Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the new academic year 2023/24. We have just finished another busy and demanding September, and I would like to thank all teachers for their consistent and patient work on final commissions, state final examinations, and admission procedures, as well as all the Department secretaries and other workers for their huge commitment and diligent work in the previous month. Huge thanks are also due to FAMU Studio for the seamless completion of all screenings and for its work with students in completing exercises and films.

I especially appreciate the form of the discussions that take place at most departments as part of final commission and state final examination screenings. Your feedback is immensely valuable for students and their creative evolution, and your analysis, comments supported by arguments, observations, and opinions pointing to the context and experience are key to evaluation as well as for further learning and development of our students’ practical work.

I wish you an inspiring beginning of the new semester and a beautiful autumn.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková

Dear Colleagues,

The ‘marathon’ that is the final commissions started last Wednesday and will continue until 28 September. I would like to express my admiration and thanks to all the teachers who guided students during the creation of exercises, whether in workshops, dramaturgy seminars, or other classes. I realise that working on practical output is not restricted to the hours defined by the schedule; many of you give support and advice to students on the set, in the cutting room, and during the mixdown. It is a very demanding role, understanding what and how students want to communicate through their work and what types of creative personalities they are. I appreciate the fact that you develop their individuality and help them to find their own ways of expression, while making sure that they learn the skills and rules of each film profession.

I would like to cordially invite you to the actual screenings (read on for more information), during which we succeeded over the past two years to have interdisciplinary discussions with the viewpoints of the various professions involved, even though this meant mostly the participation of students from all collaborating Departments over the past two years. Analysis and reflection from the viewpoint of workshop leaders from various Departments helps everyone to understand what aspects and standards are important for the learning and creative evolution of each Department’s student, providing room for deeper understanding between the individual professions.

I am looking forward to meeting you during the screenings.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

As I am currently greeting you, most of you are enjoying your summer holidays, and I wish you a great time, to regain strength and find new inspirations.

A meeting between the top representatives of the audiovisual industry and Prime Minister Petr Fiala with Minister of Culture Martin Baxa took place at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival on 2 July. I took part in it. The meeting focused primarily on the draft amendment of the Audiovisual Act and the system of incentives as well as the fact that they are currently unusable. In addition to a consensus on the amount of the parafiscal charges forming the future income of the transformed audiovisual fund and a constructive solution for how film incentives should work, the meeting also covered the structure of the audiovisual fund and the drafting of its strategic documents. Discussing the amendment, FAMU and other tertiary schools that teach audiovisual work promote primarily strong systematic support for authors, both established and up-and-coming, as well as budding producers, defining the prerequisites for meaningful and conceptually thought-out support for the development, production and distribution of audiovisual works, film education, and integrating the aspects of environmentally sustainable filmmaking in the Act.

Furthermore, I wish to share my joy over the work of the ombudsperson who presented her annual report at the meeting of FAMU’s Academic Senate in late June. Less than one year into her tenure, Pavlína Junová has addressed 51 suggestions, organised several training, support and facilitation activities, has been preparing the Code of Ethics of FAMU along with a workgroup further to the FAMU Ethical meetings, and took part in an international conference organised by the European Network of Ombudspersons in Prague that proved extremely inspiring for the Czech ombuds’ platform, which is growing rapidly at a breathtaking pace. I am happy that FAMU was at the beginning of founding and developing the office of ombuds as a key part of university infrastructure.

I wish you the most peaceful and beautiful August, and am looking forward to seeing you at the final commission screenings that will begin in the last week of August.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to thank all those of you who invested huge amounts of time into final commission and state final examinationss. I am happy to note that we have been able to distribute film production over the course of the academic year, so that more and more final commissions are completed in June every passing year. 

Let me mention one of the topics that we have repeatedly discussed: certain film schools have a policy of not showing any of their films outside their own environment except their graduates’ films. The option of using this strategy was discussed by the Dean’s Collegium as well as in student forums. For the time being, all the Departments choose to release film works from lower years of study for presentation outside school, provided that their authors are willing to do so. We can change this approach at any time. I would like to ask teachers to try and avoid viewing the presented films through the lens of their potential for presentation in film festivals. It is wonderful if our students can gain experience in presenting their work to audiences outside school and taking part in international festivals, but we all know this is just a pleasant side effect. The important part is the educational process, the practicing of specific skills – typically, exercises are intended primarily to serve the purpose of improving certain competences defined by the specification; our requirements of exercises differ from expectations placed on the complex works that are team exercises. I want to thank all those of you who guide practical exercises and filmmaking – this is a difficult process, and one that is of paramount importance to our students.

At the end of a very busy June, I would like to thank our technical and office colleagues. The month was very exhausting for all of us. I wish you all a truly peaceful summer full of experiences that will help you regain strength and draw more inspiration.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

June is typically a very busy month – work for final commissions this month is being completed in studios, the majority of the examination period is happening, the majority of Department stays are taking place in Poněšice, and many organisational, financial and administrative steps that have to be completed by the end of June are all taking place concurrently. Do you share the sense that the summer semester always feels much longer than the winter one? At any rate, I wish you a lot of strength and good concentration for all the activities, and believe you will get to take a good rest in July and August.

One year ago, we were experiencing a difficult period following the publication of stolen e-mail conversations between several teachers. FAMU, AMU, and the affected teachers filed criminal complaints and the police investigated the case; this April, the police informed us that the case had been suspended. Several complaints against the suspension have been lodged; the police are currently assessing the steps to take next. These developments were presented to the AS AMU and AS FAMU. This difficult period was followed by various constructive steps, primarily in cooperation with the ombudsperson; six FAMU Ethical meetings were held in the autumn; and a workgroup involving various representatives of the Faculty community is now processing the suggestions from the meetings into a FAMU Code of Ethics.

Thank you for your amazing energy, individualised approach, and dedication during the examination period, the final commissions, and the office work-heavy time. If you have any suggestions or trouble, I am here for you every Thursday from 9 to 10 am, even without a prior appointment. We are usually successful in resolving many operational and current issues, and I am happy for our dialogue and discussions.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,
 

The contact instruction of the summer semester is coming to a close and work on practical exercises is in full swing now. I would like to thank all teachers for their weekly work with students, in particular for updating your subjects annually with new insights and for your effort geared towards an individualised approach to students. I would also like to thank the FAMU Studio for processing all practical exercises and our office workers for cooperation in all of the numerous processes involved in the across-the-board salary increase.

