FF40: Satisfaction + Q&A From the perspective of philosophy

The screening of short films and following discussion will be part of the festival FAMUFEST 40.

We all love happy endings. Sometimes they have to be helped, sometimes fate takes care of them for us. They have one thing in common - they have to be worked for. Sometimes to swim across the pool, sometimes to fight for them around the round table, winking now and then, and sometimes to pack up and move out. You just have to hang on to the end of this block!

Harassment Pool / Jan Březina, Patrik Balonek / 5 min / original language: no dialogue – “Harassment Pool.”

Shift / Jakub Ondráček / 15 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – Firefighter and pitcher Martin Schneider has his biggest tournament yet. The amateur baseball player is about to touch what he has dreamed of his whole life. A hard head against a hard wall. For once, throw it hard.

At Second Sight / Vendy Pelíšková / 5 min / original language: no dialogue – Trapped in a relationship that fills her with anxiety, Maya escapes into her own world. But what if there's nowhere to hide and something has to change? Maybe all it takes is one look.

Please Rise / Sheida Sheikhha / 23 min / original language: EN / subtitles: CZ – Please Rise is a political drama about a committee that is formed to choose a new national anthem after a fictional Middle-Eastern dictatorship goes through a revolution. Set in a meeting room, the film shows committee members peacefully arriving at a unanimous decision – that is then suspiciously disqualified due to the songwriter’s ties to the previous regime.

From Nature to Civilization / Klára Ondračková / 3 min / original language: no dialogue – It's always nice out. Everything around me plays softly and smoothly. It's natural. But now digitally. I have control of everything that's playing, I do what I want - this here, that there, now I repeat and move, copy and cut. I'm gonna throw it out, stop it, fade it, and bomb it. I can do anything. Where do I get? I conceived of this composition as a transition from the natural softness and fluidity into the sharp, chaotic and digital clutches that civilization represents for me. It's such a polished germ - it pulls, it hurts, and it's impossible to endure. But perhaps it is possible to find, at least for a while, a fluidity of movement in the friction of digital particles. It's a network - a digital mycelium - the movements of waves and connections in space.

Iron Cow / Barbora Aradská / 8 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – The film depicts the relationship between a farmer and his cattle. The protagonist is Milan Kazda, the mayor of the only energy self-sufficient municipality in the Czech Republic - Kněžice. The second character is his cow, which is constantly hungry and requires attention and care. What makes this farming unique and where do we find its limits?

Anticorro / Kateřina Boušková / 4 min / original language: no dialogue – Two people meet in a dark room. One belongs there, the other not as much. Black suitcase and a shiny object figure out who is who. Short film about skeletons (and people) in the closet will draw the audience in through its cinematography, music and style, while allowing the audience to peek at the work with 35mm black and white film.

Trigger warning: weapons / shooting

Rest in Peace / Emily Hoskins / 3 min / original language: no dialogue – The unpleasant noise in the apartment is coming at the heroine from all sides. The ticking of the clock, the buzzing of flies, the neighbours and their vacuum cleaners. The heroine decides to pack her life into a single suitcase and head for a better tomorrow - somewhere quiet. She creates her new home in the middle of a meadow, where she doesn't forget to bring a chair or a bookcase. In the rustling of the trees, he finally finds the peace he craves - for sometimes the dead are resurrected even in the graveyard.

Old Masters / Adam Barbora / 12 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – The old Sokolovna, the old group and the enthusiastic ping pong referee Míra. Inattentiveness and petty conflicts penetrate into the everyday friendly match, which the old masters have to deal with.

Sweets / Jiří Vejdělek / 15 min / original language: CZ / subtitles: EN – The student film by the future director of feature films such as Participants of the Tour or Václav presents the adolescent awakening of a twelve-year-old boy. In a picturesque village, he has to cope not only with his desires for a beautiful ice-cream maker, but also with a caring family.

Total screening time: 94 min.