or in prison. He never saw love or hope. Such deprivation could only bring grim consequences.

Martin was also imprisoned at the age of sixteen for stealing a substantial amount of costume jewellery in the factory where he worked. His life-long dream is to be rich and ride around in expensive cars, eat in posh restaurants and pour alcohol down himself. He stubbornly tries to attain a kitsch image. For his first „job“ he was sent to prison for three years. He is a clever lad, he acted in the theatre in Libkovice and he recites poetry. After amnesty he again goes for the sweet life and within two months he is in prison again. He spends a year drifting around in a prison where no-one works. He gets out, has his hair permed and begins to work in a car battery factory and he finds himself a girlfriend. He tries to get out of his bad social circle, but after a few months, he is again in prison... It is during this period that he turns to God. After his release he tries to link his life as a Christian with that of a playboy. There is no doubt of his faith, but there is also no doubt about the difficulty of the task he has set himself...

“The whole film describes the time from when they locked me up for the first time, at the age of sixteen, to the present, I’m twenty-two now. In all that time I was only out of prison for five months, and I’ve had just about enough. It’s also about how I gave up my life for Jesus Christ and how I let Him down, within myself, because I was always being tempted by worldly pleasures. It’s also about the fact that, whenever I managed to start a new life, they just locked me up again because it’s always too late. It’s just too late. That’s the real pity of it all, and that’s what the film is about…”

A unique film series begun by director Helena Trestikova in the spring of 1989 using an unusual and singular technique whereby the lives of the film subjects are filmed over a number of years and told within the confines of one film. The material was filmed in a correctional facility for young people in Libkovice over a period of between two and five years. The films capture not only the changes in the lives of the individual protagonists, but also the changes to the whole of society.

© F&S Foundation

Lada is a typical product of the institutions known as „educational“ or „corrective“. Not only is he not educated nor corrected, he simply does not understand anything about life. He solves his problems in his own way - by swallowing sharp objects. He does experience love, however, - according to all the tried and tested rules of the Red Library. Love, passion, prison bars...

Ladislav has an innocent face but he's actually quite a difficult character. He tried all sorts of tricks in his youth...He ran away from home when he was six and started stealing. Then he began committing robbery with assault, then came the drinks and the drugs. When we met him he was in prison for the second time and he was constantly being given some prison punishment, particularly for self-abuse. He would cut himself up, take overdoses and so on. He kept on promising to make himself better and that he now knew how to. After amnesty Lada went missing and soon the police were after him. It was not long before he was in prison again. This time he brightened up his stay by swallowing spoons and wires (always followed by an operation in the prison hospital). He also renewed his relationship with a friend from his youth who had been sent to a prison in Pardubice. She, too, swallows spoons - and we are told of her experiences from prison and hospital. Not long before he was released Lada proclaimed that he now knew how to live properly, that he never wanted to live like an animal ever again!

He met another girl after his release, they lived under bridges and from Salvation Army aid; occasionally they found some „jobs“ but both of them eventually ended up in prison once more...

A new stage in the love correspondence - from one prison to the next...

A unique film series begun by director Helena Trestikova in the spring of 1989 using an unusual and singular technique whereby the lives of the film subjects are filmed over a number of years and told within the confines of one film. The material was filmed in a correctional facility for young people in Libkovice over a period of between two and five years. The films capture not only the changes in the lives of the individual protagonists, but also the changes to the whole of society.

© F&S Foundation

Kocab, M. Mejstrik, M. Kubisova, J. Ruml - all activelly took part in the social changes of November 1989. The film was made gradually during 1989 - 1994. The film shows what has changed in their lives and in the life of the whole of society.

© F&S Foundation

The film acquaints us with the work of the senior consultant of pavilion 11 in the Bohnice asylum who endeavours to build up a complex rehabilitation and re-socialising programme for patients with chronic mental illness. One part of her treatment programme is a week's stay outside the institution for selected patients. It is this week which is captured on film.

The film was sponsored by IMTECH, spol. s r.o., IMTA a.s. Praha and TECHNOPOL AUSTRIA a.s. Bratislava.

© F&S Foundation

Approximately 250 photographs by Roman Sejkot of a mentally handicapped swimmer which are wonderfully animated by the film's director. A selection of these photographs came third in the Sports Stories category in the WORLD PRESS PHOTO 1993 competition.

© F&S Foundation

© F&S Foundation

During the official visit paid by President of the United States Bill Clinton, the Film and Sociology Foundation filmed selected parts of his unofficial programme.

The basis of the film comprises the jazz evening spent in Prague's Reduta club where both Presidents met up with our finest jazz players and Bill Clinton, with the saxophone given to him by Vaclav Havel, joined the musicians on stage.

© F&S Foundation

The presence of a relatively large American community in Prague is an unusual social phenomenon. A documentary film was made to capture the testimonies of thousands of Americans who came to Czechoslovakia (before the country was divided) after November 1989 with the intention of staying here for a longer or shorter period of time. The director selected eleven Americans, „nice guys“ of all ages and professions. They work here, they live ordinary lives in Prague, in smaller towns and villages. They  come into contact with Czechs in schools, companies, institutions, shops, restaurants, the metro...The film gives a wonderful picture of the Czech towns in which these Americans live - Cheb, Prague, Hradec Kralove, Ostrava and others.

© F&S Foundation

This film almost has the character of a detective story about a woman with several dates of birth who, all her life, has been trying to find out who she really is. The fate of a child from the Lidice community which was exterminated by the Fascists in 1942.

© F&S Foundation and P.E.T.R.a.s.

A documentary testimony of the arduous return to the property of the fathers, to the soil and to property management. The film was made in three localities between the winter of 1993 and autumn 1994. The stimulus for its making was rooted in the endeavour to create a visual sketch of the revolutionary, formidable and unpredictable changes brought about by restituo in integrum - bringing something back to its original state - in its legal and actual form. It also attempts to show how the new state of affairs is reflected in relation to the most solid traditions and in the relationship between man and his soil. The film tries to answer questions as to what this return really means, whether there will be enough energy to carry the process through and how personal and working relations thusfar have been changing. Many people have entered a new situation with only the courage and longing to continue family traditions - without any means to help them. All they have is their family's tie to the soil, animals, land and country. The film succeeds in demonstrating man's courage, character and will to come to terms with his new lot and, against all odds, to bring back honour and dignity to the management of property and land.

© F&S Foundation