Student's video documentary 'a wonderful experience'

As part of her first year Foundation Diploma project, art and design student Vanesa Váchova produced a documentary film based on a play performed by students from the Jedlička Institute, a school for physically handicapped students in Prague. Vanesa explains how she came up with the idea: 

'My initial plan was to produce an advertisement, but then I decided to go down the route of making this short documentary - I though it was a good subject, one that I'm familiar with because i have a cousin who also has a disability. The institute regularly do theatre pieces, so I went to film them during their rehearsals.'

The play, which was put together by students from the institute and their teachers including Martina Šuráňová, is called 'Jak šel Honza do školy' ('How Johnny went to school'), and it is due to be performed on 22 February at the Institute in Prague's Vyšehrad district.

Vanesa, who studied photography at high school in her home town of Zlín, is in the second semester of her studies at Prague College and is delighted with the outcome of her first video documentary.

When it was shown in public as part of the recent 'NoWhere' exhibition at Prague College, students from Jedlička Institute were invited to see themselves for the first time on film. They were evidently very happy with Vanesa's work: 'The project itself was something completely new for us. We didn't know what to expect. But it's a wonderful experience - and slightly strange - to see yourself on a poster and in a film.'