Miroslav Janek

Miroslav Janek (born 1954) made photographs from the age of ten; from the age of fifteen, he made short films, a great number of which were awarded at numerous festivals of amateur film. From 1973 to 1976, he failed to be submitted to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) three times. In 1979, he emigrated to Germany and went on to live in Minneapolis, USA; there he worked as film editor and cameraman, making a whole range of creative films. In 1978, the legend of Czech interwar avant-garde Alexander Hammid (formerly Hackenschmied) introduced him to director Godfrey Reggio with whom he cooperated as editor on the films of the famous Quatsi trilogy (Koyaanisqatsi, Powaqqatsi, Naqoyqatsi) and further on the short film Anima Mundi and the multimedia project FABRICA based in Treviso, Italy. He returned to the Czech Republic in 1995. He worked for the Czech Television making sixty-minute documentary films winning multiple awards at international festivals (Kha-Chee-Pae, The Unseen, Purple Sails and others). From 1998, he works as a lecturer at FAMU on permanent basis. In 2007, he finished the film Citizen Havel using the material made by director Pavel Koutecký who had suffered a tragic death. His wife Tonička Janková is a film editor as well.

Filmography:

Bratrovražda (14´, Czechoslovakia, 1977)
Heroes (USA, 1983)
Little City in Space (60´, USA, 1984)
Visitor (23´, USA, 1984)
Now I Lay Me... (USA, 1987)
Sedum deset Nečtiny (59´, CZ, 1994)
O Králíkovi a hostech (CZ, 1995)
Nespatřené (59´, CZ, 1996)
Poslední Slovan (23´, CZ, 1997)
Kdo je... Jiří Králík (CZ, 1997)
Barokní opera (59´, CZ, 1997)
Hamsa, já jsem (58´, CZ, 1998)
Previanti, výjevy ze života vesnických muzikantů (58´, CZ, 1999)
Člověk a jeho pán (CZ, 2000)
Bitva o život/ Battle for Life (88´, CZ, 2000) – episode director
Chaos (59´, CZ, 2001)
Nachové plachty (78´, CZ, 2001)
Chačipe (58´, CZ, 2005)
Vierka aneb záhada zmizení rodiny B. (76´, CZ, 2005)
Občan Havel – together with Pavel Koutecký (119´, CZ, 2007)
Zpověď Kateryny K. (56´, CZ, 2008)