The recent plenary meeting of the academic community was rife with discussion. The debate was one hour longer than scheduled and showed how many things there are that we want and urgently need to discuss together. We heard excellent suggestions relating to sustainable filmmaking, first year practice, and the operation of FAMU Studio. I am taking the suggestions from the plenary meeting to the Dean’s Collegium where we will discuss them with the Heads of Departments. One of the topics for the next plenary meeting will be the production of practical exercises and setting up film crews. The fact that students face difficulties finding certain professions for shared exercises has been a reoccurring theme. This is a lingering problem that we at the Dean’s Office have been focusing on intensively, with involvement from the FAMU Studio and all Departments at the Dean’s Collegium. Let me summarise the solution that has been adopted for this academic year; let us hope that it will work, and if it does not, a different solution will have to be devised for the next academic year:

- An extensive capacity study conducted approximately one year ago has shown that if the White Book were observed, there would be no shortage of professions given the current numbers of students at the individual Departments. Therefore, all the Departments and the FAMU Studio agreed, for this year, to abide by the prescribed capacity ratings and film crew profession specifications required in the production sheets for all the exercises. The biggest workload for Departments such as Sound Design and Production has resulted from profession exercises of other Departments, although the White Book does not envisage such exercises to be produced by crews. The strict observance of the White Book, guaranteed by the Heads of Departments, workshop leaders and the FAMU Studio, appears to be the primary (if not the only) alternative to maybe cancelling certain exercises (there are 500–600 of them annually), which is why testing it thoroughly this year is of key importance.

- The systemisation of pre-production and production meetings and their firm scheduling within the academic year should ensure that projects are prepared and crews set up in good time so that the complete crews for shared exercises are prepared at the beginning of the summer semester.

- Post-production meetings have been added to ensure that there is enough time for post-production and that each profession involved in shared exercises is truly given enough space to deliver their part of the collaboration and can present this in the final commission exams.

- Room for setting up film crews is also available on Faculty’s Slack where students can communicate online (the platform was selected on the basis of an academic community vote last year).

- In addition to Department pitching sessions covering the films in the pipeline, there was the first edition of the Project Week where students got to present the films they have been preparing and seek the professions they were lacking in their crews.

I wish you a beautiful spring.
Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Our April newsletter brings you a lot of great news. We are raising salaries; more calls have been made and/or evaluated in addition to research and creative projects already in progress (please pay attention to the GAMU call); student films will feature in the world’s most prestigious film festivals (Annecy, Hot Docs); and we will celebrate student films at FAMUFEST.

One thing that made me happy last month was the way that our students approached participation at CPH:DOX, one of the most progressive documentary film festivals around. Not only did they take part in the industry programme: in addition, guided by teacher Lucie Králová, each of them followed one of the projects through its development, presentation at the Pitching Forum, and one-to-one meetings with the directors and producers during which teams hold negotiations with potential international co-producers, distributors, sales agents, etc. Students had to cope with very busy schedules, but this allowed them to obtain experience they could not obtain in any other way. I want to use this example to point out an approach to the ‘travel abroad’ part of our school’s activities that makes sense: rather than as a ‘trip’ or a vague ‘reward’, it makes sense to approach it as an efficiently structured programme that allows students (as well teachers and other employees in other cases) to get to know current global cinema and be there when it happens, see the current trends in global cinema, develop and expand their knowledge, find international contacts, and draw inspiration.

I wish you a peaceful and pleasant Easter.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Last month marked the end of the winter semester, the beginning of the summer semester, and the admission procedure to programmes for international students. This period is highly demanding for teachers as well as office workers at the Dean’s Office and Departments. I would like to thank you all and appreciate the dedication, consistency, and thought that you showed in these activities. I wish to thank all of you involved actively, as the procedures took place correctly, observing all the rules, and hopefully in a pleasant atmosphere as well.

It is obvious that all of you deserve much higher remuneration for your work than what you receive. You know that the Secretary and I have been channelling the highest possible share of the budget into salaries, and any funds saved or gained in addition are used to that end too. We do everything in our power to raise the salaries as much as possible. There was a 5% across-the-board pay raise last year, and the amount allocated to half-year and year-end bonuses was higher than it used to be before Covid. We are preparing another across-the-board pay raise, with effect either from 1 April or 1 May (this depends on the Academic Senate’s approval of the 2023 budget); if the raise takes effect from May, the shift in time will be compensated for by higher amounts allocated to the bonuses for the individual workplaces.

In this respect, I would like to inform you that an intensive intra-school discussion on the distribution of the budget between the Faculties and the Rectorate has currently been in progress into its second month. The key discussion will take place at AS AMU meeting on 9 March, and the vote on the budget distribution will be held at AS AMU meeting on 4 April. The Rector assumed her office with the concept of managing the budget by dividing it between the three faculties and the Rectorate on a ‘parity’ basis where each of the above parts of AMU gets the same portion, i.e. 25% of the A+K contribution from the Ministry of Education (the core of our budget). In the past, FAMU would always get a higher share in particular due to the high costs of student exercises. As a result, the Academic Senate of AMU approved a path to attaining parity last year. Through negotiation, FAMU succeeded to make sure that this transition will not take place at once (which would mean a one-off reduction of our budget by almost 2.5 million crowns). Instead, the journey to the parity will take three years (this year is the second of the three), with a reduction on our part of CZK 834,000 each year. This budgetary cut is manageable as long as the A+K contribution from the Ministry is slightly increased every year and resources are handled economically. This year, another source will be added to the A+K contribution: approximately 17 million crowns earmarked for an increase of academic workers’ salaries. We insist that, following the deduction of an adequate amount for the academic workers of the Rectorate’s language and physical education sections, these funds should be distributed between the Faculties in equal thirds, i.e. also with parity. One of the reasons is to prevent a further reduction of FAMU’s share for the sake of parity. The idea of combining the funds from the A+K contribution with the funds intended for academic salaries is also being discussed; this would significantly increase the amount that FAMU gives up to the benefit of the overall parity between the four parts of AMU either this year or in the years to come. This is why the FAMU leadership, FAMU’s senators in AS AMU, the AS FAMU, the Dean’s Collegium, and other authorities have been discussing the budget both within our Faculty and with AS AMU and the Rectorate. If you want to gain a more in-depth understanding of the topic, I recommend you read the minutes of the meetings of AS AMU and AS FAMU, and of course you can ask the Secretary, the senators, and me at any time.

