The industry sidebar of the Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival, the New Visions Forum (26-29 October), will shortly host its second edition, dedicated to the new generation of European producers, new formats, and innovative trends and visions. The selected projects encompass a wide range of genres and formats, including docufiction, hybrid films, expanded cinema and experimental works. This year, the festival is introducing a host of new awards for the most promising projects presented at the forum, in cooperation with its partners AmDocs, UPP, Soundsquare, DAFilms.com, Taskovski Films, Cannes Docs – Marché du Film, the Documentary Association of Europe and the European Film Market. The jury that will be deliberating on the prizes this year consists of artistic director of the Berlin International Film Festival Carlo Chatrian, US film producer Michael Rogosin and the artistic director of the New Horizons International Film Festival, Ewa Szablowska.

Several domestic projects have made it into the selection. Experimental filmmaker Ondřej Vavrečka will be presenting 1+1+1, described as a playful 16 mm film tackling the notion of progress. The picture combines situational acting with the joyful elements of a musical, as well as meetings between writers and intellectuals in their day-to-day environment. Another project is If I Ever Lose My Eyes by another domestic experimental filmmaker, Lea Petříková. It is described as a film journey through places near and far, real and dreamlike, on the borderline between reality and fiction. The synopsis reveals: “The guides on this journey are various explorers who present their elusive experiences with researching and capturing imprints of the invisible – former filmmakers, a forgotten film movement, a local history expert, a mountaineer, a professor and the director herself, Lea Petříková.” Well-known Czech provocateur, mockumentarist and prankster Vít Klusák, who was behind the documentary Caught in the Net [+leggi anche:
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scheda film], a domestic smash, has joined forces with his partner, Marika Pecháčková, to shoot The Great Nothing, about the COVID-19 pandemic as it unfolded in real time.

Among the international projects is Basement 341 by Ukrainian filmmaker Roman Blazhan, reflecting on the situation when Russian troops locked all 341 residents of Yahidne in a 160-square-metre school basement, where they spent 26 days. One of the villagers kept a diary, and this document is one of the keys to the collective puzzle of trauma. Another Ukrainian filmmaker, Pavlo Dorohoi, follows how the normal lives of the residents of Kharkiv changed after daily Russian shelling forced them to seek shelter in the subway, in Metro 2022. Audun Amundsen tackles the hot topic of online money-making gurus in Click the Link Below, while Aura Satz contemplates two decades of the new millennium filled with nuclear accidents, tsunamis, tornados, floods, fires, melting ice caps, a global pandemic, the rise of populism and right-wing demagogues in the audial film essay Preemptive Listening.

Here is the full list of projects selected for the Ji.hlava New Visions Forum:

1+1+1 – Ondřej Vavrečka (Czech Republic)
Producer: Vít Janeček
Production company: D1film

A Farewell to Snow – A Film Trilogy – Sanni Priha (Finland)
Producer: Tuuli Penttinen-Lampisuo
Production company: Poike Productio

Basement 341 – Roman Blazhan (Ukraine)
Producer: Roman Blazhan
Production company: Minimal Movie

Clink the Link Below – Audun Amundsen (Germany/Norway/United Kingdom)
Producer: Audun Amundsen
Production company: GonzoDocs AS

Forest – Lidia Duda (Poland)
Producer: Adrianna Rędzia
Production company: Aura Films

Holding Mawda – Robin Vanbesien (Belgium)
Producer: Robin Vanbesien
Production company: timely

Hun Tun – Magdalena Hejzlarová (Czech Republic/France/Hungary)
Producer: Karolína Davidová
Production company: 13ka

Subterranea – Valeria Mazzucchi (Switzerland)
Producer: Irene Muñoz Martin
Production company: Futur Proche

Dabruneba – Mar Garro Lleonart (Spain)
Producers: Alba Sotorra Clua, Paloma Bercovich
Production company: Alba Sotorra SL

If I Ever Lose My Eyes – Lea Petříková (Czech Republic)
Producer: Tomáš Pertold
Production company: Perfilm

In the End of the World. Darkness: Redemption – Abraham Escobedo-Salas (Mexico/Portugal)
Producer: Abraham Escobedo-Salas
Production company: Flama Films

Metro 2022 – Pavlo Dorohoi (Ukraine)
Producer: Artem Pribylnov
Production company: Eden Production

Preemptive Listening – Aura Satz (UK/Finland)
Producer: Luke W Moody
Production company: LONO Studio

Red Skies – Marina Thomé (Portugal)
Producer: Marcia Mansur
Production company: Estúdio CRUA

Sinnermen – Aleš Suk (Croatia)
Producer: Aleš Suk
Production company: UKUS

The Great Nothing – Vít Klusák, Marika Pecháčková (Czech Republic)
Producers: Pavla Klimešová, Vít Klusák, Filip Remunda
Production company: Hypermarket Film