She brought a film that documents almost her entire life to KVIFF. “It’s terrible because watching your life unfold on screen is not easy. A lot of people have disappeared from my life and if it weren’t for the power of photographs, I would probably forget about them and many other things,” confided the world-famous photographer Libuše Jarcovjáková after Tuesday’s screening of I’m Not Everything I Want to Be directed by Klára Tasovská. Years ago, Klára was commissioned to make a video profile on the occasion of the photographer’s birthday. “In the beginning, we were considering a rather conventional way. I got Libuše a camera to film herself. But it didn’t work at all, because Libuše lost her charger the very next day,” the director told the audience.
The film, made up of diary voiceovers and the author’s photographs, often goes to the core. It is an account of the events taking place in the second half of the 20th century, queer communities in communist Prague, as well as of purely private thoughts. Those are some of the reasons why it was one of the most impressive titles at this year’s Berlinale, where it became one of the most discussed films included in the Panorama section. The film’s main recurring theme is the struggle for recognition that Jarcovjáková has been receiving from all over the world in recent years. “I feel like I’m in a dream world. I hope the fame doesn’t somehow make my head too big. But it’s nice,” the photographer said during the debate.
Klára Tasovská and editor Alexander Kashcheev worked with extensive archives that at one point included over 70,000 photographs. “Klára is now an expert on my life. I can afford to slowly go senile and she will know everything,” laughed the seventy-two-year-old photographer.
