A New Ecosystem of Czech Documentary Production in the 90s

Abstract

The paradoxical relations between Czech documentary filmmakers and institutions established after the Velvet revolution are identified as key aspects of a new ecosystem characterizing Czech documentary in the 90s. This paper focuses on the field which – together with the Czech film industry as a whole – lost state support in 1989. The documentaries were produced only due to efforts of individual entrepreneurs who started their own film businesses, although such activity remained illegal till 1993. Also, young FAMU students started to develop a new structure for supporting Czech documentary production in the late 90s. The main methodology of the paper relies on Bruno Latour’s actor-network theory, enriched by the ethnographic approach of John Caldwell, using semi-structured interviews with key personnel and analysing un/published texts. Emotional layers of interviews and personal relationships are considered as the most important attributes for the articulation of key paradoxes and conflicts within the Czech documentary field.