Never stop laughing
Paolo Benzi, the Italian film producer and founder of the independent film production company Okta Film, describes for dok.revue how he met famous Czech documentary filmmaker Karel Vachek, who passed away last year. Paolo Benzi is also the main tutor of the Emerging producers in Ji.hlava IDFF.
I met Karel Vachek in person only twice. On each occasion it felt like I was reconnecting with an old friend. I knew very little about him; but I remember well our only two conversations, full of thoughtful gazes, considerate pauses and both of us speaking in our “broken English”. All of this spoke of a common language that we invented on the spot, to try and find a way out and move towards something brighter than a politically mute world. Now that Karel Vachek has left us, I like to think that his many cinema students will continue to elaborate on his passion for experimentation, and never stop talking and laughing about the enigma of meaning, the search for meaning in human life.