Two more remarks: First, I wish to thank the Council of Higher Education Institutions and the Czech Rectors’ Conference for helping to ensure that the four art schools financed differently from other universities are receiving more funds for academic employees effective this year. Second, I wish to assure the non-academic staff that they will get a raise as well, using the A+K contribution funds.

This matter is rather complex, and my summary here is quite simplified. If you want to know more about it, please ask questions. I am writing this in the foreword to FAMU News in particular because we have discussed these matters within almost all relevant authorities of FAMU, but since this issue applies to everyone, it is important for you to know that the discussion is in progress and both Faculty leadership and the senators are doing everything they can to ensure that salaries at FAMU can be increased as much as possible.

I wish you joy of the ongoing semester and of the fact that we can meet in person in school and teach classes, including practical ones, in a presence mode.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

One of the toughest months of the year – January with the brunt of admission procedures for bachelor programmes, the examination period, and organisational and financial closing of the previous calendar year – is over. I would like to appreciate the dedication and sensitivity of all of you, teachers, who spent countless days assessing talent assignments, skills, and personalities of study applicants. This is a responsible, time-consuming, and difficult work and I am immensely happy to hear that you are satisfied with the results, having once again admitted exceptional students to your Departments. I also wish to thank all the office workers who faced a tough job organising the admission procedures as well as the closing of the year at the financial and HR departments.

Over the course of the past three years, we spent a lot of effort on recruitment promotion – both making our programmes more visible to potential applicants and explaining what studying for the various professions entails and what type of graduates leave the school. I am happy to note that this work on communication is reflected in the constantly growing interest in studying with us. I would like to invite all Department members: if you have any tips for how to target the promotion of your study programmes even better, reach the potential talents, and address them in a manner as personalised as possible, let us know: we will be happy to involve you or draw inspiration.

Two project days will be held next week. During them, exercises and films being prepared by crews involving members from different Departments will be presented. The presentations will be held in English and their objective is to give students an opportunity to find out what their schoolmates are working on as well as to find collaborators they may be looking for to add to their crews, or show their interest in collaboration. Every 7-minute presentation will be followed by a short discussion. We will be immensely happy if you come to the Lažanský Palace screening room to have a look on Wednesday and/or on Friday!

I wish you a peaceful time once the admission procedures and the examination period are over, and a good beginning of the new semester mid-February.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková

Dear Colleagues,

I wish you all the best, good health, internal balance, and enough time for everything that matters to you and gives you joy in the new year.

We had to tackle difficult developments again last year. I would like to thank you for the solidary approach that we as a school have been able to show Ukrainian students and citizens, for your helpful attitude to the programme of the November week that students dedicated to combating climate crisis, and for the participation of some of you in the FAMU Ethical discussions that will yield the FAMU Code of Ethics. I thank the teachers for developing instruction and guiding students, the effort that will be crowned during the upcoming examination period, and I thank office and other workers for a professional approach and the seamless operation of each workplace and the Faculty as a whole. Also, Departments will conduct the admission procedure this month – so, I wish you a lot of strength in this crucial and difficult process.

This year, we are preparing several additional modifications to be made to the shared premises to make the Lažanský Palace environment nice and friendly, in order for corridors to allow people to meet across Departments. The modifications will culminate during the summer holidays when all the areas in Lažanský will be repaired and decorated.

This year, I will continue to be available to you every Thursday from 9 to 10 am in addition to appointments arranged in advance, whether in person or online, should you have any suggestions, ideas or questions. I will be happy to see you.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Even though the semester’s instruction ends only in the first week of January, followed by the examination period and, in most Departments, admission procedure, December is the month during which we complete the majority of the winter semester. I would like to thank all teachers for their excellent educational work, for being both demanding and kind, and most of all I would like to appreciate those teachers who developed new subjects or updated their existing ones this year, for their effort and thinking invested in constantly innovating the educational process and aligning it with the latest knowledge, development in our fields, knowledge in areas complementary to those that we focus on directly, and the situation in society and on the planet. I would also like to thank all Department Secretaries and office workers for their consistent care ensuring that the individual workplaces and the entire Faculty can operate, making the administrative and organisational processes of the various sections more efficient, being respectful of efficient operation of the offices, and showing a helpful and kind attitude to each other.

I wish you all good health, a lot of strength for December days, and lovely holidays spent to your liking and preferences.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

The Department self-evaluation data was collected in October. This is one of ways for you to comment on your curricula, schedules, production, cooperation with other workplaces and any other affairs that you find good or problematic at school. The report resulting from the self-evaluation, prepared by the Head of the Department, the subject Guarantor and a study ambassador, provides input for the entire Faculty’s self-evaluation report, which is required by law and prepared by the Internal Evaluation Committee. It also provides very important insights to the Departments’ and Faculty leadership, pointing out any changes and solutions that need work. Thank you for your involvement – your voice is important.

We are also working on improving the school’s common areas. The chillout zone in front of the library on the first floor has been joined by seating near the “panel gallery” in the corridor towards the screening room on the first floor. For the next summer, we are planning the decoration, an overall improvement of the premises, and replacement of the lighting system in Lažanský Palace.

