{"id":50996,"date":"2026-06-23T18:00:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/?p=50996"},"modified":"2026-06-23T17:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T15:50:44","slug":"the-invisible-jan-gogola-a-portrait-of-a-dramaturg-who-acts-as-the-dramaturg-of-his-own-film","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iffartfilm.com\/en\/blog\/news\/2026\/06\/the-invisible-jan-gogola-a-portrait-of-a-dramaturg-who-acts-as-the-dramaturg-of-his-own-film\/","title":{"rendered":"The Invisible Jan Gogola \u2014 a portrait of a dramaturg who acts as the dramaturg of his own film"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Slovak Season section of the 32nd IFF Art Film Ko\u0161ice, the sixty-minute documentary portrait The Invisible Jan Gogola<\/em> directed by Marek Jani\u010d\u00edk had its festival screening on Monday, 22 June at Kino \u00dasmev. The film is dedicated to the Czech dramaturg and pedagogue Jan Gogola Sr., who over more than half a century contributed to over sixty titles and taught screenwriting and dramaturgy at FAMU in Prague, the Academy of Performing Arts in Bansk\u00e1 Bystrica and JAMU in Brno. The next festival screening will be held by IFF Art Film on Thursday, 25 June at 16.00 at Kulturpark JOJ Cinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n

For director Marek Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong>, Jan Gogola was not just the subject of the film but also his own pedagogue. \u201cJan Gogola was my pedagogue of dramaturgy and screenwriting \u2014 and not only mine, but of many other screenwriters. He was always someone I really looked forward to. When he retired at eighty and stopped teaching, I decided I would like to preserve his legacy \u2014 but above all to introduce him to the public, because he is literally invisible and yet has an enormous amount of work behind him,\u201d<\/em> Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n

A classic TV portrait was something Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong> wanted to avoid \u2014 and he used the very profession of the protagonist to do so. \u201cI had in front of me an expert in the truest sense, one of the best dramaturgs in the Czech Republic and in Slovakia. I decided I would shoot the film about him in such a way that he would do the dramaturgy of it for me almost live. The viewer becomes a witness of how the dramaturgy of this film about him comes into being,\u201d<\/em> he explained. For the consultations he brought the professor both shot and pre-edited parts of the film and they looked together for what worked, what didn’t and how to push it further.<\/p>\n

The form was later extended with another commentator. \u201cI consulted not only with him, but also with his son Jan Gogola Jr., who is also a very significant professor as well as a director and dramaturg. It ended up so that the two of them sit together, watch the film about the professor that is still being made \u2014 and constantly comment on it. They are very witty people, they tease each other, it’s funny. Hopefully the audience won’t get bored \u2014 even though it’s a film about dramaturgy. Because when you say dramaturgy, people start to yawn at the word itself,\u201d<\/em> Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong> said with a smile.<\/p>\n

Making the film was for the director also an unexpected school. \u201cEven though I hold a state exam in dramaturgy as Gogola’s student, I have to admit it was only through this film that I really learned what dramaturgy actually is,\u201d<\/em> Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong>admits. His close relationship to the professor had on the documentarian an ambivalent impact \u2014 one can become \u201ctoo kind\u201d. \u201cBut anyone who knows Mr. Gogola knows that he is someone who is always fun, who has never in his life angered anyone \u2014 and I think that is precisely why he has had such a successful career, because it was so good to work with him. The portrait is therefore as he himself is: kind and authentic,\u201d<\/em> the director added.<\/p>\n

Presenting the film at IFF Art Film has a personal dimension for Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong>. \u201cI have a very close relationship to Art Film. I come from the Tren\u010d\u00edn region, where the festival was born, and I have been a regular visitor. In 2011 I premiered my first film here \u2014 and what happened was that I found my wife here, with whom I have two children. They are with me at the festival now, so we are a little bit of an Art Film family,\u201d<\/em> Marek Jani\u010d\u00edk<\/strong> said.<\/p>\n