04/05/2006

Karla Stojáková has been involved in film and TV production from her Film Academy days back in the late 1980s, but it was only in 2000 when she and her partner set up their own production company, Axman Production. She started with short films and documentaries and last year she produced her first feature film Restart, a Czech/Finnish co-production.

Cineuropa: It seems that there is a fresh attitude – and a new law – about all things film in the Czech Republic these days. What do you make of it?
Karla Stojáková: It was great that the Association of Producers [APA] had initiated these changes and I hope that they will finally mean more funds available for our filmmakers – giving everybody the possibility to make a film with a reasonable budget, supported by the Czech Film Fund. That does not necessarily mean that all productions [requesting funding] will get automatic support [from the Fund]. But I hope that quality projects will now get their chance and I also hope that there will be more opportunities for newcomers, people without any experience but who desperately want to produce a film. It is important to help these people take their first step; something that didn’t happen for us, when we were trying to fund our first feature film and we were turned down. On the other hand we knew we wanted to make the film and all the obstacles only made us much stronger; at least for me as a producer it made me want to fight to find other ways and other possibilities, and I did it. In short, yes, there are ways to make films without [state] subsidies but it takes time and it is really difficult.

Where do you fit in, in this new kind of film environment?
What I am trying to do with my company is to discover young, talented directors with whom I can work. It is important for me and I believe for many others in Europe that we co-operate. Surely there are things that can be very local and can be filmed only as a local production where nobody else can do it because they wouldn’t understand it. But it is important that we make European films that are universally accepted. And that means you can have a cameraman from Denmark, a Czech director, a scriptwriter from Poland and make the film together. These people alone can bring the diversity needed that could help the film being understood everywhere.

What do you expect from your inclusion in EFP’s “Producers on the move” programme?
First of all, I’m happy to meet people that share similar experiences like mine and talk about what it’s like to be a producer in your own country – people that are on the move, who have one or more feature films behind them and, in a way, they are at the beginning of their careers. I believe that these people could be my future co-producers. Of course I’m going to share with them my projects in development, as we have already sent them to the EFP. So I expect to discuss our plans and, who knows, maybe we will end up finding that we have a lot in common!

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