We are immensely happy that instruction is currently held in a presence mode, following the regular schedule and allowing you to work on hands-on assignments. Please be respectful of each other – if, for example, you return from a mass event, wear a face mask/respirator for a few days, and be sure to air the room in which you study or work regularly (preferably once every 30 minutes). I wish you good health and joy in everything that you do at school during the semester.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the new academic year. We could almost say that you are once again embarking on a “non-standard academic year” during which society is facing difficult situations that will undoubtedly affect the operation of educational institutions (the energy crisis, the high inflation rate, etc.). However, it appears that “non-standard” years are becoming the “new normal” – simply put, we just work a little bit differently every year. Along with the Vice-Deans, the Secretary and the Department for Student Affairs, we are adapting institutional mechanisms for tackling the new difficult situations. The pandemic period has resulted in many students’ studies distributed or interrupted, causing complications in putting together film crews and aggregating shoots, and requiring changes to be made to curricula and production plans as well as many other “invisible” measures to be adopted. I take this as a natural part of helming an institution during the current times: it is necessary to adapt its functioning to yet more and more complications and adverse circumstances so that it continues to play its primary role in the best possible way, which is to bring new knowledge to its students and offer them space for putting their talent to use and seeking their own artistic expression.

While in the past years we focused on operating as responsibly as possible during the pandemic, this year we are focusing more than ever on energy and, more generally, on our conduct in relation to the environment that we live, work, and study in. We have introduced measures to reduce our use of gas, thanks to which we are currently saving 15% of our consumption. Over the course of the summer, we prepared several crisis scenarios for tackling both larger and major gas supply outages. We have made a plan for immediate, mid-term, and long-term measures to save on electricity. Even though FAMU is located primarily in heritage buildings, we keep seeking the most sustainable ways of operating. Also, we are beginning this year to push towards implementing the rules of sustainable filmmaking in the production of school films as comprehensively as possible.

With that being said, no institutional measures will have sufficient impact or work to their maximum potential unless we all work together, reflect on our habits and adapt them, and think of the footprint we leave every day.

I wish to work with all of you to make our school a respectful and responsible environment. We are open to your suggestions and ideas, and sustainable conduct and operation will be the topic of one of the Faculty community meetings planned for this academic year, where I can give you more details about the plans, scenarios and opportunities and listen to any inspiration you can come up with.

The first week of classes has begun. I wish you many stimulating interactions, thoughtful explorations, strength and good health.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

All teachers are currently experiencing the “final commission month” along with the students – the time of the year when we get to see the assignments on which students worked throughout the year under your careful, thoughtful and creative leadership, whether alone (in branch exercises) or in crews (shared and certain branch exercises). I would like to thank all of you who are willing to give thorough feedback and patiently explain the possible solutions to various pitfalls with understanding for students’ individual visions and based on your experience and feel. In particular, I wish to thank those who attend the shared screenings of the exercises where a discussion can offer reflections on the approach of all professions involved – such understanding for the requirements and specificities of the individual students’ creative contributions fosters mutual understanding between the individual professions among students, which is also important for their future professional growth.

I thank the employees of the FAMU Studio on whom the past months were especially tough and who help all student films to come into existence with patience and professionalism.

I have been present at several screenings now and I can honestly say they made me really happy. Not because the works were “flawless”. After all, that is not the purpose. I watched with admiration as students spoke about their exercises, being open about the difficulties and obstacles they had to tackle and the solutions they finally devised. Perhaps the only thing I was not happy about was watching films without the completed sound mix or image grading. It means that the sound designer or cameraman or camerawoman did not get the opportunity to show all their skills and step into the key phase of post-producing a work in such a way that they could also consider it the final result of their own work. I believe that this will not be the case next year – that, in a dialogue between Departments and with great producers and consistent schedules – we will find a way to plan filmmaking throughout the year so that every work is fully completed for the final commission exams. Those versions of the works will be forever stored in a publicly accessible library database (as law requires of public higher educational institutions), and they will be available there for years to come in the form as assessed during the final commissions.

I was very happy to see so many students from different Departments during the first of the series of shared screenings (where shared exercises are shown in the presence of all collaborating Departments). I believe that, over time, their teachers will attend the screenings too, as, from my participation in the individual Departments’ final commissions, I can say that feedback from each Department on the individual aspects of student films is immensely inspiring, erudite and hugely beneficial not only for the students in the field but also for other professions involved in making a film. I honestly thank those who attend the screenings and give students feedback for their time and energy. I also believe that this is one of the ways to systematically build respect for the individual professions. I want to thank Department secretaries and other employees for their involvement in organising the final commissions and also for their considerable effort in September when the paperwork for the upcoming academic year is in full swing. I wish for everybody involved in final commissions to gain joy and satisfaction over the completion of year-long work.

See you at the screening sessions!

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear colleagues,

as I wrap up the various pieces of work over the summer, I am constantly aware of how much work each and every one of you puts into keeping the school running smoothly. I value your contribution to the functioning of both the pedagogical process and the day-to-day running of the institution. As much as it may seem that disagreements can overshadow the recognition of a job well done, this is not the case. Contributing constructively to the functioning of individual workplaces of the faculty is valuable and significant, thank you for it. You deserve a quiet time now, and however you spend your vacation, I wish you to renew your strength, switch mentally to other worlds during the vacation, and pick up new stimuli. I know that you will devote your energy to the school again and I look forward to working together again from September. Enjoy your free time.

Warmly,
Andrea Slováková
dean

Dear Colleagues,

I am greeting you in summertime when many of you are taking your holidays. I really wish for you to relax deeply and have the summer you hoped for – whether this means an action summer in a genre with fast stories and many surprising plot twists, or in peace and exploratory slowness.

I am also greeting you from the FID Marseille festival, in my opinion one of the most progressive in the world. I often tell my friends that this is where you can see where cinema will go in five years. Thanks to a freshly agreed partnership, a FAMU group will have an opportunity to visit FIDM next year.

Most of all, I wish you to have two summer months when you successfully recover, replenishing your resources and absorbing a lot of inspiration that will enrich you personally. You give the school, students and your colleagues an awful lot. I want to thank you for the past semester which was full, demanding and productive, and I wish you to find space for drawing new inspiration and experience.

Yours sincerely,

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Our school has experienced difficult situations over the past weeks, and I know that they have affected many of you. Some of you took part in the plenary meeting of the Academic Community of FAMU, convened by the students’ chamber of the Senate. You approach me with various types of questions, with one of the most frequent being, how do I continue working with colleagues who told me something and did something different, when the trust has been disrupted.

