UnionDocs is thrilled to co-present Those Who Dance in the Dark (Ti, kteří tancují ve tmě) by Jana Ševčíková as a part of the 6th edition of Echoes of Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival (IDFF)! One among a slate of four incredible films, we’re delighted to present Ševčíková’s poetic rendering of six visually impaired peoples’ journeys, as they share their experiences of apprehending the world.

“Try to describe what it’s like to see,” one of the blind actors in Jana Ševčíková’s documentary urges the film crew. The same challenge for him is to express how reality is perceived and experienced by a visually impaired person. Ševčíková therefore does not explain the blindness. Using everyday situations as examples, she empathetically and without pathos presents the stories of six people who never stop dreaming, yearning, and searching for ways to be as free in life as the sighted majority. They find sources of energy in work, sports, dance, and relationships. We are also transported into their world by the dimly lit black and white camera and the layered soundtrack.

More at: https://www.ji-hlava.com/filmy/ti-kteri-tancuji-ve-tme

With films that reflect on life in contemporary Eastern Europe, Czech filmmaker Jana Ševčíková has distinguished herself as a practitioner of poetic documentary. A graduate of the Prague Film Academy, her thesis film, Piemule (1984), offers a frank examination of Czech émigrés in Romania during the final years of Ceausecu‘s totaltitarian regime. She has produced films independently, such as Jakub (1992), and received state funding from the Czech Ministry of Culture. Her films have been shown at festivals in Berlin, Strasbourg, Karlovy Vary and Cracow. Praised throughout Europe, Ševčíková‘s intimately crafted works challenge the distanced conventions of ethnographic filmmaking.