Film Archive

Breaking News

Documentary Films - Competition 2018 / Mimořádná zpráva / Czech Republic 2018

A carefully composed observation of two newsrooms which, in March 2017, were avidly chasing after information about the Czech president’s decision whether or not to run for re-election. Two teams of reporters, one extraordinary event, and two takes on one “objective” piece of news.

Synopsis

When journalists are denied access to a news story it just makes them all the more hungry for information. This was the case in March 2017, when the existing Czech president was preparing to announce whether or not he would be running for re-election. Except that the announcement was made at Prague Castle in the presence of a close circle of supporters and friends – reporters were not admitted. Documentary filmmaker Tomáš Bojar, who always tailors his formal concepts to suit the given subject matter, unobtrusively tracks staff at two different Czech newsrooms as they embark on their one-day scramble for this breaking news. At the same time he elegantly draws attention to the journalistic dimension of “objective” reporting, indiscriminately coloured by the views and attitudes of specific individuals.

Martin Horyna

About the film

75 min / Color, DCP
World premiere
Director Tomáš Bojar / Screenplay Tomáš Bojar / Dir. of Photography Jiří Chod / Music Maurice Ravel / Editor Šimon Špidla / Producer Tomáš Bojar / Production Cinema Arsenal / Coproduction i/o post, Sounderground, Bystrouška / Contact Cinema Arsenal, s.r.o.

About the director

Tomáš Bojar (b. 1981, Prague). Selected filmography: RAPublic (2008, with Pavel Abrahám), Two Nil (2012, with Pavel Abrahám), FC Roma (2016, with Rozálie Kohoutová)