Some of you are disappointed to the point of considering leaving the school for good. We have had many conversations, trying hard to figure out how to resolve this dilemma. I do not have a definite answer for you. What I have is more of an invitation or challenge: I believe that one possible positive outcome of the current crisis could be the preparation of FAMU’s Code of Ethics. It should be drafted in a participative manner, involving the entire Faculty community (or anyone at the Faculty who wishes to take part in the discussions). As such, it would be great if you could take part in the theme sessions that our ombudswoman will organise and voice your experience and opinion on the topics that resulted, among other things, from the aforementioned plenary meeting, the topics discussed by the Academic Senate, and the NE!musíš to vydržet performance. This way, we can “enact” a document that will define the limits and rules of FAMU’s internal culture with your assistance.

I wish you a peaceful examination period and nice preparations for more relaxed summer weeks.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Last month, I was delighted by several meetings focused on creating new opportunities for cooperation, and not just for students but for you as well. It matters to me to make sure that we prepare space and opportunities that make sense in a long-term perspective for you. We work on such new collaborations with schools that are focused on a practical approach, that are leaders in their fields and that make sense as the place to go to expand one’s knowledge and experience (for example, we wish to organise bilateral exchange stays with prestigious film schools such as the National Film School of Denmark, La Fémis, and Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. We develop such forms of mobility and study and practical stays for employees that will help you deepen and update the types of knowledge and stays that you like.

At the same time, on our home turf, we pursue a deeper acknowledgement and a stronger footing for artistic research across institutions, from the Ministry of Education to our own supporting programmes (for example, the fellowship call in this newsletter; there will be more opportunities this year). Even though the definition of artistic research is still somewhat uncertain in the theoretical framework, many thoughtful authors (including among our students and teachers) work on it, helping to focus such definitions in the process.

Keep letting us know what else makes sense to you.

I wish you a beautiful spring, good health, and a lot of strength for the second half of the semester.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear colleagues,

in the past week, a large part of the faculty community has been involved in various activities to help Ukraine; our students themselves have initiated and implemented some of them. I appreciate the commitment, energy, ideas, willingness and helpfulness of all those who contribute in any way. I am proud that as a faculty we can come together and work together in immediate action. Let's persevere in support activities in the coming weeks and months.
This week, the U1 classroom is a place for those who want to meet and discuss or just relax, and at the same time watch the Awake for Ukraine stream from the National Theater. U1 as a community place remains on Sunday, when the first weekend screenings organized by our students will take place.

Next week, a significant event awaits our school: the FAMU Academic Senate elections. It is in difficult situations that we often learn how important the solid characters and solid foundations of institutions are. The academic community is a free community in which the principle of representation works on the basis of elections, and you choose the personalities who are to represent you in the main control body of the school. Two essential steps have already been taken: the nomination of candidates and the publication of their concepts. Now is the third, most important: vote. March 8-10 - vote - express your opinion, use this space for your vote.

I wish you a lot of strength and joy from joint activities,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Let me appreciate the teachers who motivated their students to complete the evaluation forms for the individual subjects at the end of the semester and who follow the evaluation of their subjects with interest and respond to it by reappraising the form and course of their teaching. The evaluation contained a lot of praise from students, which points out good quality aspects of our programmes. I have been meeting the Heads of Departments last and this week, going through the evaluation of all subjects in detail together and discussing the options for addressing critical remarks and incorporating constructive suggestions that many comments in the evaluation forms provide. This gives us another perspective of the form of the teaching, which, as I have observed, can be inspiring for both teachers and Heads of Departments. 

I wish you a good beginning of the new semester. 

Andrea Slováková 
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

I wish you all the best, good health, and everyday joys in the new year. May you also find joy in your creative, teaching, organisational, operating and communication work in our school. We are facing another year that will be non-standard and maybe even difficult in many respects. I wish for us all to be able to help each other, show understanding and generosity.

In addition to the standard study, production and organisational agenda, I would like to work on several other goals with you this year. Let me outline a few of them:

1. Potential increase of salaries. We are currently in a state of provisional (government, and thus ours) budget, so that we will not know until about March what the amount of this year’s contribution from the Ministry of Education that forms the foundation of our budget will be. I can tell you that if non-capital items are increased, they will be allocated to salaries and the Faculty management will try to increase everybody’s salaries by at least 6%, the expected high inflation rate. Unfortunately, we are struggling with a substantial reduction of our budget financed from additional activities due to the inactive unaccredited programmes for international students. We believe, however, that our economic activity will recover to a certain degree this year.
    
2. Accreditation. In the academic field, we need first and foremost to complete the lacking new accreditation of study programmes that their guarantors are working on. Completing new accreditation is key for the further development of our fields of study. Prior to its approval by the Artistic Council and the Internal Evaluation Council, each accreditation file is discussed by the Academic Senate of FAMU. This is when the entire academic community can get involved in the discussion on the form of study programmes. Department self-evaluation, which takes place every October for the completed academic year, and student evaluation of the individual subjects at the end of every semester is always important for the preparation of the files. The results of such reflections on the instruction are always available to the teacher of each subject, the head of the Department and the top officials of the Faculty. I would like to use this opportunity and thank the teachers who allowed their students to rate their subjects during the last class or lecture of the subject in the semester.
    
3. Transformation of final commission exams into an inter-Department dialogue. Let me begin with a personal note. When I was the head of Nakladatelství AMU, we started releasing the final commission book. Those were texts about student films written by personalities outside the school who let us be open to impulses from beyond our Departments. Since then, I have been to almost all final commission screenings unless there was a scheduling conflict. For years, I was puzzled because I got to see certain films three or four times at different Departments, and some screenings were followed by immensely valuable and inspiring discussions that would greatly benefit filmmakers from other Departments. I mean the benefit of editors and directors hearing what sound design or cinematography students and teachers think about their shared exercise, and vice versa. I was definitely not the only one who came up with this idea. This is why, last year, we held two pilot screenings for shared exercises, inviting all the Departments involved at once. This transformation is rather slow and has not been fully successful. Later on, I spoke to students and their response was almost unanimous in the sense that they welcome the potential of interdisciplinary discussions. We will continue in this effort this year and prepare the logistics for September final commission exams as early as in March, so that, in addition to serving the individual Departments, they can also provide a platform for mutual inspiration between the Departments.
    
