Krátký film Praha – Studio dokumentárních filmů

A non-narrative voyage round Sedlec Ossuary, which has been constructed from over 50,000 human skeletons (victims of the Black Death).

A 1987 documentary about youth crime and their social probation officer. The story of two young delinquents to whom no one could lend a helping hand. The lack of interest from the neighbourhood eventually forced their 22-year-old probation officer Majka to resign. The film is mainly made up of authentic testimonies of the protagonists.

The age-old story of Don Juan, played by giant puppets.

Two magicians, Mr. Schwarzwald and Mr. Edgar, try to outdo each other in performing elaborate magic tricks, leading to a violent ending.

An eight-part animated portrait of various species, accompanied by a different style of music. The various parts are: Aquatilia (foxtrot), Hexapoda (bolero), Pisces (blues), Reptilia (tarantella), Aves (tango), Mammalia (minuet), Simiae (polka) and Homo (waltz). Each animation mixes drawings, pictures, real animals and animated skeletons.

A Song is a documentary etude on youth, made in the spirit of cinéma vérité. The film employs observational methods to examine popular leisure activities of the Czechoslovak youth in the 1960s, from going outdoors through various sporting activities to musical practices.

A leading director of the Czech film renaissance provides a philosophical meditation on life and death, set amidst complex hospital apparatus and the sadness, hope, or resignation of the patients. Existentialist rather than optimist, the approach is one of humanistic atheism, accepting death as part of life. Interviews with doctors and nurses explore their outlook; all speak of death as a fact, without either sentimentality or religiosity. The studied objectivity of the film only imperfectly hides an intense emotionality.

A television reporter visits the clerk, Mr Drobny, who answers dating ads and makes appointments with many women.

Documentary showing the Czechoslovakian political landscape in March 1968, when president Antonin Novotny, a hardline Stalinist, stepped down and moderate communist Ludvik Svoboda was elected. Five months later, in August 68, the Prague Spring would end with the military intervention of the Warsaw Pact.

Documentary about old age.

The second film from in this category, Etudes for the Electron Microscope (20 min., 1988), is is characterized by formal experimentation in both image and sound.