Academia Film Olomouc
Encyclopedia
Academia Film Olomouc is the international festival of science documentary film
s held annually in April under the patronage of the Palacký University, Olomouc
, Czech Republic
. The festival maps science and educational films from the fields of humanities
, natural as well as social sciences, educational programs of both domestic and foreign television productions (BBC
, Discovery Channel
) and current science, artistic and technological progresses (recently e.g. podcast
s). The festival is characteristic for its use of discussions – film and science professionals and specialists are invited to thematic blocks to confront their opinions with audience
, mostly represented by those interested in audiovisual works, university
students as well as high school
students. Plurality of its audience is the key point of AFO – the youngest audience is provided with screenings for schools, the organizers prepare screenings at the Olomouc Upper Square for general public and festival echoes present crucial AFO films in the main European metropolises (Brussels
, Paris
, Vienna
, Prague
).
Presently AFO is held by the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the Philosophical Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic).
and education
in Czechoslovakia
. Those were the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
, Short Film Prague and the Palacký University. The origin of the festival was inspired by then unique a festival of didactic films in the Italian town Padua
which was extraordinary by the fact that it was held within the university campus. Short Film Prague was the main promoter of the festival since its very beginning. It was an institution that produced educational film
s by Jiří Lehovec, Jan Calábek or Bohumil Vošáhlík since 1950s. These pictures presented current scientific discoveries and innovative methods so that they were comprehensible to scientists as well as students of given study field or talented pupils from elementary school
s. Topics of the oldest science documentary films were often connected with very specific problems that are difficult to explain even nowadays, such as principle of the world, weather
changes, possibilities of sound recording or motion and time relativity. Visually they portrayed organisms of plants, cell nuclei and photosynthesis
. Such films gained international reputation in their time. What is more, an independent department, which dealt with similar topics, existed in 1950s and 1960s within the Czechoslovak State Film, part of which organization was Short Film Prague.
Connection of the university and film industry
became a logical means of bringing up-to-date science observations closer to widest public. There was no institution, though, that would provide the project with necessary background. The festival in Padua was a model for the workers of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, who turned to the Palacký University, whose students ranked among the most active in holding cultural events in the 1960s.
The university professor
Jiří Stýskal sponsored the first Olomouc screening of science documentary films with his colleagues Eduard Petrů, Alena Štěrbová and Miroslav Tomšů in 1966. The festival was given the Academia Film title twelve months later after its positive reception.
The modest idea of a science festival reaches the whole country importance during 1960s and 1970s. It is praised particularly for being an event that maps the situation and transformation of film form.
The participation of the Czechoslovak Television
on the origin of science films came hand in hand with the development of television
broadcasting in 1970s. Its films thus enrich the festival program.
The festival had to cope with a sociopolitical situation that was going through a significant transformation at the turn of 1960s and 1970s. The festival was financed by grants of the organizing institutions.
1980s
Interest in Academia Film Olomouc gradually increases. Number of films in competition as well as materials with film recording grows. Originally a small university event becomes a festival that draws attention of wider public.
It is the video
phenomenon that marked a strong development during 1980s besides television. Academia Film Olomouc reacts to this fact in 1986 and includes in its program one of the first video projections in the Czechoslovakia. This step had an extraordinary meaning in its time. It is because the Central Film Distributor that ensured distribution of films within the Czechoslovakia, began to buy video programs from the whole world and distribute them further to the Czech and Slovakia
n cinemas not until 1 January 1985. Academia Film Olomouc thus ranked among the first institutions that helped the progress of the integral network of video programs.
1990s
In 1990s AFO becomes an international festival. It experiences existential problems, though, due to the end of the financing model of a state film. Short Film Prague gained independence and focused more on co-productions of feature film
s, financial situation of the education system gets worse as well. The festival is still funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
as well as by the Ministry of Culture, however, more and more it must rely on private sponsors. In 1997 the festival organizers established the Award for the Best Multimedia Educational Program, they look for the audience also outside the duration of the festival within the framework of the “AFO into Region” project. In 1999 the festival organization changes, Jan Schneider becomes the director of AFO and thus changes for the up to then director Jindřich Schulz, the former vice-chancellor of the Palacký University in Olomouc
.
Beginning of the New Millennium
New Millennium
In 2001 the festival partly moves to the Regional Museum where a video forum, media forum and film bar are set up: “We want to increase the number of festival visitors. Returning to the previous quarters of the festival should be a way of bringing the event closer to audience so that it corresponds to the motto and the overall orientation of this year’s festival. In one word, we don’t want our festival to be focused on university pedagogues and students, but for widest public,” said Schneider 19 April 2001 to MF DNES.
The festival is given a new name: International Festival of Documentary Films and Multimedia Educational Programs. The organizational team cancels the competition of educational films.
