The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague hosted internationally acclaimed Mexican film director Carlos Reygadas from 21 to 24 May 2024 as part of its mentoring programme intended to connect the students with the current global cinema. His film Our Time (2018) was publicly screened at the Edison cinema on 22 May, followed by a debate with the author and a signing session for the book Přítomnost that FAMU has released through the Nakladatelství AMU publishing house, transaled by Alexandra Moralesová. The mentoring programme offered the students a screening of selected films, two masterclasses moderated by students Chen Yu Ying and Michelle Tseng and Jindřiška Bláhová, Head of the Department of Audiovisual Theory andHistory. The programme continued with individual consultations of selected students with the filmmaker.

"Carlos Reygadas is a crucial figure for young artists in Europe, including in the Czech Republic, as we saw with the interest in his online masterclass in 2020. However, individual consultations are key in every mentoring session, as students have the opportunity to confront their thoughts on audiovisual expression with distinct personalities, thus expanding the diversity of perspectives and inspirations. I am therefore pleased that Reygadas is coming after several years of negotiations. An author with such a distinct signature will certainly be a provocative and stimulating partner in pedagogical discussions,” said Dean of FAMU Andrea Slováková.

Carlos Reygadas is one of the leading personalities of the current author cinema. His Silent Light (2007), a drama depicting a religious group living in the north of Mexico with a hypnotic imagery, won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and Post Tenebras Lux (2012), a sensitively told story of a young family that decides to move from the city to the countryside, won the Best Director Award. Formerly a lawyer and diplomat by vocation, Reygadas is currently one of the most prominent ‘voices’ of the current Mexican cinema. He never studied at any school, learning instead directly from watching films by Michelangelo Antonioni, Alexander Dovzhenko, Carl Theodor Dreyer, and Andrey Tarkovsky. With influences such as these, his own work combines his local cinematic tradition and the heritage of the European avantgarde.