Interview with Alexandra Strelkova, Slovak Film Institute #22ndSFF

PODCAST | Matt Micucci interviews Alexandra Strelkova, head of film promotion of the Slovak Film Institute, from the 22nd Sarajevo Film Festival.

Slovakia is one of the partner countries of this year’s CineLink, the co-production market of the Sarajevo Film Festival. We meet the head of film promotion of the Slovak Film Institute, Alexandra Strelkova. We talk about her activities in Sarajevo, but also about the institute’s activities at large. Its archive, storing the film heritage of Slovakia and, among them, gems from the Czechoslovak New Wave, is comprehensive.

Looking after the promotion of such rich heritage, we mention some of the films recently re-released and the ways in which the films are exhibited; one such way is through their own four screen cinema, featuring some very creative and fascinating programming. Besides this, we discuss some of the newer titles the Institute is involved with, such as The Teacher and Eva Nova.

The Slovak Film Institute (SFI) was established on April 1, 1963 in Bratislava . The film archive, then collected in the Film Distribution Center founded by Ivan Rumanovský in 1958, was moved to this new institution. After reopening the Czechoslovak Film Institute in Prague , the Slovak Film Institute was established as its branch office and shortly after that, at the Congress of the International Federation of Film Archives ( FIAF ) the status of common archive of CFI and SFI was approved. The SFI became an independent establishment in 1991 and a member of FIAF in 2001 . Ján Komiňár was its first director and he stayed in the office for the longest period so far and was followed by over 20 successors. For the last five years Peter Dubecký has been the General Manager of SFI. In 1968 the institution moved from its very first seat at the Film Club on Rybné Square in Bratislava to Grösslingová Street , where its offices have been located until today. Since then, in addition to the domestic production archiving, SFI preserves also selected films of foreign origin. Since 1969 on, the Institute has initiated a wide range of activities and historical research in the field of Slovak cinematography.