EUGENIC MINDS (2013)
Pavel Štingl
Director and documentary filmmaker, born 16 June 1960.
Graduated from FAMU's Department of Documentary Film in 1985 with Learning to Be Fearful.
Following the revolution in 1989, he began working on a series of films from the countries of the former Eastern Bloc: Romania Libera and Quo Vadis, Romania...?
Won prizes at the 1990 festival in Budapest, and The Land without Graves won the jury prize at the 1991 Hiroshima International Film Festival.
Albanian Tears of Victory, another documentary about Eastern Europe, won an award at the Lodz International Film Festival.
The Balkan series also included The Millionaires of Poverty and A Student Love, the latter of which was shown at the Amsterdam International Film Festival.
The Country Again With No Name, a documentary from Transcarpathian Ruthenia, was shown at the Strasbourg festival.
The turbulent streets of Moscow gave rise to Greetings from the Country where Yesterday meant Tomorrow, which won the main prize at Prix Italia 1993.
In late 1993, Pavel Štingl founded his own production company, K2 s.r.o., through which he has realized nearly 100 documentaries.
Important films include: Home from Home about Czech expatriates in South Africa, followed by a look at the country's elections in Quo Vadis, South Africa...?
In 1996, he creates the Czech Television series The Way We Were – one story with a political background for every year since the war. K2 produced 18 episodes.
Then came the following documentaries:
Four Pairs of Shoes – a 50-minute portrait of professor Jan Wiener.
Three Friends – a portrait of three women Holocaust survivors.
The Story of the Castaways from the Patria – the fate of Jewish refugees leaving occupied Europe in 1940. In 1998, the film received a FIAT/IFTA Award.
The Diary of Mr. Pfitzner – a look at the personal transformation of a history professor during the occupation.
The Lost World of Karel Pecka – the author remembers the situation of the political prisoners in the 1950s and '60s.
The film won the 2000 Trilobit Award.
A Story about a Bad Dream – war as seen through the eyes of a child. The film won the main prize at the 2000 Japan Prix festival and the 2000 Trilobit Award.
Failure – the story of parachutist Viliam Gerik, who ended up betraying his cause. The film won the 2000 Trilobit Award.
What Language does the Lord Speak...? – the life story of a forgotten Sudeten German in the Krkonoše Mountains.
The Second Life of Lidice – this documentary offers a new look at the stories of wartime heroes and victims.
Description of a Struggle – a longitudinal documentary about the making of Jaroslav Róna's Franz Kafka memorial.
Peace to Their Souls – a feature-length acted film completed in the fall of 2004 and released in early 2005.
Filming on this film gave rise to Return of the Lost Patriots, a documentary look at preparations for an amateur theater performance.
Boris Rösner's Theatre of Crazy Dramas – a documentary look at the death of a great Czech actor.
Suchá Hora: A Village at the End of the Line – a look at life in Slovakia's Roháč mountains. The film won the main prize at the Nadotek festival.
A Ghetto Named Baluty – an artistic essay on the stigmas felt in a neighborhood of the Polish city of Lodz. The film was nominated for a Czech Lion, won two prizes at festivals in Poland, and also received a Trilobit Awards.
The Road to Calvary – an artistic longitudinal documentary about the making of a modern Stations of the Cross near Kuks.
My Neighbor Killed Heydrich – a portrait of the last person to remember the heroes of the Heydrich assassination.
Eugenic Minds – an animated documentary essay on 20th-century modernity.
Courage – a documentary interview with sculptor Jaroslav Róna, held over the course of the two years when Róna was working on a bronze equestrian sculpture for Moravia Square in Brno.