"There are only a few international cultural events which are able to place the Czech Republic at the centre of attention of the most talented film professionals from all around the world, but the International Documentary Film Festival Jihlava is one of them. This year, the film festival celebrated its 20th anniversary and as usual, it offered a progressive film programme as well as many political discussions, conferences, masterclasses and debates by film professionals.
"Based on my previous close collaboration with the festival team, I was honoured to participate in this year's edition by moderating an exciting discussion with Charlie Phillips, Head of Documentaries at the Guardian, as well as some of the Q&A sessions following the film screenings. As always, it was an amazing opportunity to learn from the best professionals in the documentary film industry and therefore, I wanted our students of Media & Communication to experience it as well.
"This spring an agreement was made between the film industry department of the festival - led for several years by Jarmila Outratová - and our School of Media and IT. Our students have so far participated in a media and documentary writing course, as well as attending some specialized events for film professionals. Here are the observations of one of our students, Kristina Bakeeva: