Jan Němec retrospective opens at Facets in Chicago

Jan Němec retrospective opens at Facets in Chicago
Jan Němec retrospective opens at Facets in Chicago

Jan Němec retrospective opens at Facets in Chicago

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Jan Němec’s film, “A Report on the Party and the Guests,” was “banned forever” in his native Czechoslovakia. In 1968, while making a documentary about the hippie flower children in Prague, Němec woke up one morning to face Soviet tanks rolling down the streets. He filmed the invasion, and then smuggled the footage into Austria - these became the first images broadcast around the world. A member of the Czech New Wave, Němec went into exile in the 1970s and then returned to Czechoslovakia during the Velvet Revolution in 1989, where he continues to create highly personal films which push the boundaries of cinema art. The first U.S. retrospective of 11 of Nemec’s films begins a week-long presentation at Facets Multimedia on March 14th. Film contributor Milos Stehlik and Jan Němec join us to discuss the upcoming retrospective. (Photo: YouTube/Criterion Collection)