4. Safe and fair university environment. Last year, we achieved several milestones in building the infrastructure for developing such environment. We have a competent and empathetic school ombudswoman. Thanks to her extraordinary personality and work for us, which she considers meaningful also in the context of the entire tertiary educational segment in the Czech Republic, we have an extensive and detailed Ombudswoman’s Charter and the principles of work in this position, which have already been an inspiration to five other Czech tertiary schools, have been set up. We have increased the capacity of Faculty psychologists, and the Konsent association pursues educational activities in the field of mental health and fair treatment in addition to the ombudswoman’s involvement. We take part in the society-wide debate on the forms of good quality university environment. The Ne!musíš to vydržet student initiative appeared at FAMU before the end of last year. I perceive it as a positive and courageous feat, which is independent of the infrastructure that has been built, yet it can use it if interested. I am happy for an open dialogue and prepared to work with suggestions that the initiative will bring up. I believe that a balanced combination of the students’ personal involvement and ongoing work on the development of institutional infrastructure is exactly what will enable us to constantly improve the environment at FAMU

In conclusion of this unusually long foreword, allow me to make one personal remark. I underwent a herniated disk surgery before Christmas. This is a relatively common surgery and I am recovering well; I should be back in school in the latter half of January. The condition made me slow down, and during that time, I got to watch the work of healthcare professionals, overburdened and tired good souls who work well and diligently, and still manage to communicate openly and answer questions.
I am grateful for their amazing work and admire their character, which shows at times of trouble and crisis. We all know that the healthcare sector has been under immense pressure throughout the pandemic era. It is inspiring to see such helpful ways of coping and acting. May we all be able to treat the world as personalities who use their strength for development and for making it a better place for everyone.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

First, let me thank those of you who keep your spirits up and offer encouragement to students and your co-workers. Some teachers have started working in a distance mode, our office workers take turns working from home offices, some planned physical events not directly related to instruction were cancelled (St Nicholas Party), you keep wearing respiratory protection and patiently motivate students to do the same – in order for us all to protect the possibility of presence instruction as much as we can. Thank you for your perseverance in your effort at being respectful while encouraging people around you. I have noted that, in particular, the ability to not amplify frustration and to dissolve it instead is so much needed – and so many of you possess it, and I greatly appreciate seeing you helping each other. It is also important to avoid resigning on new ideas. Béla Tarr, who visited our school for two weeks, was a major recent inspiration for me. He shared with me his reflections on our school the way he saw it after meeting 16 students every day and working closely with them. He placed emphasis on certain values: encouraging the development of imagination – not just obeying instructions; thinking – free thinking about forms, about one’s own expression; thinking about the way you want to narrate; and working with various means of expression.

My ‘open door’ for you, held every Thursday morning, has relocated to the virtual space. Still, I am really happy to see you and discuss matters with you.

I wish you a lot of inner strength, balance, and good health.
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Last year, we noted that official procedures in certain areas were not entirely clear to all members of the Faculty community – such as which form to complete when, where to submit it to, and so forth. This is why we have been working as we go to prepare various types of supporting documents such as “instruction manuals”, rules of procedure, recommendation sets, and induction documents (e.g. for first-year or doctoral students) to make sure that the options, procedures and rules are comprehensible to everyone and equally accessible; that the options for reaching grant opportunities or for applying for study and work stays, and the rules for what to complete and where, and who to send it to are transparent and obvious. Help us with this effort, and if you find procedures in certain areas of the school’s organisation and functioning not entirely clear, or if you encounter ambiguities or recurring questions from your students or teachers, let us know. Write to the respective Vice-Dean or the Secretary and describe where you are lacking a clear set of instructions.

We share our school together. Every member of the Faculty community has the same rights and opportunities, and also the same responsibility – for the way that we treat each other, the way we are pleased when someone else succeeds, and the way we want to help each other when things are not going right. It is not only with regard to the pandemic situation, which is deteriorating again, that I want to ask you all to always treat each other in a helpful manner first – to listen and help. If you have a question or something worries you, we at the Dean’s Office will be happy to help you – the open door for employees held every Thursday morning is an opportunity for discussing individual issues of this type. I am happy to see that you use this opportunity, and thank you for working towards making our school an easier-to-navigate, friendlier, and more pleasant environment together.

Have a beautiful autumn.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to the new academic year. Let us go to school again. A seemingly banal wish or invitation has an entirely new meaning and urgency now, in the context of the past one and a half years. One year ago, we started school with stringent sanitary and safety precautions, yet also with cautious optimism. Ten days later, we were compelled to switch to distance instruction and almost completely quit hands-on classes. In addition to many other things, the past period has taught us that however justified or firm our assumptions – and the resultant expectations of the future – may be, our position in relation to the planned reality is unstable. We are now starting school with a keen awareness of how fragile the current status and opportunities are.

The lockdown times allowed us to explore the less exposed or realised parts of ourselves – the focused, independent or even solitary sides of ourselves, which are more aware of immersion into private, intimate worlds. The beginning of the academic year is again opening the room for you to open up those sides of yourselves to a more intensive dialogue, to everyday sharing in space and time with people who have the same passion for audiovisual or visual expression, for creative thinking, and also for learning about the world the way it is presented to us and to those with whom we will experience everyday school. May this shared experience be a source of stimulation and development for you.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Welcome back to school. September is a difficult month, mainly for teachers and also for the workers of the FAMU Studio because the clausura and state final exams are in progress under a dense schedule. Despite the time-consuming activities that are in progress at all Departments in September, I would like to ask you to visit the exams at other Departments as well, in addition to yours, if and as much as you can considering your time and space limits. The clausura exams have started and, for my part, I can say that they are immensely inspiring and enriching also thanks to the discussions that take place during them. I would be happy if you could use the opportunity to experience the output and the thinking at the other Departments with regard to the specific and shared exercises, and also take part in the discussions. I believe that such interdisciplinary dialogue can improve our mutual understanding and develop our insights into the various professions and their perspective among our students.

