The festival reacts to the current state of society in the Czech Republic that faces growing pressure caused by economic development and its social impacts as well as by the crisis of political representation. Although homogeneous in nature (unlike western European countries), the Czech society – and the Czechs themselves –are able to find opportunities for inner discrimination and delimitation. Quite automatically, a large percentage of the Czechs negatively react not only to their Romany neighbours but also to different political beliefs, loud conversation in the street, people coming from other towns and cities or people living an alternative lifestyle.
“We are surprised by what the situation that started with protests in the Šluknov district evolved into throughout the year. Discriminatory laws, such as temporary banishment defined in the new Czech Administrative Infractions Act, as well as the tone of pre-election campaigns led by some presidential candidates are a clear continuation of the Šluknov affair,” said the One World directorHana Kulhánková.
As the current shift to racism, discrimination and search for “scapegoats” is not common only to the Czech Republic, One World has decided to screen a series of 13 films from different parts of the world documenting the full range of cases from the evolving xenophobic attitude among people to the extremities; including Czech documents from the socially deprived areas in the Czech Republic. The main thematic category Don’t Be Scared of Eggality!, however, will also feature several documentaries that might positively inspire the audience to think about the co-existence and toleration.
The festival’s serious topic is sharply contrasted by the 2013 One World playful animal graphics. “An ostrich promenading among chickens in the Czech backyard is nothing exotic today. Still, the much bigger ostrich eggs can get under the skin of a Czech chicken. It always starts quite innocently: I have nothing against the ostriches but … And then, sooner or later, the ostrich almost gets pecked away,” says František Dečman of the Creative Heroes agency – the authors of the festival’s visual –whendescribing this creative idea.
The other 2013 One World programme categories are: The Power of the Media – investigating the influence of information in the contemporary world; Side Effects – featuring films about health care in the West and developing countries; Journeys to Freedom – featuring films about non-democratic countries in which the People in Need works; and So-Called Civilisation – focusing on lifestyle aspects in close relationship to the nature. Films featured in the Main Competition and the Right to Know categories will compete for the festival awards. Last but not least, the festival will also present the latest Czech documentaries as well.
Taking place on 4-13 March 2013 in Prague, One World then moves to another 40 Czech towns and cities. As is now traditional, the festival will offer Q&A sessions with filmmakers and experts after the screenings as well as panel discussions with international guests. For more information, please visit our website at www.oneworld.cz.
The list of interesting international festival guests – filmmakers and human rights activists – coming to Prague for the festival will be available in February.
The accreditation press conference will take place on Tuesday, 26 February 2013, from 11:00 AM at the People in Need Centre – Langhans.
Contact: Jiří Sulženko, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., tel.: +420 739 320 644.
