1. Helena T ř eštíková’s Documentary Film Presentation of the project: Helena T ř eštíková’s Documentary Film – Beginning and development of long – term observational documentary in Czech documentary cinematography Dissertation seminar December 2009 Masaryk University, Faculty of Arts Department of Film Studies and Audiovisual Culture Tutor: PhDr. Jaromír Blažejovský, Ph.D. Student: Maša Hilčišin

2. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Aim of the Project: Research and analyse Helena T ř eštíková 's long-term method in observational documentary filmmaking including author's involvement in documentaries dealing with social issues, which is characterised by T ř eštíková 's use of specific approaches and elements through relation to the social subject, time collecting, presentation of social subjects and social issues in documentary films, as well as the influence of this method on the specific articulation of various social issues.

3. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Reasons for choosing the subject: Helena T ř eštíková’s specific documentaristic approaches Social involvement and activism dealing with various social issues Examinations and researches on women characters Influences on other cinematographers Ethical considerations of long-term observational mode

4. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Some of the questions that project is dealing with: To what extent author can develop relation with social subject and how do we protect the film from possible glorification of crime or violence? To what extent author can be involved in observational documentary filmmaking (includes questions during filming, author appearance in the film during shooting, author’s involvement in helping her social subjects)? How does the author treats people in the film? How do we recognize if someone in the film have been exploited during filming or how do we recognize that author is capturing real social subject and they are not acting just because camera or author is there?

5. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film State of theoretical researches: Paul Rotha Documentary is a form which is 'beyond the simple descriptive terms of the teaching film, more imaginative and expressive than the specific publicity picture, deeper in meaning and more skillful in style than the news-reel, wider in observation than the travel picture or lecture film, more profound in implication and reference than the plain 'inerest' picture‘ Documentaries developed according to the following different traditions: naturalist, realist, news-reel, and propagandist tradition

6. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film State of theoretical researches: Richard Meran Barsam Documentary film a 'creative treatment of actuality’ Classification of nonfiction films into the following groups: travel films, educational, training, or classroom films, and news-reels

7. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film State of theoretical researches: Bill Nichols Documentary is a representation of the world we already occupy. It stands for a particular view of the world, one we may never have encountered before, even if the aspects of the world that is represented are familiar to us Identification of six modes of representation that function something like sub- genres of the documentary film genre itself: poetic, expository, participatory, observational, reflexive, and performative

8. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Historical background of observational mode of representation: Developed in Canada, Europe, and the United States, in the period after WWII, reached its culmination during the 1960s with the documentaries 'Primary' (Robert Drew, 1960), and 'Chronicle of Summer' (Jean Rouch, 1962) Adoption of portable, synchronous sound 16 mm motion picture equipment, complemented by faster film stocks for indoor and night-time shooting produced new labels ‘cinema direct’ and ‘cinéma-vérité Direct cinema suggesting observational methods, and cinéma-vérité a more confrontational approach, filmmaker operating as participant observer, most characteristic of French cinéma-vérité

9. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Specifics and methodology of the project The research and analysis will deal with several areas: methodology of work documentary voice activist-social involvement ethical issues

10. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Specifics and methodology of the project The methodology will include: Content analysis of different discourses and contexts Comparative analysis of different theoretical studies, works, and documentary works An interview with Helena T ř eštíková Analysis of the corpus of Helena T ř eštíková’s documentaries

11. Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film Specifics and methodology of the project: To analyse and define characteristics of long- term observational documentaries (absence of a real ending of the film, the selection and following of characters, further development of the documentary story, uncertainty, and other characteristics of this documentary mode) To research ambiguity and methods of work on documentary film: finding persons/subjects, observation and monitoring of people's lives, involvement of psycho- social context, introducing of new term 'collecting of memory', specifics of chosen social topics, activist-social involvement To define specifics of directors voice and social observational documentary To define specifics and dynamics of changes in narration and social discourse of documentary films filmed within different periods and places To analyse central ethical issues on long – term social observational documentaries.

12. Bibliography Aitken, Ian. Encyclopedia Of The Documentary Film – Volumes I-III. London: Routledge, 2005 Barnouw, Erik. Documentary: A History of the Non-Fiction Film. New York: Oxford University Press, 1974 Barsam, Richard Meran. Nonfiction Film: A Critical History. London: George Allen & Unwin Ltd., 1974 Bruzzi, Stella. Contemporary Documentary: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, 2000 Ellis, Jack C, McLane, Betsy A. A New History of Documentary Film. New York: Continuum, 2006 Gillian, Rose. Visual Methodologies: An Introduction to the Interpretation of Visual Materials, London: Sage Publications, 2001 Hicks, Jeremy. Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film. London: I.B. Tauris&Company, Limited, 2007 Hovorka, Marek. Slováková, Andrea. Č asosb ě r vzbuzoval pocit ohrožení a neklidu: Rozhovor s Helenou T ř eštíkovou, http://www.literarky.cz, 2008 HovorkaSlováková http://www.literarky.cz Nichols, Bill. Representing Reality. Indiana University Press, 1991 Nichols, Bill. Introduction to Documentary. Indiana University Press, 2001 Rotha, Paul. Documentary Film. London: Faber and Faber, Ltd., 1951 Saunders, Dave. Direct Cinema: Observational Documentary and the Politics of the Sixties. London: Wallflower Press, 2007 Smith, Geoffrey Nowell. The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press, 1996 Škapová, Zdena. Technical University of Liberec. Jaký byl a jaký je hrdina č eského dokumentu : manželské etudy: zásadní projekt Heleny T ř eštíkové, Technical University of Liberec, 2006 T ř eštíková, Helena. Č asosb ě rná metoda v dokumentárním filmu Turner, Graeme. Film As Social Practice, London: Routledge, 1999 Waldman, Diane. Walker, Janet. Feminism and Documentary. University of Minnesota Press, 1999

13. Presentation of the project: Helena Třeštíková’s Documentary Film – Beginning and development of long – term observational documentary in Czech documentary cinematography Dissertation seminar December 11, 2009 Thank you for your time!