Event

Jan Nemec Series Pass

Independent of Reality: Jan Nemec Retrospective

FEBRUARY 21 - 26, 2014
Co-presented with the Center for Czech Education and Culture

With a style marked by the urgency of (what would prove to be well-founded) fears of censorship and exile, Czechoslovak New Wave director Jan Nemec not only bucked the formalist conventions of his time, but also directly challenged the state art establishment with an approach he called "dreamy realism."

Citing influences like Bresson, Faulkner, Hemingway, Resnais, and Bunuel, Nemec (pronounced Niemetz) was an instrumental player in the Czechoslovak New Wave alongside Milos Forman, Jiri Menzel, and others. However, the political controversy surrounding his subversive and surrealist work resulted in a 15 year exile from his country in the 1970s and '80s, making his films difficult to access in the U.S.

This long-overdue survey of Nemec's nearly 50 year career of uncompromising work features five of his films.

Part of a touring retrospective of Jan Nemec films, INDEPENDENT OF REALITY: The Films of Jan Nemec in North America, premiered by BAMcinématek in New York. The retrospective is produced by Comeback Company, curated by Irena Kovarova, and organized in partnership with the National Film Archive, Prague, Aerofilms, and Jan Nemec - Films.