With a Venice selection already under her belt (Darkening, 2022) and two films in selection at Ji.hlava 2022 (The Investigator in Opus Bonum and Darkening in Czech Joy), it is debatable as to whether Hana Blaha Šilarová is actually an Emerging Producer at all, I suggest. Not so, she counters.
“I always feel myself as being emerging, and I think I will keep feeling that way the whole of my career because you are always emerging to another level,” she tells BDE.
What is remarkable about the Czech producer and co-owner of Frame Films is that she only graduated 5 years ago, from the famed FAMU school, and a sizeable part of the period since then was filled working at Ji.hlava and organising the same Emerging Producers programme she is now very much part of in 2022/23.
“To be honest, it’s a little bit crazy. I wouldn’t have thought that I would have a film in Venice after five years,” she says. “And now it’s coming full circle, having been on the other side [at Ji.hlava] and watching all the other Emerging Producers emerge – and now being one of them, which is completely funny and exciting.”
Of course, having previously been part of the Ji.hlava set-up was an education in itself. “Getting to know behind the scenes how the programming works or how the decision-making works, I hope that gave me a basic knowledge or a basic feeling how festivals in general work, with the talents, with the films et cetera.”
What does Šilarová believe are her strengths as a producer? First and foremost it is to be a “cheerleader” for her directors, she responds. But also to be a “sparring partner… being there for them, telling them this work makes sense.”
“I feel that it [production] is a collaboration with the directors so that we are partners, but I think that part of my job is really to shield them [and] help them create what they want to,” Šilarová adds. “The relationship is a two-way street.”
The producer freely admits that she was a good organiser more or less from birth. “When I was little I was always taking care of, and organizing everything, be it my books or whenever there was a group of people,” she says. But she never considered the more creative behind-the-camera roles. Why not? “I feel very comfortable in the producer’s spot where you do the organizational stuff, as well planning all the distribution, all the development, et cetera. And I feel, as well, very comfortable not being the first person in the spotlight, which is the director. But I feel very good taking care of the person in the spotlight.”
Five years in, and Šilarová is enjoying a very successful career. What does she feel the next five years may have in store?
“It’s a good question. You never know. When I was little, I thought that when you grow up, you will decide who you are in professional terms and then you are that person,” she answers. “But I think that we are in a more fluid time. So if I decide in two years that I’m a distributor, maybe I will go into distribution. But right now I see myself in five years as a producer because I really like this job. It’s very diverse. You’re working on topics that you select and that’s so lovely and so privileged.”
And with the job comes an inherent sense of responsibility, especially working with public money. “[You] work on something that could go both ways, being a disaster or being a great thing that can change someone’s life.”
Like many Czech doccers, Šilarová marvels at the array of doc resources within her home industry, and not least the local Czech Film Fund which she describes as “bold” and “unbiased.”
“Being such a really small country, we also have the Institute of Documentary film that does tremendous work for filmmakers in different stages. We have Doc Incubator, we have Ji.hlava IDFF, we have one the World Film Festival. We have Doc Alliance films as well, that is based in the Czech Republic. So I think for documentary filmmakers, we have a very, very strong infrastructure. And I feel that in documentary field we have, as well, a strong sense of community, friendship, camaraderie,” she ends.
Šilarová has a slew of projects in the pipeline. These are:
- Three Economic Units, directed by Andran Abramjan, in production; producer. Experimental. Premiere planned for 2023.
- Garden of Dreams, directed by Marta Zveibil Hrubá, in development; producer. Documentary. Premiere planned for 2024.
- The Molepire, directed by Marek Čermák, in development; producer (together with Karolína Fránková). Short animated film.
- Premiere planned for 2024.
- Homeland, directed by Marek Čermák, in development; producer (together with Karolína Fránková). Feature fiction. Premiere planned for 2025.
- On the Edge, directed by Barbora Chalupová, in development; producer. Feature fiction. Premiere planned for 2025.
- Three Against the Gestapo, in development; producer. TV series. Premiere planned for 2026.
