Introducing TFI to Jihlava in the Czech Republic

I arrived back in New York after my five-day stay at Morelia and felt rejuvenated over the strong response that TFI received at the festival. However, my respite was a brief one, as I left the country once more to head to the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival in the Czech Republic! While my schedule at Morelia was more lax and open-ended, my schedule at Jihlava was definitely a structured one, in which I was set to take part in panels, filmmaker meetings and round-table sessions. What I wasn’t so aware of was the high level of interest that Eastern European filmmakers would show when it came to seeking funding support in the United States...

I arrived in Jihlava around noon on Thursday the 27th, jet-lagged and a bit disoriented, only to hit the ground running almost immediately! To initiate the conversation about the current outlook for East European projects in the US, Sally Berger (MoMA), Andrew Catauro (POV) and film programmer Irena Kovarova presented a talk about documentary exhibition and distribution to an audience of interested regional filmmakers. While I’m not that good of a public speaker, I offered my thoughts at the end of the panel to all those seeking support for their projects from funding sources like TFI.

Immediately after the distribution panel, I darted off to the one-on-one meetings at the Project Market -– the workshop aspect of the festival that prepares filmmakers for their public pitches and connects them with commissioning editors and other industry representatives for possible co-productions, pre-sales or funding. To my pleasant surprise, my assigned meetings ended up being six rather than four, with one curious filmmaker after another asking me information about TFI.

By Friday the 28th, the jetlag was still affecting me somewhat, yet I pushed onwards. I attended the remainder of my Project Market meetings (the people as enthused as the day before) and then joined Luciano Barisone of Visions du Reel/Visions Sud Est Fund on a panel about film funds. While the talk was supposed to be more robust (and with more panelists), Luciano and I ended up being the sole providers of information -- yet it enabled us to contrast both Visions and TFI in terms of their outreach and philosophy (or, as Luciano slyly termed us, “David and Goliath”)!

The last section of my stay at Jihlava was undoubtedly the busiest. With the one-on-one meetings concluding on Saturday the 29th, it was time for filmmakers to publicly pitch their projects and receive feedback from industry people. The morning was devoted to the presentations, while the afternoon was exclusively for the round-table sessions, where each filmmaking team went from one room to the next listening to feedback from experts. I was grateful to participate in one such panel (comprised of Jessica Raspe, AVRO – Dutch Public TV; Tomas Kolankiewicz, TVP Kultura; Rialda Ocuz, BHRT BaH; Monika Mikusova, STV – Slovakia; and Emma Simpson, Journeyman Pictures). The dynamic between panelists and filmmakers turned out to be fulfilling for almost everyone involved, as we were all able to take part in a thoughtful discussion about each project’s intended goals.

Despite my brief stay at the festival, the constant flurry of activity enabled me to acquaint myself with some very promising Eastern European documentaries in-development. From Croatia, Iva Tkalec’s Sick profiles a tormented 23-year-old woman who was institutionalized by her parents when she was sixteen because she is gay. The film will chart the young woman’s path to regaining her self-worth while seeking closure from those that tormented her.

On a more regional front, two other documentary features seemed to spotlight peculiar facets of Eastern European life: Astra Zoldnere’s oddball and unique Blueberry Spirits, from Latvia -- about a gypsy family living in the wilderness and picking blueberries, all the while feeling plagued by roaming ghosts -- and Marat Sargsyan’s Father, about a 71-year-old former mob boss, now retired, who looks back on his tumultuous past as he settles down with his ten children.

From Morelia to Jihlava, the particular visions that attending filmmakers conveyed were truly palpable. With this latter festival, the energy was doubly felt, given that TFI had never been in this region before -- and the filmmakers were evidently invigorated over our presence there. In the months ahead, we hope that TFI continues to explore ‘uncharted’ festival territories & cement itself on a global scale!