Jan Rousek

How to Film in Africa!

This film essay about cinematographic methods of conquering the African continent uses excerpts from letters exchanged between Zlín and Nairobi between the head of the film group Jaroslav Novotný and the travel and filmmaking duo Miroslav Zikmund and Jiří Hanzelka. The subtle manipulation of the footage from their film Africa I. – From Morocco to Kilimanjaro (1952) highlights the subversive potential of the gaze fixed directly on the camera.

If I Ever Lose My Eyes

A film journey through places near and far, real and dreamy, on the border between reality and fiction, where it is possible to learn how close the realm of the invisible lies and to contemplate whether it is possible to approach the invisible through film. Guides on this journey are various explorers who present their elusive experiences with researching and capturing imprints of the invisible – former filmmakers, a forgotten film movement, a local history expert, a mountaineer, a professor, and the director, Lea Petříková, herself. But the more they reveal, the more complicated it gets.