Experimental film by PhD students from FFA won at the Ji.hlava festival

The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival has announced its winning films. The award for Best Czech Experimental Film went to a film created by two doctoral students, Jiří Žák and Matěj Pavlík, from the Faculty of Fine Arts at Brno University of Technology.

The experimental film titled Hopeful Visitors and Grieving Guides: Notes from the Travel Notebook of a Dark Tourist triumphed among thirteen other films presented this year in the Fascinations: Exprmntl.cz section. This twelve-minute film, which had its world premiere at the festival, explores the role of dark tourism and the allure of ethically problematic destinations.

“Experiential tourism comes in many forms. Jiří and Matěj traveled to Norway to measure Gustav Vigeland's statues, checking if they truly align with Nazi ideology, or to the infamous island of Utøya, where a cold-blooded terrorist attack on a group of young people took place in 2011,” explained the jury in their selection statement.

Further details on this year's awards are available on the Ji.hlava Film Festival website.

Both Jiří Žák and Matěj Pavlík are doctoral students at Brno University of Technology. Jiří's work focuses on political, environmental, and ethical themes; in 2020, he was one of the recipients of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award and was also selected as one of this year’s Berlinale Talents. Matěj was part of a research group studying extrasensory aesthetics and, in 2020, he also became a laureate of the Jindřich Chalupecký Award. Both authors have presented their films at previous editions of the festival.

The Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival is the largest festival of auteur documentary film in Central and Eastern Europe. It was founded in 1997 by students of a Jihlava high school, and this year marked its 28th edition. Each year, the festival screens over 300 films from around the world, with their creators attending in person to present their works in Jihlava.