Festival Publishing Activities

“The identity of any creative field claiming a certain autonomy presupposes the existence of its history and theory by means of which the field is identified and comprehended as a certain whole. Both also represent a systematic reason for revisiting the results within a longer period of time; while television, production and distribution will do with market research.“

Guy Gauthier: Le Documentaire, un autre Cinéma

Jihlava has published a monograph on Chris Marker

The publication was inspired by Marker’s retrospective held at the Jihlava festival.

Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival and AMU Press have published a monograph on French director Chris Marker. The book is written by film historian and Jihlava IDFF programme selector David Čeněk. His authorial monograph is supplemented by texts by foreign authors and their analyses of films and contexts in which Marker’s films were made. The book also includes two of Marker’s screenplays of imaginary films.

The publication has been launched at the Closing Ceremony of 16th Jihlava IDFF and is available in the online e-shop.

Festival publishing activities

The publishing activities of the Jihlava IDFF represent an important field to encourage thinking about documentary film. On a long-term basis, the Jihlava festival has been publishing texts from the field of theory and history of documentary cinematography as well as texts reflecting the works and thinking of remarkable filmmakers. In the Czech context, this represents a systematic effort to fill the white spaces in the knowledge of documentary film.

The Jihlava festival has helped publish seven theoretical and autobiographical books, most of them in cooperation with AMU Press, and six anthologies of texts about documentary film.

The publishing of two books by prominent historians and theoreticians of documentary film represents an essential part of the publishing activities. Guy Gauthier’s Le Documentaire, un autre Cinéma outlines the history of documentary film by means of examining both individual works and authorial styles of various filmmakers. Gauthier focuses his examination on French, English, Canadian, Italian, American and Russian influences.  Another cooperative effort resulted in publishing Introduction to Documentary by Bill Nichols. Defining the basic terminology on one hand, the American film theoretician also introduces original categories for the sake of easier orientation in the variety of documentary film. In the academic sphere, the book has become an essential theoretical conception of documentary film. Further on, the book of essays by Karel Vachek The Theory of Matter has become an original element of thinking about documentary film; its publishing by Hermann and Sons was supported by Jihlava.

Another part of the publishing activities of Jihlava IDFF consists in the publishing of biographical books dealing with the personalities of documentary film and their works. In the edition 20/21, edited by Helena Bendová and David Čeněk, we published the book Jean-Luc Godard - Texts and Interviews represents a voluminous anthology of essays by the remarkable filmmaker and theoretician, including profile interviews along with his texts. Martin Švorma’s monograph Karel Vachek etc. deals with the unique filmmaking of the monumental Czech documentarist, presenting an overview of Vachek’s existing and non-existing films, examining the genesis of their motives and following their interconnections. The latest book in this edition is Lenka Dolanová’s monograph Steina and Woody Vasulka, Dialogue with the (Demons in the) Tool dealing with the filmmaking of famous Czech-American video artist Woody Vasulka. The book has been introduced during Closing ceremony of 15th IDFF Jihlava 2011 in presence of Lenka Dolanová and Woody Vasulka.

Besides monographs, the Jihlava International Documentary Festival has also published the Do anthology of theoretical and critical texts on documentary film, reflecting the shifting boundaries of the “documentary” and its transcendence to other film and art forms. Reflecting the programme structure of the individual festival editions since 2003, the anthologies have introduced essential texts dealing with documentary film. Following and reflecting primarily the current situation of the Czech documentary, the critical periodical Doc.Revue has been published since 2005.

You can order the publications in our e-shop.