We are two students who have made a documentary about the life of Imrich - a man with a love for nature who is processing the loss of his magnum opus. Help us immortalise Imrich's legacy and cover expenses associated with the release of the film.
Author: Špitálský a Tesařík
All or nothing. Project finished on May 16, 2023 at 14:54.
Sometimes you have to reap what you did not sow...
An intimate documentary portrait of an old man coming to terms with his own mortality and slowly letting go off his magnum opus – his garden. While living through an autumn of his life, he reminisces about the lifetime journey filled with hard work, love for nature and onions.
"That was ages ago. When I was still young and beautiful... now I'm just beautiful."
- Imrich Špitálský
Fifty years ago, Imrich rented a small property near Ústí nad Orlicí in a gardening allotment. Back then it was naught but a swamp overgrown with weeds. Coming from southern region of Slovakia where the land meant sustenance, Imrich dedicated the majority of his life to cultivation of his garden which become his passion.
Spring to winter, year after year he took care of it and lead the gardener’s board. Meanwhile the time brought children, grandchildren and a change of regime. After the revolution, the property become a part of church restitutions and every attempt to purchase it was met with hostile resistance. Imrich was devastated, but still continued in his gardening efforts.
In his fight he has to face weather, pests, owners of the land and worsening health. Is there a chance Imrich will give up the garden in his old age and sell it, or will this piece of land become his fate?
A documentary film offers an intimate portrait of aging person with love for nature coming to terms with his own mortality and loss of his magnum opus. In the meantime, he reminisces about his youth, humours with his wife and takes pride in every little success and accomplishment which the land and life grant him.
As filmmakers, we are interested in powerful stories and want to capture and preserve them in an artistic way. Since Imrich's chances of preserving his life's work are slim, we wish this film to be a kind of continuation of his legacy. We think he was a man with a unique personality and we want to reflect that side of him in our film.
The director Michal is Imrich's grandson and has been with the story from the very beginning. When he told his professors about the story in his first year studying film at Northumbria University, he was encouraged to start shooting the story the same Christmas of that year, taking the film as his final project.
His long-time partner Kuba, with whom they had made short films in high school, joined Michal in the production. Kuba took on the role of producer and sound designer, while Michal was left to direct and camera.
For the third time they were joined by Sam, a graduate of the Leeds Conservatoire, who lent his compositional skills to the music to suitably illustrate the film's story.
The documentary is now entering the final stage of production - the last scene remains to be shot. Six months of going through hours of footage and long evenings in the editing suite. We'll need lots of coffee for that! With exaggeration, of course. Anyway, the success of the crowdfunding will allow us to dedicate ourselves to this final film to the fullest.
We want to release the film to the world this summer!
We decided to crowdfund because we believe that we can reach out to film fans in the audience and give people a chance to make their mark on film history. We also hope, as the power of the word is great, that funding through crowdfunding will take our story much further than we could have done on our own.
As students, we have funded the project with our own money up until now, but our resources are not unlimited. We will use the funds raised from the campaign to cover the costs of post-production and subsequent distribution of the film. We also want to submit the film to as many film festivals around the world as possible, so part of the funds will go towards paying the submission fees.
We definitely want to continue our film production and we plan to use the remaining funds to partially cover the cost of the film equipment we have had to borrow so far.
We will be immensely grateful if you decide to support us. As a thank you, we have prepared a line of rewards to perpetuate your support. Donors who contribute 400 CZK or more will have their name displayed on the film's official website www.zahrada-bozi.cz. Help us launch our film out into the world to preserve Imrich's legacy!
Thank you letter: you will receive a letter in your mailbox signed by us and the protagonist, thanking you personally for your contribution. You will be able to frame and display the letter, for instance.
A3 poster: The poster will be signed by us and the protagonist and you will be able to display it on your wall.
A piece of land: We will send you a small transparent box with soil from Imrich's garden. Along with it, a small certificate of authenticity and a photo of Imrich scooping the soil. You will be able to display the piece of soil or grow something in it to continue Imrich's legacy.
Did you know that most of the sounds you hear in a movie on TV are made in post-production? Dialogue tends to be recorded on location and sound recordists try to capture the ambient noises, but they don't always manage to capture everything. Yes, most of the sounds of footsteps, rain, fire and gun…
MoreDear film fans, When we started filming three years ago, we never imagined that we would ever intend to turn a small undergraduate project into a feature-length documentary and successfully raise over 100,000 CZK to complete it. We are extremely grateful to all of you! Yes, to each and every one o…
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