More profound organizational changes take place in 2003. Rostislav Hladký becomes the new director, the festival changes its date and for the first time it takes place in autumn.
The Present
The organization of the festival goes into the hands of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the Palacký University. The organizers return to its spring term, Petr Bilík becomes its director. AFO begins to co-operate with the non-governmental organization
JSAF, the organizer of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. The aim of the new organizational team is to not overlap the program of the Jihlava festival, to anchor the program structure tightly within educational and science documentary films and strengthen its international character. This is why AFO gives space to educational programs by BBC or Discovery Channels. Academia Film Olomouc does not want to be just a spectacle show that would “be forced to change its face according to moods and momentary attitudes of its audience,“ as Petr Bilík puts it. We want it to be “an artistic encyclopedia of informative and inspirational experiences”. The festival adopted the name the International Festival of Science Documentary Films. “Watch and Know” is its motto. New conception and organizers have the effect of increase of interest about the festival particularly on the part of wider public and AFO becomes an event of a worldwide importance.
, posters, invitations, festival daily and catalogue to the festival trailer and festival minutes, have one single design. Author of the trailer is Josef Abrahám, Jr. during the years 2007-2009. Students of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies occupy all the festival positions of the festival under the supervision of their pedagogues. The festival is thus also an educational platform.
International market of science documentary films DOC Port is a part of AFO as well. A significant part of the festival is formed by the accompanying program including concerts of the Czech alternative club music (e.g. Sunshine, Ohm Square, Airfare) and screenings on the square. AFO into Region, an inseparable part of the festival, origins in co-operation with secondary school
s. It offers the students from the Olomouc region to get acquainted with the most interesting things about the festival which is held at the university they are studying at.
AFO puts major focus on printed promotion. A voluminous catalogue and the festival daily AFOhled are available for the festival visitors. Students of the department also film a videojournal called AFOsféra during this event. Those who cannot be present at the festival, can watch the television broadcasting of festival minutes.
s and discussions that are within particular thematic sections. Topics such as Body and Carnality, 1968: Global Revolt, Experiments on Humans, Mystery of the Universe, Film and Ideology were introduced during the past years.
and television production were introduced during the festival. In 2007 it was especially Albert Barillé, the French creator of the population series Once Upon a Time… (Man, Life). The British BBC documentarist Nigel Marven
visited Olomouc one year later, in 2009 it was the American Jeff Lieberman who hosts the successful show Time Warp, broadcasted by Discovery Channel, or Andrew Holtz, author of the book The Medical Science of House, M.D. – The facts behind the addictive medical drama
. Other significant guests were e.g. the undersea filmmaker Steve Lichtag or the British filmmaker and a biologist David Barlow, who films the inside of a human body.
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
s held annually in April under the patronage of the Palacký University, Olomouc
Palacký University, Olomouc
The Palacký University of Olomouc is the oldest university in Moravia and the second-oldest in the Czech Republic. It was established in 1573 as a public university led by the Jesuit order in Olomouc, which was at that time the capital of Moravia and the seat of the episcopacy...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
. The festival maps science and educational films from the fields of humanities
Humanities
The humanities are academic disciplines that study the human condition, using methods that are primarily analytical, critical, or speculative, as distinguished from the mainly empirical approaches of the natural sciences....
, natural as well as social sciences, educational programs of both domestic and foreign television productions (BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel
Discovery Channel is an American satellite and cable specialty channel , founded by John Hendricks and distributed by Discovery Communications. It is a publicly traded company run by CEO David Zaslav...
) and current science, artistic and technological progresses (recently e.g. podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s). The festival is characteristic for its use of discussions – film and science professionals and specialists are invited to thematic blocks to confront their opinions with audience
Audience
An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature , theatre, music or academics in any medium...
, mostly represented by those interested in audiovisual works, university
University
A university is an institution of higher education and research, which grants academic degrees in a variety of subjects. A university is an organisation that provides both undergraduate education and postgraduate education...
students as well as high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
students. Plurality of its audience is the key point of AFO – the youngest audience is provided with screenings for schools, the organizers prepare screenings at the Olomouc Upper Square for general public and festival echoes present crucial AFO films in the main European metropolises (Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, Prague
Prague
Prague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
).
Presently AFO is held by the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the Philosophical Faculty of the Palacký University in Olomouc (Czech Republic).
Origin of the Festival
Academia Film Olomouc was initiated in 1966 by key institutions that guaranteed the development of scienceScience
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
in Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
. Those were the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
The Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences was established in 1953 to be the scientific center for Czechoslovakia. It was succeeded by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in 1992.-History:...
