RIVER FILM FEST PÍSEK is first and foremost a celebration of Cinema Art with special focus on its interrelationship to other forms of art as well as to the social sciences.
RIVER FILM FEST PÍSEK will cast a bridge between people and their cultures, between the past and the future.
As its main goal the festival will seek out and present attractive forms of spontaneous education related to cinema and culture in general, based on a never-ending quest for context. The emphasis will be on positive popularisation inspired particularly by an Anglo-Saxon approach to education. This method, while maintaining high academic and artistic levels, addresses a diverse range of people – from experts to cinema buffs down to a broad general public.
An ideal prerequisite for the festival´s success is provided by the venue itself: the historical South Bohemian city of Písek with its rich cultural traditions and unique location on the banks of the Otava River. Písek´s historical bridge, older than Prague´s famous Charles´ Bridge and one of the oldest in Europe, has provided the festival founders with an inspiring symbol of perfect communication and a myriad “bridges” between individuals. For more than 650 years the Písek Bridge has connected people, their cultures, their thoughts and their dreams. Its stones stand soaked in Time.
For those acquainted with the classic work of Písek´s native author, Fráňa Šrámek, “Moon Upon the River” it will come as no surprise to find the word “river” as part of the festival name. Šrámek´s novel was transposed in 1953 into an outstanding film by the director Václav Krška and the festival will pay and iconic tribute to this work every year. The organisers, who will each year invite several international personalities from the worlds of cinema and the arts, claim that what is truly local can, if authentic, at the same time be truly international. Films from the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960´s became international hits exactly because they were first and foremost deeply Czech or Slovak.
RIVER FILM FEST will certainly benefit from the relative proximity of Prague, Austria and Germany as well as from the ever-increasing thirst among the younger generation for “different”, alternative multi-genre festivals. Already in its first year, RIVER FILM FEST displays all the prerequisites to become the largest cultural and social event not only for the city of Písek but for the entire South Bohemian Region. Without a doubt, RIVER FILM FEST will add another facet to the Czech Republic´s rich legacy of cinema events and similar festival celebrations.
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