Dok.revue

In 2012, a Dok.revue news server will be launched on this website, presenting an extended, visually rich version of the printed columns as well as a whole range of news, offering overall information and commenting on the events in the field of Czech as well as international documentary film.

Published as a supplement of the Respekt weekly, Dok.revue follows Czech documentary film in a focused, critical and analytical way.

Dok.revue 5/2011

In her text about her latest documentary Private Universe, Helena Třeštíková admits that it has been the hardest and longest of all her observational projects so far. It all started 37 years ago by her short documentary Miracle; the theme of how a woman is affected by motherhood has developed into the life story of the born child and the whole family which the director decided to return to: “I’ve had a huge quantity of completely disparate material filmed on all sorts of formats which have been available in the course of the time; as well as Peter’s journal; as well as the idea of depicting the times, too, in my film; as well as a heavy heart about all of that.”

EDITORIAL
Films and Books / SURVEY with 25 Czech documentarists: which book and which film have been most significant to them in the past year
SPORT
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace  / POEM / Richard Brautigan
Private Century / NEW FILM by Helena Třeštíková

Dok.revue 4/2011

“To us, documentation represents the final output. The very performance is but a random physical act at a random place. Including that of burning the black-and-white Czech flag on Wenceslas Square. The passers-by can hardly grasp the subtlety of these actions. When walking down the street, it is hard to distinguish the behaviour of an eccentric and a performer. Only when perceiving it in another context and when perceiving it as art can a concrete situation or scene make sense.”

Rafani art collective

EDITORIAL
Fighting in the field of art, not politics / INTERVIEW with the Rafani art collective, makers of 31 Endings / 31 Beginnings / Tereza Reichová
CZECH JOY / 5x3 introductions of the competition collection of Czech documentaries of 2011
JIHLAVA IDFF / introduction of the sections of 15th Jihlava IDFF 2011
Bruder Schwester, Gunnar Goes God / POEM

Dok.revue 3/2011

“The state wanted Spain to become one of the leading countries in world cinematography, to become a cradle of neorealism; however, on the other hand, the state also made an effort to draw the local audiences to local production. In fact, the regime produced custom-tailored genre films that were far from reality while preferring selected themes; primarily celebrations of race, homeland, the leader, family, religious traditions and morality  in the intentions of the Nazi-fascist ideology. The state tried to take control of the Spanish production as well as of the distribution of international films, and gradually succeeded in doing so.”

David Čeněk

EDITORIAL
The dictator’s censorship of film / INTERVIEW with film historian David Čeněk / Petr Kubica, Andra Slováková
SPORT
Our fears are not a topic for discussion / SITUATION REVIEW of Filip Remunda’s The Epochal Trip of Mr. Tříska to Russia / Nina Falkovskaya, Jan Machonin
The making of “Big As Brno” / NEW FILM by Vít Klusák
Burkina Faso / POEM / Trinh Minh Ha

Dok.revue 2/2011

‘Of course the easiest way would be to source documentaries from the BBC—where a one-hour film costs EUR 500–1000—rather than shooting films ourselves. But if we really did this then film production in our country would decline, because we are not such an interesting country that others would shoot 20 films about us per year. The profession of documentary film-making would have also disappeared in this country.’
Jana Škopková

EDITORIAL
I miss Czech reflections on the present / INTERVIEW with Jana Škopková, Script Editor in Chief at Czech Television / Petr Kubica, Andrea Slováková, and Marek Hovorka
SPORT
‘Solar Eclipse’ / A NEW FILM by Martin Mareček
Czech documentary film and Czech Television / A SURVEY / Jan Gogola, Erika Hníková, Vít Klusák, Lucie Králová, Filip Remunda, Břetislav Rychlík, Martin Řezníček, Olga Sommerová, Pavel Štingl, and Helena Třeštíková
For an Uncontrolled Cinema / POEM / part of a manifesto by Richard Leacock
‘Race to the Bottom’ / SITUATIONAL REVIEW of the Vít Janeček film Race to the Bottom

Dok.revue 1/2011

‘I think that concerns about using long sentences on the radio are obvious, and I sometimes think we as broadcasters fear long sentences even more than our listeners do. Our gradual reduction in the words we use may actually be a step in the direction of a loss of our ability to listen intensely in the future.’
Bronislava Janečková

EDITORIAL
A documentary without image has its advantages / INTERVIEW with Bronislava Janečková, creator of radio documentaries / Petr Kubica, Andrea Slováková, and Marek Hovorka
SPORT
Better than Chaplin’s ‘Modern Times’ / SITUATIONAL SURVEY about the film All for the Good of the World and Nosovice! / Robert Kafka, Tomáš Feřtek, and Vladimír Mlynář
POEM / extract from the improvisational slam-poetry performance of Bohdan Bláhovec
A monument without proportion / REVIEW of the TV series The Capricious Years of Czech Film (Rozmarná léta českého filmu) / Pavel Bednařík
 

About Dok.revue

In 2005, the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival decided to extend its publishing activities, an essential part of the festival activities, by a platform for the general public interested in culture. From the beginning, Dok.revue has presented interviews, reviews, brief theoretical studies and various pieces of information as well as occasional reflections and commentaries concerning the conditions for the development of Czech documentary inherently related to the current social situation.

From 2008, Dok.revue has been published five times a year as a five-page colour supplement of the Respekt weekly. Each edition includes an interview, an essay, a thematic text and a situation review, encouraging a lively polemic about the respective film, theme, personality of the given field or film protagonist. From the very beginning, Dok.revue has also included a regular Sport column, briefly commenting on current events. A key section of Dok.revue, the interview introduces directors, filmmakers as well as representatives of institutions related to documentary film. Graphic designer Jan Havel is responsible for the graphic design of Dok.revue; for a year, it has also been illustrated by Vladimir 518; from 2009, it is illustrated by Michaela Kukovičová, whose ironical collages introduce each edition.

Until 2007, Dok.revue had been published as a monthly in the Literární noviny newspaper. The four newspaper pages presented essays, thematic texts and reviews. The editorial team included Marek Hovorka, Petr Kubica and Andrea Slováková on behalf of the Jihlava festival and Vít Janeček on behalf of the Literární noviny newspaper. Among the authors from various fields of humanities and culture, let us name Václav Bělohradský, Miroslav Petříček, Vladimír Kokolia and Petr Szczepanik. Graphic artist Juraj Horváth was then responsible both for the graphic design and illustration of Dok.revue, creating a visual commentary on the respective essays.

Dok.revue also stands for the Jihlava IDFF daily. In the first festival years, it was published in cooperation with the Cinepur film magazine; at present, students of film studies still write for the daily. The festival Dok.revue is published each festival day, presenting interviews, criticism and other texts suitable for autumn reading, with a unique design by graphic artist Juraj Horváth.

Dok.revue is supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the State Fund for the Support and Development of Czech Cinematography.