An interview with Matej Sotník, producer for Slovakian company guča films, now selected for the 2024 Emerging Producers programme. Read his EP profile here.

Why do you produce documentaries? Do you see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change?
Matej Sotník: I produce documentaries because they bring to the game openness in many of its meanings. I've found it stimulating how often a documentary occurs on the border – with fiction, journalism, or poetry. On one hand, a documentary is fascinating for its tactility to reality, on the other for the way it can bend it. I often think of what Peter Mettler once said – "Let the experience guide your filmmaking." I believe that films we make have a dialogue with this idea. A documentary producer has to be open to a high degree of organicity in the creative process and, at the same time, create order out of it in order to finance the film.

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And yes, I do see documentary cinema as an instrument of social and political change. Around the world, there is continuing evidence that documentary film can be a tool for social change and make an impact. The biggest impact for me is when a person experiences something unique, often indescribable, with a film that continues with them into their everyday reality.

How do you achieve and maintain work-life balance and foster overall well-being?
Fast walk. Little escapisms from the daily rhythm whenever you can. Sauna over the winter. Greek islands in the summer. And Vietnamese food. But even with all these elements, though, in our industry it's often hard to find what you call work-life balance and overall well-being.

Where do you find audiences for your films?
The cinematic landscape has changed and is still dynamically transforming. The ways in which documentaries reach their audiences are also changing, but the good news is that they are certainly not narrowing, but on the contrary, multiplying.

Our films firstly find their way to their audiences at festivals and have been presented or awarded at international film festivals such as Berlinale, RIDM Montreal, Sheffield Doc/Fest, Ji.hlava IDFF, ZagrebDox and many others. Once they come back from their voyage around the world, we are taking care of them home.

In Slovakia, the country where our production company guča films is based, I also co-founded the boutique distribution Film Expanded, which is unusual on the international map because of its profile – to cinemas and non-traditional screening venues we distribute predominantly creative docs.

When it comes to VOD platforms our films have been released online internationally at DAFilms or Tënk.

Some of our films are co-produced with the public broadcasters Radio and television Slovakia and Czech Television, so at the very end, a mass TV audience awaits them. With Radio and Television Slovakia we even co-produced the quite experimental film Notes from Eremocene [+lee también:
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What projects do you have underway (including fiction films and other projects)?
I have several projects in various stages, including fiction and series. Among all of them, I would like to mention the second film by internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker Lucia Kašová (The Sailor [+lee también:
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600 Raids is the documentary debut of Kristina Leidenfrostová in development. It is an Austrian-Slovak co-production and on the Austrian side is Soleil Film. It is a film about dreams – life desires that many Slovak Roma had before they were brutally beaten in numerous police raids for no reason, and dreams – nightmares that they have as echoes of terrible traumas.

Another film that is about to be completed is a documentary debut by Paula Ďurinová called Lapilli. We also call it "a soft film about hard matter" because it blends the emotional and environmental and takes us on a journey through rocks shaped by grieving processes.

I am also on board of feature debut of talented Slovak director Tereza Halamová The Hour Between Dog and Wolf (in development) that is being produced by Czech company Other Stories.

As a minority co-producer I am as well in debut projects of two new and strong female Eastern European talents in documentary – The Other One directed by Marie-Magdalena Kochová and If Pigeons Turned to Gold directed by Pepa Lubojacki.

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EMERGING PRODUCERS is a leading promotional and educational project, which brings together talented European documentary film producers. The programme is organised and curated by the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival.

Deadline for applications to the EMERGING PRODUCERS 2025 edition is 31st March 2024.