On the sidelines of his summer series, “Summer is made for thinking”, The duty publishes three postcards written especially for its readers by students from the UQAM Summer School in Prague. An invitation to travel and share.
What struck me the most, here in Prague, was the resigned and mocking gaze of older Czechs when, after the usual greetings, the “ do you speak English? » ends with a frank: ” Not ! » The latter is often accompanied by one of those chuckles or exasperated eye rolls that make you realize the naivety behind thinking that the language of the American Dream is common elsewhere in the world, especially when leaving the capital.
Communicating is a complexity not to be underestimated. Speaking the language of one’s people is an opportunity, a comfort, a necessity in order to preserve one’s uniqueness. But opening up to those of others is like pointing a masterful telescope at the social codes that set us apart. The short fiction film that I am co-directing with Benoit Massé is the best tool I could have hoped to find to think outside the box and discover a bit of the depth of Czech culture.
As part of one of our scenes, we had to come into contact with beekeepers. So we went to the association of apiaries of the Czech Republic in Prague on a young morning in June. The process to access the hives was rather laborious, but it resulted in such generous collaboration from the beekeepers that we felt blessed to be able to live such experiences. We had to see ourselves with our translation applications, it was quite funny to experience.
What I would like to take from this is the strength of this rebellion of the oldest Czech generation against globalization. It is obvious that if we had all spoken English, the projects would probably have materialized more quickly. But there wouldn’t have been that little sparkle in the back of our eyes when we finally understood each other despite the language barrier. This flash of lucidity that appears in the interlocutor when he realizes what we want to communicate to him.
And basically, it’s a bit like that, to create. It’s going to areas where we don’t usually dare to go, areas that make us feel uncomfortable. And little by little, we take a liking to this discomfort, which is transformed, little by little, into a desire to discover and reinvent the world.
Marie Lapointe, student in Communication (Media creation — Television)
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When I arrive in Prague, I come out of the metro to discover Peace Square (Námestí Míru), around which stands the neo-Gothic church of Saint Ludmila, the National House and the imposing Vinohrady theatre. It is on this esplanade that the first sketches of the city that will welcome me for the next two months are revealed. This first glance reveals that the Czech people attach great importance to their culture and their history. I haven’t seen anything yet.
During my first lesson in the capital, I familiarized myself with Czech cinema, known to film buffs, but little in popular culture. His New Wave, which accompanied the country in its emancipation movement in the 1960s, makes me understand that when everyone is given the opportunity to make a film, a strong national cinema is born. The Czech miracle, this effervescence of cinematographic works through which the desire for freedom of the time is expressed, proves the need to encourage new ideas and reminds me of the importance of questioning what is established.
First arrived in a city that is completely foreign to me, I gradually adapted to my environment by dint of wandering through neighborhoods of incomparable architectural richness, spared by the upheavals of the 20th century.e century, where Romanesque and Baroque buildings blend with those of socialist realism. I begin to think about the major challenge that I will have to overcome: how to tell stories in a country that we do not know? I stop in front of what is most instinctive: sounds and images. I marvel at the screeching and shaking of streetcars, the tangles of electric cables that hang over the cobbled streets, the golden lighting of sodium vapor lamps, the terracotta roofs and the cooing of pigeons.
Creating abroad means discovering another way of doing things, collaborating with local people despite the language barrier. Faced with this constraint, I take Czech lessons with a few friends. By dint of practice, we recognize words, then we become able to mumble a few expressions. The simple effort makes those to whom one speaks smile.
The more the days pass, the more I feel at home, as if the city had decided to adopt me. Now in my seventh week in the capital, I’m finishing my filming, and my stay is coming to an end. Just by contemplating my return, I already miss the moments spent here.
Clarence de Bayser, student in Communication (Media Creation — Cinema)
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For this edition of the UQAM Summer School in Prague, we are seven final year students in the Game profile of the UQAM Graduate School of Theater to break the ice for our program. After a journey full of pitfalls due to the pandemic, we were very excited to have a gaming experience in the Czech capital and to meet other young artists in fields related to ours.
The first month of the course, dedicated to viewing the treasures of Czech cinematography and transmitting pivotal moments in the country’s history, allowed us to appreciate this culture from a different angle than conventional tourism. Indeed, it is a particularly vibrant experience — of emotions, of images, of stories — to learn so much about Czech culture and history, through its cinema, while being physically in the places where the historical or fictional events of the films shown took place.
From our theatrical points of view, we were able to appreciate the interpretation of actors who were then unknown to us. Prague is a city that is also full of living arts, and we were able to enjoy its very varied and affordable art scene. This is definitely one of the highlights of our stay. Among other things, we attended plays, dance performances and the famous opera Don Giovanni of Mozart, this one concluding the first half of the course.
The second month having begun, we work more closely with the students of the other programs for the creation of film projects. Some of us take on the artistic direction in film crews, others have small roles to play in short fiction films and others have started writing a screenplay. But most of our work as performers is within our co-creation team. The shooting of this short film in the form of tableaux, entitled Magma, took place between 16 and 18 July. Each of us explores a more symbolic universe that has been created according to the experiences and emotions that Prague has given us so far.
This trip is a great opportunity to broaden our general culture and allows us to meet great people. We even noticed that it was easier for us to take risks, partly thanks to the language barrier, which removes some of the embarrassment in our interactions with new people. We only have a few weeks left as Prague residents, and we want to continue to cultivate the experiences that life sends us, both artistically and personally, in order to bring a little piece of Prague back with us when we return to Montreal. .
Kevin Pereira, acting student at UQAM’s Graduate School of Theater