Local bar and movie theatre FilmBar is hosting Czech That Film, a movie festival that showcases three contemporary award-winning Czech films, with the hopes of exposing Phoenix to the Czech culture.
This is the second time the Czech That Film festival has come to Arizona but the first time the festival has presented at FilmBar, located on Roosevelt and Second streets.
Slobodan Popovic, the chairman of the Phoenix Sister Cities Prague Committee, organized the screenings of Czech That Film at FilmBar. The Czech Republic wanted to showcase their best films that depicted Czech culture, so he volunteered to help.
“Each movie has something different to offer for the audience. There will be great acting, great stories and excellent filming,” Popovic said.
Popovic was born in Czech Republic and immigrated to Canada in 1975 due to the political situation there at the time. He lived in Canada for around 18 years.
In Montreal, he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees at McGill University, where he studied music and sound recording. Popovic moved to Arizona in 1993, where he worked as an expert in forensic audio. A year later he began volunteering for Phoenix Sister Cities on the Prague Committee before it became a full-fledged Sister City of Phoenix in 2013.
Popovic is also the president of nonprofit organization Czech Arts USA, which first brought the Czech That Film festival to Scottsdale in April 2013.
Popovic, who became the Prague Committee chair in 2013, thought this was a perfect opportunity to bring Czech That Film to Phoenix Sister Cities.
There are three screening films in Czech That Film: “The Don Juans,” “Honeymoon” and “Like Never Before.”
Popovic describes these films as being “the latest, most achieving and inspiring movies the country makes.” A majority of Czech films make their debuts in U.S. festivals. These three films were also part of Phoenix Film Festival. Czech That Film is currently being shown in 11 different cities across the U.S.
“Every film festival tries to bring something that is not readily available for people to see. This way they can see something new, something different and inspiring,” he said.
FilmBar was the ideal location for this type of festival because of the availability to spread the Czech culture to the community, Popovic said.
“We wanted to find a location that could accommodate our budget, and FilmBar was very willing to go along with our idea,” Popovic said.
FilmBar film programmer Andrea Beesley met Popovic at the Phoenix Film Festival. Beesley is the festival director for the International Horror and Sci-Fi Film Festival while Popovic has been on the Board of Directors for the festival since it began in 2000. Both have volunteered for the festival for years.
“There are not many places where you can see these types of films exhibited on a big screen. It’s a unique opportunity to see some really different cinema,” Beesley said.
Beesley believes the FilmBar offers a great location and more intimate setting. Currently Czech That Film is screening during the Saturday matinee for all ages and on Tuesday evenings for the 21-and-older crowd.
“It’s great because this brings in new people that might not have been here before. We love working with different community partners to raise awareness for their films,” Beesley said.
On Saturday, April 26 and Tuesday, April 29 FilmBar held the screenings of “The Don Juans,” the first film presented in the festival. This film, about the production of an opera, was a Czech submission for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 2014 Academy Awards. The director, Jiri Menzel, previously won an Oscar for his film “Closely Watched Trains” in 1967.
“It was a very lively movie with a lot of good humor,” said Jeffrey Heimer, who attended the Tuesday screening.
Jeffrey and his wife Linda Heimer watch movies at the FilmBar often. They enjoy watching foreign films so they purchased their tickets for “The Don Juans” three days before the Tuesday screening.
“The film was great all the way around,” Linda said. “People don’t know what they’re missing!”
The main goal of the Czech That Film festival is to keep the community interested for years to come in the festival’s concept, enrich the Czech culture in Phoenix, and to earn money to support the Youth Ambassador Exchange Program for Phoenix Sister Cities.
“That’s what the festival is all about. To show movies that do not necessarily translate to commercial success, but they have qualities which surpass many movies which are commercially successful,” Popovic said.
The next screenings for the second film in the festival “Honeymoon” will be Saturday, May 3 at noon and Tuesday, May 6 at 7:30 p.m. The festival will continue until Tueday, May 13.
Contact the reporter at Allyson.Gerrard@asu.edu
