by Brooke Edge

It seems the film festivals leave Prague in August along with their audience members. Notable movie events will be held in the Czech Republic during the dog days, but not in the sweltering city. Take off for other areas to find the festivals until they return in the fall.

Fresh, Mountaineering, Litoměřice and Střelák Film Festivals below.

Fresh Film Festival
To see whether students have used their summer breaks wisely, check out the Fresh Film Festival in Karlovy Vary, Aug. 22-26. Two months after the movie stars and swarming crowds have departed the spa town’s major film fest, the students take over to host their own competition. The Fresh event is geared toward film students from the Czech Republic, but applications also came in for this year’s festival from South America, Africa and Asia. (Antarctica’s student filmmakers apparently didn’t make the deadline.)
A new component of this year’s festival is Fresh Generation, a program of critically acclaimed directorial debuts with a focus on promising directors from the Central European region. Other non-competitive features include lectures and, most interestingly, student vs. teacher screen-offs.

International Mountaineering Film Festival
Most people’s memories of mountain climbing on film are limited to the first part of Seven Years in Tibet and the Stallone classic Cliffhanger. But modern audiences have a lot more to learn. Fortunately, fans of both rock climbing and movies are willing to help educate at the International Mountaineering Film Festival, Aug. 28-31.
Like true hard-core mountaineers, festival organizers promise screenings from early morning hours through midnight each day, in competitive film categories of Mountaineering, Sports in Nature, and Man and the Mountains. Non-competition classic climbing flicks will be screened outdoors and, questionably, in swimming pools.
Rock and country music concerts will complement the films, along with athletic events that include the third race of the Czech Climbing Cup. Finally, for those who want a personalized account as opposed to film, Slovak climber and Mount Everest veteran Peter Hamor will add “slide show presenter” to his many titles and honors when he shares On the Highest Summits of the Seven Continents.

And a few words about other film events in and around Prague this August and September:

The Litoměřice Festival, Aug. 22-26, will feature some movies you may have missed over the past few months at Prague’s independent cinemas or other festivals, including My Architect, Little Miss Sunshine and Notes on a Scandal as well as a healthy dose of Czech films, and FAMU Best, a selection of favorites from FAMU Fest 2006.

Of course, the summer festival Střelák continues on Střelecký ostrov until Sept. 1. In its 11th season, the ambitious program provides moviegoers with an outdoor artistic experience every night after dark in the middle of the Vltava, accented by theatrical and musical performances.

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