1st AFO 2010 Press Relase!

.:: A Workshop of Gay Science ::.

The 45th year of the International Festival of Science Documentary Films Academia Film Olomouc (AFO) will take place in Olomouc from the 13th to 18th of April, 2010. Following the pattern of the former years, AFO will expertly and innovatively map the fields of humanities, social and natural sciences that are in contact with audiovisual media, and thus it will offer an open meeting point for science and art. As the festival is organized by the Palacký University in Olomouc, the audience meets world film professionals and scientific specialists as well as an open and creative student environment here.

"The biggest film festival of the region will surprise its visitors with its unconventional methods and attractive program, which has no equivalent in the Czech Republic. AFO is no closed academic event. It is a festival for everyone who wants to share knowledge through interesting, yet provocative films. Its raising popularity was proved by full halls in the last year, and after visiting several European festivals of science documentary films, I must say with pleasure that AFO is ranked among the world's top," says Petr Bilík, the festival director.

The rich festival program will be divided into several traditional thematic sections. Besides the Czech and International Competition, within which framework the best scientific audiovisual works of the past year will be awarded, it is the Studio section, which gives the audience a unique opportunity to watch technically and aesthetically progressive pictures as well as meet their authors, attend lectures on current issues that those films deal with, and discuss them with specialists. It is particularly the dialogic and interactive - "workshop" - nature of the festival that makes Academia Film Olomouc a unique one among other European festivals. Other expected themes of the 45th year is a look into the world of autism, the witchcraft phenomenon, anarchism as a philosophical and cultural trend, alternative human anthropology, and many others.

"It is high time to upset the traditional image of science as a closed or incomprehensible space and scientists as its dry arbiters. AFO festival is a sovereign experiment that has been breaking myths about "unattractiveness" of science for many years. By screening aesthetically quality films, it proves with vigour that science is above all an adventure of the spirit and a supreme cultural gesture," states the program director of the festival Veronika Klusáková.

This year's Homage section will be dedicated to the main festival guest, lord Robert Winston, the Professor Emeritus of the British Imperial College London and presently one of the most significant figures who popularise natural sciences and medicine across the world. The range of Robert Winston's specialised as well as hobby activities is huge: he is a gynaecologist and a specialist in the treatment of infertility (In vitro fertilisation - IVF), the Professor of Science and Society at the Imperial College London, a long-time host of scientific programmes of the BBC, an author of more than 300 scientific publications, in which he deals not only with medicine, but also with social and ethical questions connected with scientific research, and also an extraordinary saxophone player. The most recent activities of Robert Winston are the initiation and creation of the space for the ROL (Reach Out Lab), where children of all age are lead towards discovering the most modern scientific technologies. His last publication is an interactive book The Evolution Revolution: From Darwin to DNA.

The graphic studio ReDesign gives face to the festival, as it did the last year. Last year's graphics, blazing with feverish colours, is replaced by the 45th annual clothed in silent, dark blue attire with radiant neons evoking boundless swarming within the universe as well as magical play with fire.

            The accompanying program is an inseparable part of every AFO. Besides traditional film screenings at the town square and concerts, the festival will be accompanied by a unique photographic exhibition depicting a corona appearing during the eclipse of the sun. The pictures were made by a group of scientists from Brno, led by Professor Druckmuller, and were published on the cover of the prestigious scientific magazine Nature.

Those who will not be able to attend the 45th year of Academia Film Olomouc personally, will have a possibility to watch daily news programme aFokus through the Czech Television broadcasting. Course of the festival events will be reflected daily by the AFOhled magazine, which will be issued in printed version and as a blog on the Academia Film Olomouc website. Once the festival is over, the traditional project AFO into Region will take place, which enables a part of the program to get into other towns of the Olomouc region. Festival Echoes will take place in selected Czech and European cities.

Accreditation for Academia Film Olomouc is entirely for FREE!

CONTACT

Tomáš Jirsa, media manager media@afo.cz

GSM: +420 732 931 001

Matěj Dostálek, PR manager

pr@afo.cz

GSM: +420 775 095 485

www.afo.cz

• Login or register to post comments