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DFG interview with Filip Remunda

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by Sarah Brownrigg
Czech Dream is the final year film from two young directors, Vít Klusák and Filip Remunda, who studied together at FAMU (Film And TV School Of The Academy Of Performing Arts) in Prague. Co-director Filip Remundo and DFG's Sarah Brownrigg recently met up to talk a little about supermarkets and the docu-scene in the Czech Republic.

DFG: Now was this your final year film. Can you tell us a little about your course?
Yes, it's a five-year course and you make four films plus lots of exercises. It's mostly a practical course and that's why it may be better than some other schools... It is more challenging because you have to do your own shooting.

DFG: How did you come to make Czech Dream as a student film?
I think I'd decided I would direct it after the first meeting. I wanted to make a film like this. We had meetings, we started writing the script together, we started applying for funding...we applied to the Ministry of Culture for money. From the beginning, we found it very hard to make the tone of the film academic, so we wanted to make it independently, but then we were aware that we had to make a graduation film. We had to spend some time at school...so then we realized we should ask our teachers at the school if we could make this film as our graduation project. We had to be available 100% of the time to this graduation project.

DFG: Did you experience any problems with the academy about the film?
Yes, at the start of the project there were problems...because just three years before there had been some big changes, and we [the students] kept putting pressure on the school, and they had got some money to get hold of some good directors etc...so in the end they said, well, why not? I think they thought it would be good for them too. Before, they would have thought it too expensive to pursue a project like this. It had two directors, but finally they liked the project.

DFG: But it has been successful for the school as well surely?
Well, they really liked that risk. I would just like to say that without the leadership of the school we would not have been able to do it.

DFG: The Czech Ministry of Culture provided funding, how did that help having such support?
They didn't have a huge problem with the subject matter. And they supported us. They helped us, not only financially, but in character...and it was very good to feel like we had them behind us.

DFG: You had a lot of advisors on the film, what were their roles?
We had advisors on legal subjects, security, marketing, graphics, psychologists; a whole range of advice from professionals and experts. It was all part of the budget. They offered us services, and we offered them a place in he film, or a logo at the end of the programme. It was for free, even if it didn't seem like it was for free. We are managers and we know the value of every second that we have in our film.

DFG: What about your next film?
It isn't finalised yet. As you can imagine - yesterday I spent a night in Moscow, and today in London... everything is very busy right now. I don't have a clear enough idea to talk about it too much, but I promise it will be just as provocative. It will be global, ironic. Czech Dream is a very serious project, and we have had a lot of offers like this. There is a lot of trust in us. In Moscow, we were approached by someone who wanted to make a film about Putin's government. People trust us, and they would like us to film their stories.  We have to be selective...and to think more globally. I don't want to go to Africa and make a programme without any knowledge of what is actually going on. But we have to make something that would be ok coming from us as Czechoslovakians. The film must be connected in some way to my own brief experience.
DFG: Can you give me an example of the stories that people have told you?
I met a driver in Russia and he told me that he has kept pictures of the people that he took in is car. He carried a digital camera with him. I met up with him four times and after the fourth time he said to me 'you know if I were a filmmaker, I would definitely make a •lm about my village. The next time you come I will have a 90 minute film of my village, and I will sell it to you for inspiration'.  So now if I want I can make pictures of that village as it is seen by the villagers. I have done something like that before, and I like that model for documentaries... it has a better, more realist approach to the families etc.

DFG: You are a co-founder of the IDF (Institute for Documentary Film), can you explain a little of what it does?
Sure, it is a platform of expert level information. The IDF offers courses in documentary filmmaking, and we, as experienced filmmakers are helping them to develop their ideas...in a wider context. There is also a pitching forum, there are commissions, there is also video on demand. It is a really complex service we are offering ... for everyone that subscribes we have a brief biography, and we go on spreading knowledge like this...

You should have a look. You will understand much better once you see it!

Czech Dream: http://www.czech-tv.cz
IDF: http://web.docuinter.net
FAMU: http://www.amu.cz
 

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