Katka

Helena Třeštíková (born 1949) has been shooting documentary films for 35 years and ranks among the most productive filmmakers in this field. Graduated from FAMU (The Prague Film School) in 1974, Třeštíková has made about sixty documentaries of varying length, usually focused on human relationships and social problems. Later she specialized on long-term observational documentary: following human lives over a longer period of time. Her first cycle of observational documentaries followed for six years the everyday lives of several young couples, starting from the day of their marriage. The film crew then regularly visited and recorded their problems, dreams, desires, in some cases also crises, a divorce, a reconciliation. In 1991 Třeštíková with several sociologists and her fellow filmmakers set up a foundation called Film and Sociology (Nadace Film a sociologie). The foundation’s aim is to help provide a new picture of the society after the momentous political changes. In 1994 she and her husband, Michael Třeštík, set up a foundation called Man and Time (Člověk a čas), specializing in long-term observational projects and films that reflect the passage of time and the changes it brings. Lately she has been increasingly focusing on drugs and addiction. Her latest films, “Marcela” (2007), “Rene” (2008) and “Katka” (2010) was completed after a 15-20 year long observations. The latter won the European Film Prize for best documentary last year. —documentarist.org