Shots for Monday Morning

Moravian Hellas

January 1964 •Czech

Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

Tangled Roots

August 2022 •English

An intimate look into Demers family's experience raising children while dealing with the societal stigmas around disabilities and the consequences of Alberta's forgotten experiment in eugenics.

Do Chile za zatměním Slunce

February 2021 •Czech

Roma Boys – The Love Story

October 2009 •Czech

The film explores the taboo subject of homosexuality within the Roma community through the personal story of a Roma activist who happens to be gay. Though his job has earned him respect among his peers, by coming out his status is in jeopardy. However, the desire to share his complex story prompted him to write a screenplay based on his life. Partly a documentary about his autobiographical script, the film switches between documentary and narrative storytelling. Owing to its distinctive style, the film offers a glimpse into the protagonist's world as he faces triple discrimination: as a Roma, as a gay man, and as a gay man in the Roma community.

My Dad and the Volcano

August 2024 •English

Gavin built a giant volcano sculpture that's now in his dad's shed. Gavin seeks his dad's understanding but he's uninterested in modern art and refuses to participate in the documentary.

CERN, or The Factory for the Absolute

October 2010 •Czech

Human action is often influenced by the desire for knowledge. This desire is in itself a positive impulse and could be said to be the basis of all progress. Let's move this statement to the ground of scientific research at CERN, and see if it applies here - and then test the common experience that human stupidity permeates every social stratum and, in the case of the elites, is a potential threat.

77777

January 1955 •Czech

Ode to liberty

January 2025 •English

Short documentary consisting of archival footage and movies that depict the birth of the United States of America, from the Boston tea party to the Spanish American war

Mi Vida Me Pasa

August 2024 •Spanish

Arturo Urbiola, independent singer/songwriter, talks about the influence music has had on his life, it's impact, and what's in store for his artistic career after becoming a father.

Ľudia a telefon

January 1954 •Slovak

Vianočný dar

January 1954 •Slovak

A Box of Film

January 1958 •Czech

A film about filmmaking.

Hry prachu

October 2002 •Czech

Film in hand. Carnival in the global village.

Nonstop

October 2002 •Czech

Amici, tanec s přáteli

January 1993 •Czech

The Photography of Inhabitants of One House

January 1968 •Slovak

A short Czech film which documents a large family and the house they have built by hand.

Ženy v uniformě

January 1954 •Czech

Dear Black Umich,

April 2025 •English

A community documentary highlighting the intersectionalities of the Black experience at the University of Michigan, divided into 6 sections: Black Beauty, Black Love, Black Arts, Black Academia, Black Struggle & Perseverance, and Black Joy.

Learning

January 1965 •Slovak

Documentary film about apprentice youth about to enter real life.

When I Grow Up

January 2021 •Czech

Author and her crew go on a field trip to a kindergarten to ask the children what they would like to do when they grow up. The children have very clear ideas about their future, which the director visualises with the ease and artistic shorthand typical of children's drawings.