, Short Film Prague and the Palacký University. The origin of the festival was inspired by then unique a festival of didactic films in the Italian town Padua
Padua
Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
which was extraordinary by the fact that it was held within the university campus. Short Film Prague was the main promoter of the festival since its very beginning. It was an institution that produced educational film
Educational film
An educational film is a film or movie whose primary purpose is to educate. Educational films have been used in classrooms as an alternative to other teaching methods.-Cultural significance:...
s by Jiří Lehovec, Jan Calábek or Bohumil Vošáhlík since 1950s. These pictures presented current scientific discoveries and innovative methods so that they were comprehensible to scientists as well as students of given study field or talented pupils from elementary school
Elementary school
An elementary school or primary school is an institution where children receive the first stage of compulsory education known as elementary or primary education. Elementary school is the preferred term in some countries, particularly those in North America, where the terms grade school and grammar...
s. Topics of the oldest science documentary films were often connected with very specific problems that are difficult to explain even nowadays, such as principle of the world, weather
Weather
Weather is the state of the atmosphere, to the degree that it is hot or cold, wet or dry, calm or stormy, clear or cloudy. Most weather phenomena occur in the troposphere, just below the stratosphere. Weather refers, generally, to day-to-day temperature and precipitation activity, whereas climate...
changes, possibilities of sound recording or motion and time relativity. Visually they portrayed organisms of plants, cell nuclei and photosynthesis
Photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a chemical process that converts carbon dioxide into organic compounds, especially sugars, using the energy from sunlight. Photosynthesis occurs in plants, algae, and many species of bacteria, but not in archaea. Photosynthetic organisms are called photoautotrophs, since they can...
. Such films gained international reputation in their time. What is more, an independent department, which dealt with similar topics, existed in 1950s and 1960s within the Czechoslovak State Film, part of which organization was Short Film Prague.
Connection of the university and film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
became a logical means of bringing up-to-date science observations closer to widest public. There was no institution, though, that would provide the project with necessary background. The festival in Padua was a model for the workers of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences, who turned to the Palacký University, whose students ranked among the most active in holding cultural events in the 1960s.
The university professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...
Jiří Stýskal sponsored the first Olomouc screening of science documentary films with his colleagues Eduard Petrů, Alena Štěrbová and Miroslav Tomšů in 1966. The festival was given the Academia Film title twelve months later after its positive reception.
Important Historical Moments
1960s and 1970sThe modest idea of a science festival reaches the whole country importance during 1960s and 1970s. It is praised particularly for being an event that maps the situation and transformation of film form.
The participation of the Czechoslovak Television
Czechoslovak Television
Czechoslovak Television was founded on 1 May 1953 in the former Czechoslovakia. Around its dissolution into Czechia and Slovakia in the end of 1992, ČST was abolished, and the new companies, public service broadcasters, emerged:...
on the origin of science films came hand in hand with the development of television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
broadcasting in 1970s. Its films thus enrich the festival program.
The festival had to cope with a sociopolitical situation that was going through a significant transformation at the turn of 1960s and 1970s. The festival was financed by grants of the organizing institutions.
1980s
Interest in Academia Film Olomouc gradually increases. Number of films in competition as well as materials with film recording grows. Originally a small university event becomes a festival that draws attention of wider public.
It is the video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
phenomenon that marked a strong development during 1980s besides television. Academia Film Olomouc reacts to this fact in 1986 and includes in its program one of the first video projections in the Czechoslovakia. This step had an extraordinary meaning in its time. It is because the Central Film Distributor that ensured distribution of films within the Czechoslovakia, began to buy video programs from the whole world and distribute them further to the Czech and Slovakia
Slovakia
The Slovak Republic is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about . Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south...
n cinemas not until 1 January 1985. Academia Film Olomouc thus ranked among the first institutions that helped the progress of the integral network of video programs.
1990s
In 1990s AFO becomes an international festival. It experiences existential problems, though, due to the end of the financing model of a state film. Short Film Prague gained independence and focused more on co-productions of feature film
Feature film
In the film industry, a feature film is a film production made for initial distribution in theaters and being the main attraction of the screening, rather than a short film screened before it; a full length movie...
s, financial situation of the education system gets worse as well. The festival is still funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic was established in 1992 by the Czech National Council as the Czech successor of the former Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. The Academy is the leading non-university public research institution in the Czech Republic...
as well as by the Ministry of Culture, however, more and more it must rely on private sponsors. In 1997 the festival organizers established the Award for the Best Multimedia Educational Program, they look for the audience also outside the duration of the festival within the framework of the “AFO into Region” project. In 1999 the festival organization changes, Jan Schneider becomes the director of AFO and thus changes for the up to then director Jindřich Schulz, the former vice-chancellor of the Palacký University in Olomouc
Olomouc
Olomouc is a city in Moravia, in the east of the Czech Republic. The city is located on the Morava river and is the ecclesiastical metropolis and historical capital city of Moravia. Nowadays, it is an administrative centre of the Olomouc Region and sixth largest city in the Czech Republic...
.
