Ji.hlava 2018 Overview

Festival:
The 22nd Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival

Dates:
October 25-30

About:
More than 100 new and recent nonfiction features are presented in this Czech event.

Among the world premieres in the main competition, Opus Bonum, are: Alexandra Kandy Longuet’s VACANY, an observational study of an American motel; Jorge Pelicano’s UNTIL PORN DO US PART, about a religious woman trying to come to terms with her son’s gay porn career; Sanaz Azari’s BACKSTAGE ACTION, which focuses on film extras; NSD Mike Hoolboom’s AFTERMATH, an experimental portrait of four artists.

Filmmakers making their feature debut are spotlighted in the First Lights competition, with world premieres including: Dulce Ferreira Sanchez’s THE PARADISE, exploring Venezuela’s recent history through 15 years of the filmmaker’s home movies; Joaquín Maito’s OWNER’S PORTRAIT, an essay about animals, humans, and capitalism; Javier Bellido Valdivia’s CONNATURAL, profiling three generations of women and their connection to mortality; and Cyprien Clément-Delmas and Igor Kosenko’s BOY OF WAR, about a naive teen eager to join the war in Ukraine.

Works from Central and Eastern European are the focus of the Between the Seas competition, with several world premieres, including: Hilal Baydarov’s BIRTHDAY, a portrait of the filmmaker’s lonely mother; Alexander Mihalkovich’s MY GRANNY FROM MARS, about an old Ukrainian woman living in Russian-occupied Crimea; Simon Mozgovyi’s THE WINTER GARDEN’S TALE, on a crumbling conservatory that has just lost its longtime gardener; and Eugene Golovanevsky’s HEAVY METAL, which follows construction workers as they tear down a high-rise.

National cinema making its debut in the Czech Joy competition includes: Pavel Jurda’s GOOD MR BENDA, a portrait of an athletics-minded grandfather; Martin Páv’s VOTE FOR KIBERA, a hopeful profile of the people of Nairobi’s biggest slum; Jana Boršková’s PASSENGERS, a longitudinal portrait of former residents of a children’s home; and Jiří Holba’s FERAL, about a Czech man living as a hermit in the Australian outback since the 1980s.