Šípek!
Over four years, this film documented the life of Bořek Šípek, a Czech architect, glassmaker, Buddhist, avid cook and traveller. At the beginning of the shoot, Šípek lived with his partner Leona, owned a Thai restaurant in Prague and spent his weekends at Ajeto glass factory. Every week he travelled thousands of kilometres to supervise jobs in various parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. After celebrating his sixtieth birthday, he split up with his long-time girlfriend, quit the restaurant business and left Ajeto. Then he opened a couple of new glass shops and moved to another neighbourhood in Prague. After that he started working with glassmakers in Nový Bor, moved again, opened another glass shop and left the Nový Bor glass works. In January 2012, as Czech glass business struggles to survive in the global economic crisis, he opened his own glass factory in Nový Bor.
Diamond Czech Style
A documentary about a uniquely Czech depiction of the female crotch as a diamond with a vertical line in the middle. The original vulgarity painted on walls and in public toilets with its recorded history reaching to the 17th century became a phenomenon that entered the highest levels of Czech art in the 20th century – be it drama, literature (Milan Kundera), visual art (Štyrský) or film. At the same time, it left its humorous mark on the Czech population by giving it its „diamond perspective“. Paradoxically, the Czech diamond thus has become, though officially overlooked, an actual part of the Czech cultural heritage. The author will take a historical, cultural anthropological and sociological perspective on this graphic symbol.