Life hasn’t been easy on Mallory but after the birth of her son she tries desperately to kick her drug habit, and to stop living on the street. She wants to turn her back on her dark past and help those she knows best – people on the fringes of society. In her latest long-term documentary, Helena Třeštíková demonstrates that even seemingly hopeless lives needn’t be cut short halfway.

One of the most important Czech documentary filmmakers, Helena Třeštíková has directed some forty films since graduating from Prague’s FAMU film school in 1974. She worked for a long time in Czech television, which funded the hit series MARRIAGE STORIES (1987), seven year portraits of young married couples. The series’ six episodes combined sociology, demography and cinéma-vérité, making the filmmaker very popular in her country. It was followed in 2006 by a second series, MARRIAGE STORIES 20 YYEARS LATER, which catches up with the couples later in their lives. Both series feature Helena Třeštíková’s signature working method, known as time collection.
During her years in Czech television, she showed an interest in female characters, directing several portraits of women with tragic lives. The disgraced actress in LIDA BAAROVA'S BITTERSWEET MEMORIES (1995), the imprisoned opponents of Communism in SWEET CENTURY (1998), the victim of Nazism and Stalinism in HITLER, STALIN AND ME (2001) and the concentration camp survivor in MY LUCKY STAR (2004) all recount their personal histories, marred by 20th-century totalitarian ideologies.
Her latest trilogy of portraits (MARCELA, RENÉ, KATKA), shot in the late 2000s, brought her international attention. RENÉ won the prestigious best documentary prize at the European Film Awards in 2008. KATKA won two awards at the RIDM in 2010, including best editing. In these three portraits of society’s outcasts, shot over a period of ten to twenty years, the director focuses more than ever on continuity over time, patiently building stories and waiting for events that will signify a life. Masterpieces of editing, the three films confirm the filmmaker’s deftness at transforming the humdrum existence of the downtrodden into unique, fascinating narratives. The trilogy also highlights Helena Třeštíková’s complex relationship with her characters, especially in RENÉ, where her own life increasingly comes into play.
She continued with her time-lapse method also in her latter works, like PRIVATE UNIVERSE, covering a span of 37 years from the life of one family.
Recently, Helena Třeštíková’s works have been the subject of retrospectives at several major festivals, including Buenos Aires IF of Independent Cinema (BAFICI), the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival and RIDM Montreal.

Filmography

2015 - DOOMED BEAUTY
2012 - PRIVATE UNIVERSE
2009 - KATKA
2008 - RENÉ
2007 - MARCELA
2007 - UNTELLABLE
2006 - EVENTS OF PAVEL ŠTECHA
2006 - IT WASN'T IN VAIN
2006 - MARRIED COUPLE'S ETUDES AFTER TWENTY YEARS
2004 - SKIES OVER EUROPE
2004 - MY LUCKY STAR
2004 - PAVEL TIGRID - EUROPEAN
2003 - I SERVED KAREL ČAPEK
2001 - TO BE ROMA BOY
2001 - PRAGUE 2000 - EUROPEAN CITY OF CULTURE
2001 - HITLER, STALIN AND I