Zuzana Dražilová, Festival Director
Zuzana graduated from the Department of Production at the Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU) in Prague and Jaroslav Ježek Conservatory art school’s program in acting. She was granted a scholarship to attend “Peace and Conflict Resolutions” studies at the American University, Washington D.C., and participated at number of production workshops, such as Eurodoc, ESoDoc, ExOriente. During her career she performed at several theaters, functioned as cultural events manager at the Chodov Water Fort in Prague, in co-operation with Dutch NGO “Heart of Europe” organized artists’ tours and served as the production manager of Bulshitfilm, an independent underground film group co-working with worldwide known surrealist filmmaker and artist Jan Švankmajer. Her production works include the Student Academy Award-nominated Night Tram (dir. Jonathan Andrews, 1995), preproduction of the feature fiction film Return of Paradise Lost (dir. Vojtěch Jasný, 1999) or organization of the International Independent Film Festival “Prague Indies”.
After graduating from the FAMU, Zuzana established Sunfilm, Ltd., dealing with distribution of feature fiction art and independent movies, including Run Lola Run; Cider House Rules; Antonia’s Line; Central Station; The Straight Story. Recently, Zuzana has focused on film work with teenagers. She produced documentary series and audiovisual testimonies created by Czech youngsters, such as Lost Neighbours - Teen Cameras Search for Traces of Jewish Fellow Citizens; Daughters of Enemy; Children of Stalinism; Offspring of The Others, and functioned as a teacher at the FAMU and the Secondary Art School MICHAEL. Currently, apart from preparing the TeenFilmFest, Zuzana is working on projects aimed at Czech schools, such as “Beyond Star of David”, and film teenage workshops (“Window Into the World“, “Cinema Camp” etc.) encapsulated in common project FILMTEENS.CZ.