This year, we will try shared clausura screenings of shared exercises in a pilot mode for the first time, specifically in two cases: the screenings of the films from the 2nd year students of the Department of Documentary Film and from the 2nd year students of the Department of Directing will involve cooperating students from the Departments of Cinematography, Sound Design, Editing, and Production and also their workshop guides (and/or other students and teachers from cooperating Departments). Once such screenings and the involved discussions have been assessed, the Dean’s Collegium will think about potential changes in the form of clausura screenings.

I wish to extend my thanks to those of you who offered consultations to students on their year-end and graduation works during the holidays! I want to thank the workers and leaders of FAMU Studio for their immense effort in assisting students with completing their works and in preparation, and also during the exam screenings in September. It has truly been exceptionally difficult this year – I am proud of how excellently all the Departments and the Studio have managed to tackle the difficult logistics, dense schedule and a plethora of films. A huge job excellently well done!

I wish you a lot of strength and joy of your students’ results!

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

Many of you are on your holidays during the summer, and this is the primary time for you to recover, regain your energy and open up to different types of impulses. We at the Dean’s office encourage the type of holidays where nothing job-related reaches you – no e-mails or telephone calls. Being able to immerse yourselves in experiences, experience different environments, books and films, and enjoy the uninterrupted sense of being intrigued that is difficult to attain in your tightly divided working hours: I wish you all of that, and I am looking forward to meeting you relaxed, calm, and energised with new perceptions in early September.

Take care of yourselves and your loved ones, and stay healthy.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

The exhibition of the year’s works from the Centre for Audiovisual Studies made me happy last week. We are experiencing a difficult academic year, and it has been difficult primarily for our students. The gravity of the fluid uncertainty all around us is reflected in the content of many of the works, yet I admired many ingenious, multi-layered and aesthetically diverse works of art. The students of the Department of Photography have also presented some of their year’s work. I am happy to see that the creative visions, which many of the works show, are clear, well thought-out and resolute. Perhaps they have become the proverbial firm places for them to stand on. I would like to thank the teachers who encouraged and motivated the students during the entire year and made the teaching process happen fully despite the unusual situation.

We are all overwhelmed by multitude of information every day. Critical thinking provides useful navigation in the deluge. An approach that takes into consideration multiple possible views of an issue also allows for understanding the context of information or opinion. The source from which a message comes is substantial – who says it, where, when, and under what circumstances. However, it is also important to what they respond with their message. If it is a personal Facebook status, albeit widely shared, was it a response to another message or to media content? If such a text contains information that disturbs you, verify it. Often, it is not very difficult to find a reliable open source to confront personal or emotional statements with and obtain information or context as the foundation for one’s own critical thinking.

Many of you will relax and gather strength this summer, following a difficult academic year. I wish you many beautiful summer experiences, a lot of new stimuli and space to relax.

Andrea Slováková
Dean 

Dear Colleagues,

You may have happened to find more focused time, and to use it for reading, during the ‘closed times’ of the different stages of lockdown. So, you could be pleased with the way that the FAMU Library is developing. You may have noted a month ago that the Library has launched a system for lending e-books. If you are working on texts or written output for your grants, you can find the latest database addition to our library useful: when you seek resources, books and texts relevant for your topic, reference services may prove a useful tool. One of the best, which also covers the audiovisual field and various theme areas within it, is Oxford Reference, which our library has prepaid for you. You can read more in the library’s article in the current newsletter. I wish you that you find reading that provides a source of inspiration and joy to you directly in our library.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

I am happy to note that the majority of exercises and films can finally be produced now. Let me thank the teachers who have tirelessly motivated the students to thoroughly prepare their projects and think them over, now that they can enter the production phase.

We worked on certain documents during the past weeks that involved various statistics; let me share one of the stats with you: FAMU has 23 associate professors, of whom just two are female, and 18 professors, of whom just one is female. Even though I did notice that it is mostly men who submit applications for associate professorship and professorship procedures, the ratio of this disproportion surprised me. I remembered speaking to three of our great female teachers and artists and asking them if they were considering associate professorship. They explained that there were various issues, in particular regarding time, that prevented them from doing so, even though they would like to. I also remembered how I wanted to staff certain councils and panels ensuring a better gender balance earlier during my tenure, and I struggled with a shortage of women with higher academic degrees (and not only in-house at FAMU). This phenomenon is well-known and common in academia. I would like to use this opportunity to convey the following message: whether you are a male or female teacher, if you would like to become associate professors with your art work but are short of time for preparing for the procedure, speak to us about the obstacles you have to tackle: speak to the head of your Department or to the Dean’s office. We will be happy to encourage you, for example by means of a creative sabbatical (the terms and conditions of which are described in the collective bargaining agreement), by reconsidering the current structure of your other obligations, and so on. With such a dialogue, you will help us to continue working on the preparation of systemic measures geared towards giving more consistent assistance to people who foster children. I am sure your colleagues will be happy to encourage you too.

I wish you strength and good health.
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

We are approaching the mid-point mark of this non-standard semester. Allow me one personal note – I am proud of how we all cope with organising all the work and classes despite the limits of virtual operation. Let me thank the Bursar and the Head of the Dean’s Secretariat for having organised the covid testing station at FAMU, and all the office workers for coping with taking turns working in the offices for several months. We are still teaching in a distance mode. The Faculty headquarters, Departments and FAMU Studio also keep doing everything we can in order to launch hands-on assignments for crews – in a specific mode, this will happen next week. Let me thank all the teachers who have patiently given advice to students, including as part of individual assignments – and especially where the assignments had to be altered creatively in order to allow students to gain the requisite skills without having to work on team assignments. The support that you provide to students, encouraging them to work individually on creative assignments, is immensely important for their motivation. Let me also thank everyone who contributed towards rescheduling the summer semester classes and concentrating theory classes in the first six weeks of the semester in order to leave as much room for hands-on work in the latter half of the semester.

Beginning with next week, I will hold ‘open door’ sessions every Thursday from 9 to 10 am, should you need to discuss any topic, which does not require a dedicated meeting, on an ad-hoc occasion. For the time being, the sessions will be held online under this link.

