Iluminace, 2019 (vol. 31), issue 2
Contemporary Czech Documentary

Contemporary Czech Documentary Film

Lucie Česálková, Magda Španihelová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):5-6  

The editorial of the thematic issue of Iluminace magazine presents the results of a research project focused on contemporary Czech documentary film, which uses the concept of media ecology and the context of digital culture to examine institutional links, producers' strategies, and new formats such as reality TV and found footage.

Ecosystem of Czech Documentary Film Institutions. Patterns of Cooperation and Usage

Magda Španihelová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):7-24 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1617  

The aim of this paper is to uncover the system of actors who have shaped the environment of Czech documentary film and its transformation over the last ten years. These are major institutions such as television, The Czech Film Fund, festivals and institutions dedicated to the education of film professionals. The ecological perspective gives insight into individual aspects as well as the overall system. From this perspective, different parallels with life, relationships and sustainability in nature are emerging, which are becoming a tool for analyzing relationships in the media world. The ecosystem study of documentary film institutions relies on research...

The Beginning of a New Era. Creating a Stable Background of Documentary Production for Cinemas in the Czech Republic

Jitka Lanšperková

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):25-44 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1618  

This text focuses on the results of a study of production strategies of documentary films shown in cinemas in Czech Republic from 2012 to the 2016. The year 2012 is determined as the beginning of the monitored period because at that time the new Czech Film Fund was established; therefore, the state support of film industry was finally stabilized.The analysis revolves around the relationships Czech production companies and producers have with all the (mostly public) institutions dedicated to documentary production, such as Czech Film Fund, Czech Television, and HBO Europe. For this purpose, a method based on semi-structured interviews with producers,...

Moderate Diversity. Czech Documentary Film between Platforms

Lucie Česálková

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):45-65 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1619  

This study explores the transformation of documentary formats and genres through online distribution and participation in the Czech Republic. Based on interviews with the actors of the documentary industry, analysis of the participatory level of specific documentary films (projects) and analysis of production strategies and programming of online television, it analyzes the extent to which new trends truly influenced documentary filmmaking in the Czech Republic. It focuses primarily on the degree of openness and permeability between traditional actors and institutions of the documentary industry and new actors or sub-disciplines, explores ways of collaborating...

How Public Television Experiments with Reality TV

Kateřina Šardická

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):67-87 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1620  

Public service stipulations include the provision of content that informs and educates, helps imagine the nation, enriches the lives and culture of its citizens. Reality TV is one of the most growing, vivid and controversial genres in the contemporary TV broadcasting from popular culture, sports, lifestyle to arts or minorities. It's genealogy comes from documentary films, but today it is considered the bottom of the TV industry when compared to the artistic documentary film. But how has this trend of reality TV impacted on public service broadcasting? This article focuses on Reality TV produced by Czech public service television (Česká televize, hereafter...

Found Footage Effect. Digital Kříženecký and the Crack-up of the Film Medium

Jiří Anger

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):89-117 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1621  

The digitization of all preserved films by Jan Kříženecký, the so-called pioneer of Czech cinema, gave birth to filmic artifacts with uncertain media status. While they benefit from the crystal clear quality of HD video and many new options for variation and circulation, the decaying materiality of nitrate prints and negatives has not been effaced but made all the more visible. This paper aims to examine how this hybridity influences the aesthetic effects of the films, notably how it brings these films closer to a certain tradition of experimental found footage filmmaking that involves deformative practices and plays with the tension between figurative...

The Ephemerality of New Platforms and Formats is a Challenge for Documentary Historiography. An Interview with Kate Nash

Lucie Česálková

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):119-124  

Lucie Česálková's interview with media theorist Kate Nash focuses on the transformation of documentary film in the era of digital and interactive media, reflecting on the specifics of virtual reality as a subjectively experienced medium, the new role of the active viewer, and the fundamental challenges that the ephemeral nature of contemporary online platforms and formats poses for future documentary historiography and archiving.

Does the Medium Have to Disappear? (Kateřina Krtilová - Kateřina Svatoňová /eds./, Mizení: Fenomény, mediální praktiky a techniky na prahu zjevného)

Julie Koblížková Wittlichová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):135-140  

Julie Koblížková Wittlichová's review presents the collective monograph Mizení (Disappearance), which examines the phenomenon of disappearing media in the context of German Medienwissenschaft and other disciplines. While the reviewer highlights the broad interdisciplinary scope and stimulating nature of the comparative analysis of texts, but also criticizes the illustrative use of works of art and numerous terminological and editorial inaccuracies.

Gaze as a Collective Practice. Ways of Vision for the 21st Century (Nicholas Mirzoeff, Jak vidět svět)

Noemi Purkrábková, Jiří Sirůček

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):141-146  

Noemi Purkrábková and Jiří Sirůček review Nicholas Mirzoeff's book Jak vidět svět (How to See the World), which explores the transformations of visual culture and human perception in the era of global digital networks and the Anthropocene. while the reviewers, in addition to praising the author's efforts to decolonize the gaze and reveal hidden power structures, argue with his optimism about the political and emancipatory potential of social media.

Interdisciplinary Discoveries of Newsreels (Ciara Chambers - Mats Jönsson - Roel Vande Winkel /eds./, Researching Newsreels: Local, National and Transnational Case Studies)

Alena Šlingerová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):147-150  

Alena Šlingerová's review presents the collective monograph Researching Newsreels, which, through fifteen case studies and interdisciplinary approaches, examines the phenomenon of newsreels from the perspective of their history, contemporary social functions, and current archival and digitization practices. The reviewer highlights the publication's methodological innovation, despite minor reservations about its terminology and text organization.

It Is Not Only about Individuals but also Institutions. An Interview with Mikael Opstrup

Magda Španihelová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):125-129  

Magda Španihelová's interview with international tutor and consultant Mikael Opstrup reflects on the development of educational workshops and pitching formats in the field of documentary film, analyzes the impact of digitization and VOD platforms on the distribution market, and emphasizes the need to defend strong public institutions in the face of current commercial and nationalist pressures.

Věra Ferbasová (1913-1976)

Kristýna Doležalová

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):130-134 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1624  

Kristýna Doležalová's text charts the life and career of popular First Republic comedy actress Věra Ferbasová, from her stellar career in the 1930s through the interruption of filming during the Protectorate and post-war persecution by the communist regime to her later return to the camera, while also presenting the contents of her personal collection stored in the National Film Archive.

Let the Image Burn. Found Footage and the Horror of Film Materiality

Jiří Anger

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):151-158 | DOI: 10.58193/ilu.1628  

Jiří Anger's text presents a research project devoted to experimental found footage creation, in which the author uses the concepts of horror ontology and affective interval to examine the deformative processes of film material and the tension (or "crack") between the figurative and material layers of the film image.

New Acquisitions of the NFA Library

Iluminace 2019, 31(2):159-170