Director | Hana Vojáčková
Script | Hana Vojáčková
Editing | Hana Vojáčková
Sound designer | Gibran Farrah
Producer | Hana Vojáčková
If you were born in communist Czechoslovakia, it was very likely that you practiced for the so-called Spartakiads. For decades, millions of people of all ages regularly performed in these mass gymnastic displays that took place in Prague, in the world’s biggest stadium. Taking their inspiration from the Czech people’s traditional interest in mass gymnastic exercise, the Spartakiads established themselves as a potent symbolism of communism.
But, as they headed towards their final decade in the 1980s, they had become not only a strange megalomanic phenomenon, popular with majority of citizens, but also a subject of a fascinating national power game.
We Love Life is an experimental documentary that navigates through propaganda films, personal videos and found footage to explore how these unique events reflected the complex nuances of life under an authoritarian regime.
About the designer:
Hana Vojáčková is a filmmaker, video artist and photographer. Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, she is based in London, UK. Vojáčková received MA in Photography from Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London, after studying Cinematography at Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires, and graduating in Visual Sociology from the Faculty of Humanities at Charles University in Prague. Vojáčková’s work has been presented in exhibitions and film festivals internationally including: The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Victoria & Albert Museum, London; Vienna International Film Festival; Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema among others.