I wish you a beautiful spring.
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

The summer semester has begun with modified schedules, distance instruction and limited possibilities for hands-on work. The purpose of the structure of instruction in this semester is to ensure that as many subjects without hands-on activities as possible are taught during the first six weeks, so that, starting from mid-April, we are ready to enable the students to spend as much time as possible filming, provided that it is permitted. At the same time, individual hands-on work is still possible – smaller or modified hands-on assignments.

During the past months, we focused a lot on the methodology for online instruction. We are offering you, teachers, individual consultations to discuss the possible forms of the subjects that you teach, if you are interested. Online course platforms that have been in existence for many years also provide various sources of inspiration. Things are really very difficult for you and you have been really brave in enduring this altered mode of working and teaching for many months – one year ago, we all hoped that the non-standard situation would be over soon, yet here we are, teaching the third semester online. Let us try to turn some of those obstacles into advantages, at least in part – you and your students have more space for concentration and introspection, for the perception of and deeper reflection on works of art, texts and films. Students will certainly be grateful to you if you debate in your classes and organise your subjects on a more participative basis. Remember our online St. Nicolas Party – how much fun the online quiz was: you can make similar ones in classes, interconnect platforms and be inventive. If you have ideas and good experience, share them. Do not hesitate to share them with us at the Dean’s Office – so that we can seek and find various forms of distance learning together to make them enriching and functional as well as intriguing and pleasing for both students and yourselves.

I wish you a lot of strength and good health.

Yours sincerely,
Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

I wish you all the best in the new year. First and foremost, I wish good health to you and your loved ones. I observe every day how you deal with the obstacles posed by the current situation around us. I am happy to note small improvements and adjustments in the procedures – the digitalisation of agendas; colleagues considerately standing in for those absent due to illness or care for their loved ones; regular and more frequent meetings of teachers at certain Departments where they share experience and help each other with tackling the non-standard situations resulting from online instruction. I thank you for this. We at the Dean’s office will be happy to continue offering you help in all types of situations where we can. In your shared work, you (we) also inevitably disagree sometimes. Each of you are a unique personality and it is obvious that you are not always “in tune” with each other about everything. Every disagreement can bring benefits, though, as it lets us view issues from various perspectives and take into consideration different types of thinking about and reflecting on matters. Let us be open-minded and full of understanding during these difficult times, and perhaps a little bit more helpful in every situation than we would be under normal conditions.

I appreciate your care for students and for the school, and I wish you a lot of strength, patience and joy of your everyday individual and collective work.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Colleagues,

The conversations that I had with you throughout last month gave me a perception of positive experience or the explored and discovered possibilities, which we may reflect in our conduct even after the restrictive measures are released. Some appreciate the fact that having to work partially in a home office mode has given them more time for working on difficult tasks with a focus and without disturbances; some appreciate having principally updated or restructured their subjects and created comprehensible presentations and other aids and visualisations as a result of having to transform the subject for the online environment; someone else finally cut out the relevant passages of films to show to students after years of searching for them using time codes. Someone told me the other day that discussions within subjects are highly beneficial even in the online environment, because everyone lets everyone else finish their thoughts, everyone listens with attention and the discussions can be moderated well. Others started exploring various creative options for working with content and communication in the online environment – which is quite logical considering that we are a school that focuses on audio-visual art. The aforementioned creative forms of working online in a good way make me happy; I really appreciate them as part of the teaching process, and I am thankful to the teachers for their ideas and energy invested into transforming their subjects.

As much as I understand the frustration over having to communicate remotely, I was happy to see that you can also find benefits for you and for students in the new forms of communication and learning. It is also of key importance that our students have always lived in touch with the school and remained close to it thanks to regular and scheduled classes. I thank you for that.

I wish you a lot of strength and joy of teaching, which will resume its presence form to a great extent with effect from Monday, 7 December.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear colleagues,

we have the first month of the winter semester behind us in pandemic conditions. You do a lot of work remotely. Staying at home as long as possible remains a priority - thank you for your energy and working from home; Thanks to this joint effort, everything at the faculty works, both in terms of operation and in terms of the teaching that can be done in these conditions.

In the first third of the month, the teaching took place according to the traffic light, then only remotely. It's not easy - for teachers and for our students. But it is also an opportunity - we are a film school and digital audiovisual expression is natural for us. Let's take a look at the teaching (about) of film in a virtual environment as a kind of genre, whether it is dominated by performative elements (by you, teachers and students), found footage procedures (fragments of audiovisual or other works which you debate about) or essay elements of informed and substantiated arguments. Let's add (self) reflexive moments to these procedures - if you have discovered ways to differentiate and develop meetings within individual subjects in genre, share the knowledge of good practices with each other.

If you would like a creative dialogue over the form of your subjects, we are preparing consultations for you in small groups - you have received information on how to apply by email. We all care that we meet students regularly to have continuous stimuli for thinking and deepening knowledge.

I wish you a lot of inner strength and a desire for a certain playfulness and constant discovery.
And good health for you and your loved ones.

Andrea Slováková
Dean

Dear Teachers and all FAMU employees,

Welcome to the new academic year. We are opening it under changed and variable circumstances that affect our personal, professional and study lives in many unprecedented ways. However, aside from the complications, these different modes of operation also offer us an opportunity to rethink the forms of sharing various types of knowledge and skills. And to invent modified or entirely new avenues. I know that this means more work for you in preparation – but I also believe that this way of thinking allows us to develop our instruction in many directions.

If your subject is rated ‘orange’, please think about the health of everyone involved in instruction – yours and that of your students – devising the form of your subjects. In distance teaching, use various forms of interactivity that platforms for distance learning offer; you can assign tasks to small groups on an ongoing basis or lead the instruction as a moderated debate rather than frontal instruction. The heads of your departments and us at the Dean’s office are here for you should you need an advice or want to share your experience – both problematic and examples of good practice. I am confident that despite the current situation we can offer our students high quality and enriching studies.

First and foremost, I wish you and your loved ones good health. I wish you a lot of strength and patience, and I wish for both you and your students to find the upcoming semester inspiring, albeit in entirely new and perhaps unexpected ways.

Andrea Slováková
Dean