Beginning of the New Millennium
New Millennium
In 2001 the festival partly moves to the Regional Museum where a video forum, media forum and film bar are set up: “We want to increase the number of festival visitors. Returning to the previous quarters of the festival should be a way of bringing the event closer to audience so that it corresponds to the motto and the overall orientation of this year’s festival. In one word, we don’t want our festival to be focused on university pedagogues and students, but for widest public,” said Schneider 19 April 2001 to MF DNES.
The festival is given a new name: International Festival of Documentary Films and Multimedia Educational Programs. The organizational team cancels the competition of educational films.
More profound organizational changes take place in 2003. Rostislav Hladký becomes the new director, the festival changes its date and for the first time it takes place in autumn.
The Present
The organization of the festival goes into the hands of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the Palacký University. The organizers return to its spring term, Petr Bilík becomes its director. AFO begins to co-operate with the non-governmental organization
Non-governmental organization
A non-governmental organization is a legally constituted organization created by natural or legal persons that operates independently from any government. The term originated from the United Nations , and is normally used to refer to organizations that do not form part of the government and are...
JSAF, the organizer of the Jihlava International Documentary Film Festival. The aim of the new organizational team is to not overlap the program of the Jihlava festival, to anchor the program structure tightly within educational and science documentary films and strengthen its international character. This is why AFO gives space to educational programs by BBC or Discovery Channels. Academia Film Olomouc does not want to be just a spectacle show that would “be forced to change its face according to moods and momentary attitudes of its audience,“ as Petr Bilík puts it. We want it to be “an artistic encyclopedia of informative and inspirational experiences”. The festival adopted the name the International Festival of Science Documentary Films. “Watch and Know” is its motto. New conception and organizers have the effect of increase of interest about the festival particularly on the part of wider public and AFO becomes an event of a worldwide importance.
Festival Organisation
Apart from the festival program, the organizers focus a lot on its design. All the graphic components, starting with the festival logoLogo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
, posters, invitations, festival daily and catalogue to the festival trailer and festival minutes, have one single design. Author of the trailer is Josef Abrahám, Jr. during the years 2007-2009. Students of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies occupy all the festival positions of the festival under the supervision of their pedagogues. The festival is thus also an educational platform.
International market of science documentary films DOC Port is a part of AFO as well. A significant part of the festival is formed by the accompanying program including concerts of the Czech alternative club music (e.g. Sunshine, Ohm Square, Airfare) and screenings on the square. AFO into Region, an inseparable part of the festival, origins in co-operation with secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
s. It offers the students from the Olomouc region to get acquainted with the most interesting things about the festival which is held at the university they are studying at.
AFO puts major focus on printed promotion. A voluminous catalogue and the festival daily AFOhled are available for the festival visitors. Students of the department also film a videojournal called AFOsféra during this event. Those who cannot be present at the festival, can watch the television broadcasting of festival minutes.
Program Structure of the Festival
Students of the Department of Theatre, Film and Media Studies of the Palacký University have co-operated on the program structure since 2007. They choose films together with the main program manager, discuss them and put them within proper program blocks. The main part of the program is formed by the International and Czech competitions. Other parts of the program are retrospective and then it is especially the section Studio which includes blocks with screenings, lectureLecture
thumb|A lecture on [[linear algebra]] at the [[Helsinki University of Technology]]A lecture is an oral presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular subject, for example by a university or college teacher. Lectures are used to convey critical information, history,...
s and discussions that are within particular thematic sections. Topics such as Body and Carnality, 1968: Global Revolt, Experiments on Humans, Mystery of the Universe, Film and Ideology were introduced during the past years.
Festival guests
Significant personalities of science, cinematographyCinematography
Cinematography is the making of lighting and camera choices when recording photographic images for cinema. It is closely related to the art of still photography...
and television production were introduced during the festival. In 2007 it was especially Albert Barillé, the French creator of the population series Once Upon a Time… (Man, Life). The British BBC documentarist Nigel Marven
Nigel Marven
Nigel Marven is a British wildlife presenter, television producer, author, and ornithologist.-Career:Marven studied botany at Bristol University until the age of 22 when he left to begin his career at the BBC Natural History Unit in Bristol...
visited Olomouc one year later, in 2009 it was the American Jeff Lieberman who hosts the successful show Time Warp, broadcasted by Discovery Channel, or Andrew Holtz, author of the book The Medical Science of House, M.D. – The facts behind the addictive medical drama
Medical drama
A medical drama is a television program, in which events center upon a hospital, an ambulance staff, or any medical environment.In the United States, most medical episodes are one hour long and, more often than not, are set in a hospital. Most current medical Dramatic programming go beyond the...
. Other significant guests were e.g. the undersea filmmaker Steve Lichtag or the British filmmaker and a biologist David Barlow, who films the inside of a human body.