Illustrative photo – Announcement of the winners of the 27th annual Czech Lion Film Awards on March 7, 2020 in Prague's Rudolfinum. Producer Jaromír Kallista received the award for his outstanding contribution to Czech cinematography.
Prague – Jaromír Kallista, producer of Jan Švankmajer's Lecce Faust or Otesánek and famous productions Laterna magiky, will enter the Producer's Hall of Fame. It will be introduced at the festival in Karlovy Vary. The Producers' Hall of Fame was opened last year by the Association of Audiovisual Producers (APA) and inducted Jiří Ježek. On Sunday, July 2, the 83-year-old Kallista will receive this award. ČTK reported this today on behalf of the organizers, Martina Reková.
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Kallista was behind many audiovisual projects of the Czechoslovak new wave as a producer and producer. “Jaromír Kallista is one of the most original producers in Czech and European film history. With his ability to constantly find new and new paths for filmmaking, he proved that even very special and artistic film projects can be made long-term and sustainably,” says APA chairman Vratislav Šlajer.
Kallista already worked with directors such as Jiří Menzel or Věra Chytilová at school, when he produced their graduation films. Kallist's career continued in the 1960s at Army Film, an ambitious production center at the time. It then led to professional work in Barrand's studios. He gained experience while working on the films The End of August at the Ozon Hotel by Jan Schmidt, Kachyňov and Procházkov's Let the Republic Live, Schormov's cult Farařova konce or The Murders of Ing. The devil of Ester Krumbach.
With the onset of normalization, he was prevented from working in cinematography, the reason being the filming of the events of August 1968. Another part of his professional life is connected with Laterna magika, where he took refuge after involuntarily leaving the Barrandov Film Studio. Between 1973 and 1988, he directed the production there, and was thus at the origin of many significant productions, among them the titles Prague Carnival, Night Test, Black Monk directed by Evald Schorm, One Day in Prague directed by Ladislav Helge or Vivisection directed by Antonín Máš.< /p>
Laterna magika brought him a fateful meeting with director Jan Švankmajer and his wife, painter and scenographer Eva Švankmajerová. Their first joint film venture was a surrealist film based on the novel Alice in Wonderland called Something from Alice (1988), which was produced with foreign partners from Great Britain and Germany in order to avoid a state monopoly. In 1992, they founded their own film production company Athanor, in which the films Conspirators of Pleasure (1996), Survive Your Life (2010) and Insects (2018) were created. black humor, breaking taboos and continuing the Czech surrealist tradition. Kallista also worked for a long time in APA, FITES and in the Council of the State Cinematography Fund. Together with his wife Pavla Kallistová, they organize screenings, retrospectives and exhibitions of the works of Jan and Eva Švankmajer and spread their creative legacy around the world.
Since 1989, Jaromír Kallista has also worked as a pedagogue at FAMU, currently in the position of specialist assistant of the production department. He is also known as a stuntman, veteran lover, aircraft mechanic, pilot and skilled handyman.
