Anthology Film Archives presents, in collaboration with the Czech Center New York, documentary films of famous Czech director and documentary maker Helena Třeštíková, in particular her time-lapse portraits. Anthology Film Archives will show her films René, René - The Prisoner of Freedom, Marriage Stories of Ivana and Václav, Marriage Stories of Zuzana and Stanislav, and Katka.
The screenings Helena Třeštíková's documentaries at Anthology Film Archives will take place as part of the concurrent and related film series, “Documentary Feedback”, and will present a brief, albeit partial survey of Třeštíková’s career.
Helena Třeštíková is one of the most renowned Czech documentary maker. Anthology Film Archives will present her films with the objective to make her work and her method of time-lapse portraits known to the US audience. In her own words, the purpose of a time-lapse film is to offer the audience an expanded experience of the world and to offer the protagonists an interpretation of their lives which they could accept as their true life stories.
The films of Helena Třeštíková also reflect – sometimes implicitly and sometimes quite explicitly – some of the most interesting and fraught ethical dimensions involved in the project of nonfiction filmmaking.
Helena Třeštíková will present several of the films in person on May 6 and 7, 2023.
For further information about the program and the screening schedule, see the website of Anthology Film Archives here.
René
Czech Republic, 2008, documentary film. Director: Helena Třeštíková. 83 min. 20 years between prison and freedom
This raw authentic documentary film tells the story of René whose life was being captured on camera since he was seventeen. The camera followed his hopeless journey between prison and brief periods outside the prison walls. In 2008 the film comes to an end, leaving the now 37-year-old René as a sick man who still gets in trouble with the law and who is also the author of two published books. Director Helena Třeštíková records René’s personal developments against the backdrop of significant political transformations taking place in Central Europe. René’s story begins in prison under socialist posters, continues through the so-called Velvet Revolution of 1989 and gets a seemingly happy conclusion with the amnesty decree issued by President Václav Havel. Yet René soon heads back to prison and celebrated the Czech Republic's accession to the EU from behind bars. During the years spent in prison – sentenced mainly for theft – René had his whole body covered in tattoos, escaped from prison only to be soon recaptured, burgled the director’s home, was involved in a couple of romantic relationships, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and was found to have high IQ. René displays his outlook on life by flashing his “Fuck of People” tattoo on his neck.
René - The Prisoner of Freedom
Czech Republic, 2021, documentary film. Director: Helena Třeštíková. 102 min.
At almost 50 years, the neck tattoo FUCK OF PEOPLE [sic] is fading. René, an antisocial recidivist with a bright mind, doesn’t want to be behind bars anymore. He wants to live and perhaps even to love. René became publicly known in 2008 thanks to his film portrait by director Helena Třeštíková. What happened to René after the film? The most significant representative of the Czech time-lapse documentary films Helena Třeštíková brings the answer in the free sequel René – The Prisoner of Freedom, in which she observes the hero from the premiere of the film to the present.
A Marriage Story
Czech Republic, 2017, documentary film. Director: Helena Třeštíková. 102 min.
A lot happens in 35 years of a couple’s shared life: from the moments of an absolute harmony to dramatic falls. For most of the time, the couple encounters common daily life issues and joys brought about by the raising of children, running of a household or running of a business. And that is exactly the life story of furniture shop owners Ivana and Vaclav Strnad, two characters that director Helena Třestíková follows with her camera starting in 1980 as part of her project The Marriage Story. Her feature documentary about Strnad family is linked to the TV films from this cycle, but most importantly it shows further shocking twists which life brought to the couple and their children.
Katka
Czech Republic, 2010, documentary film. Director: Helena Třeštíková. 90 min.
A 14-year battle with drug addiction
Helena Třeštíková’s film is a remarkable documentary tracing fourteen years in the life of a young junkie and her futile battle with drug addiction. Why did she start taking drugs? She claims she wanted to be different. The year is 1996 and 19-year-old Katka lives in the Sananim therapy community in the town of Němčice with hope for a normal life – she dreams of having a boyfriend and even a family, some day. But there’s no happy ending.
The director records Katka’s descent over the years into a spiral of theft, prostitution, physical and psychological deterioration – a spiral that is broken only by brief flashes of hope and resolutions to stop taking drugs. Katka’s desire is sincere, but in the end drugs always win. Will Katka finally find the strength when she becomes pregnant and motherhood offers her life-sustaining motivation?
Marriage Stories: Ivana & Václav + Marriage Stories, 20 years later: Ivana & Václav
Czech Republic, 1987 and 2006, documentary film. Director: Helena Třeštíková. 35 min + 57 min.
In Czech with English subtitles
“Architecture students Ivana and Václav never once thought about whether and how family life and professional ambitions were to be combined. With complete naturalness and admirable dynamism, they decided to manage both; they had five children, built a house and started a business. In their urgent need to work, construct, and create, they made claims on themselves and their environment that were so high that they inevitably reached beyond the limits of the possible. The world they have created is admirable and consuming at the same time; the price they have paid for it is high. Yet they have managed to keep the most precious thing: their relationship.” –DOC ALLIANCE
Helena Třeštíková
Graduate of the renowned FAMU film school in Prague, now Czech Republic. Since 1974, she has made more than 50 documentary films. She focuses on personal relationships and social issues. She specializes in time-lapse documentaries which follow the lives of her protagonists over a long period of time. She is one of the most successful Czech documentary makers. She is the winner of two documentary awards of the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival (1998 – Sweet Century, 2015 – Mallory); in 2010, she received the Czech Lion Award for her film Katka. With her documentary René, she triupmhed in 2008 at the European Film Awards. Her film Forman vs. Forman had its premiere at the Cannes IFF in 2019. Her documentary René – The Prisoner of Freedom had its world premiere at the biggest documentary film festival in Amsterdam (IDFA); her previous film Anny had its premiere there, too.
Photo credit © Tomáš Třeštík
