Generation MK - film sequence

In the second half of the 1970s, Young Camera (Mladá kamera, hence the MK) emerged in Uničov, the north of Moravia, a film contest for amateur filmmakers under thirty. As the era of normalization restricted the public presentation of independent cinema to only a narrow circle of local and club screenings, the contest presented authors and producers from all over Czechoslovakia with a unique opportunity to meet up (Uničov was situated right in the middle of the country). Apart from being in the same age category, they united mainly in their YOUTHFULNESS when working with filmic means of expression; not only playful elements that would be end in themselves, but rather powerful tools of authorial statement.

The representatives of this generation have most notably manifested themselves in the sphere of feature films (Miroslav Janek, Pavel Bárta, Pavel Dražan, Petr Hvižď, Jiří Smýkal, Tomáš Vorel, Pavel Marek, Petr Slabý). However, they have also stirred the waters of the documentary genre (Ivan Tatíček, Vladimír Mráz, Miroslav Remo, Jiří Tesař, Vladimír Kunc) and even left a trace in animated film (Zdeněk Junek, Michael Vystavěl).

After the year 1989, the MK generation filmmakers became professionalized. Although much of their creative youthfulness subsided in the day-to-day commonness of capitalism, their work – be it film or television production – has always been regarded as the better part of Czech cinema.

The expected programme (approximately 80 minutes long) includes the following feature films made between 1977 and 1989, screened from 16mm film originals.

Miroslav Janek: Catharsis or Fratricide

Petr Slabý and Marek Jícha: The Cabinet of Spaghetti Terrors or Black Saturday

Pavel Bárta and Michal Hýbek - Breakfast

AAA Omastek: In the Buffet

Pavel Dražan: Tarsidan

 

Text author: Martin Čihák, the section compiler