Czech and Slovak Film Festival in Melbourne & Sydney
Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia launches its second edition. After the successful premiere edition in Melbourne in June 2013, the festival extends its program to also include Sydney. This year’s edition will be an all-round cultural event focusing on the theme of resistance, to mark the 25th anniversary of the "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia and the collapse of Communism in Europe. In addition, the Melbourne opening takes place on the symbolic date of August 21.Melbourne: 21 - 29 August, ACMI Cinemas, Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square and Yarra Gallery
Sydney: 2 - 7 September, Dendy Newtown, University of Technology Sydney, and Conny Dietzschold Gallery
The festival is the first and so far the only complex initiative to showcase Slovak and Czech cinema in Australia, and its program aim to present the best works of both the traditional archive cinema and recent film production. Within the second edition, Slovak cinema will be represented by three film classics from the period of 1960s, a collection of fiction and documentary films, as well as a collection of short films from the last three years.
Slovak film classics, presented in their digitally restored versions from brand new DCP prints:
Birdies, Orphans and Fools (Vtáčkovia, siroty a blázni, by Juraj Jakubisko, 1969), made in direct reaction to the events of August 1968, amosaic-likefrolicsome parable taking place in an indefinite dimension of space and time, in a foolish universe without ideals - a world of violence, cynicism and hopelessness. more...
The Boxer and Death (Boxer a smrť, by Peter Solan, CS 1962), is a unique adaptation of Józef Hen´s novel, with deep human insight capturing the humiliating of people during fascist regime in concentration camps. more...
Before Tonight Is Over (Kým sa skončí táto noc, by Peter Solan, CS 1965) Solan´s masterpiece, in which the characters – by means of actors´ improvisation, used in Slovak cinema for the first time - gradually reveal unfulfilled dreams, illusions and disappointments of “average” people of those times. more...
Recent Slovak films in the programme:
Candidate (Kandidát, by Jonáš Karásek, SK-CZ 2013), Slovak box office hit of the last year. more...
The Confidant (eŠteBák, by Juraj Nvota, SK-CZ-PL 2011), a paranoid historical thriller is based on a true story. more...
Normalization (Kauza Cervanová, by Robert Kirchhoff, SK-CZ 2013), an investigative docuemntary looking into a controversial criminal and polotical case from 1970s reachind until today. more...
The Lyricist (Lyrik, by Arnold Kojnok, SK 2014), a thorough reflecttion of the post war situation till nowadays in Slovakia and the Czech Republic through the eyes of a respected historian Ján Mlynárik. more...
Velvet Terrorists (Zamatoví teroristi, by Pavol Pekarčík, Ivan Ostrochovský, Peter Kerekes, CK-CZ-HR 2013), a seriocomic documentary about three men who performed romantic,and perhaps somewhat foolhardy or inept, acts of guerrilla resistance under Normalization. more...
Slovak shorts collection:
Homo ciris (by Jana Mináriková, SK 2013), about a man and his wish to become a fish.
Momo (by Teodor Kuhn, SK 2012), on the importance of having a father
Pandas (Pandy, by Matúš Vizár, SK-CZ 2013), Cinefondation 2013-awarded animation in which an interfering ape called the human being discovers the panda
Snow (Sneh, by Ivana Šebestová, SK-FR 2013), animation about a woman waiting for her love, a man who looks for a perfect snowflake
The Exhibition (Výstava, by Peter Begányi & Andrej Kolenčík, SK 2013) about stuffed animals coated in dust and three caretakers who themselves resemble exhibits.
The Czech & Slovak Film Festival was initiated and is organized by the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia Inc. (CaSFFA), its curator and director is Cerise Howard. The Sydney edition is organized by IKSIMA FIlms.
Organizers of the Slovak program: Arina Production, Slovak Film Institute (SFÚ), with the support of the Slovak Audiovisual Fund.
Partners: Ministry of Culture of the Slovak Republic, Embassy of Slovak Republic in Canberra, Slovak Tourist Board.
Further Partners: Czech Film Centre - National Film Archive (NFA), Consulate of the Czech Republic in Sydney, Czech Centres and Cinemathéque Melbourne.
Related links:
AIC – First Edition of CASFFA 2013
The realization, distribution and presentation at CASFFA was financially supported by 
published: 20.08.2014
updated: 22.08.2014