Truth-tellers and 'Vigilantes': Prague film festival puts the spotlight on journalism

When RFE/RL reporter Alsu Kurmasheva was imprisoned by the Putin regime, she became an emblem of the risks journalists face today. Now free after ten months of unjust detention, she will take the stage at the inaugural Press Play Prague Festival to share her powerful story following the screening of The Empty Chair—a documentary about her family and her colleague’s fight to bring her home.

Kurmasheva’s involvement in the festival's debut edition, which will take place from Oct. 8 to 12 at Kino Atlas in Prague, magnifies the relevance of her story and the pressing need for discussions about truth-telling and accountability.

And Prague, renowned for its film history and legacy of journalism in the face of repression, is the ideal locale for the event, says Rachel Danna, Deputy Managing Editor of Project Syndicate, the Prague-based media organization responsible for launching the inaugural festival.

“There are quite a number of amazing film festivals in the Czech Republic, and Prague is ideal for a festival that focuses on journalism and its role in society. This is especially true when you consider its history and the work of journalists like Jiří Dienstbier and Petr Uhl and filmmakers like Karel Vachek.”

She adds that Czechia ranks highest among all V4 nations in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index. “Polls show that Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, and Poles are concerned about media independence in the region. We also wanted to draw attention to the state of media in the V4.”

Moviegoers who seek a surprising twist on the usual festival fare will discover many points of entry for discussions about journalism, Danna told us.

The festival has been a year in the making, a joint effort between Jakub Patočka, Editor-in-Chief of Deník Referendum, Vít Janeček from Atlas Cinema, and Danna, who says the collaboration felt like a natural fit given Project Syndicate’s mission to ensure that fact-based analysis by global experts is accessible and fosters meaningful discussions about the world.

"Finding partners to help promote and support our work was really key, and we are still a bit in awe about how many submissions came in for the documentary film competition – good submissions showcasing important journalistic work and really presenting important topics," she says.

The festival will screen over 20 films and present six feature-length and six short documentaries across two competition categories.

The non-competitive program highlights exceptional documentaries that examine the work of journalists worldwide, alongside five classic feature films centered around journalism—including the 1952 noir classic Deadline USA, starring Humphrey Bogart, The Insider (1999), starring Al Pacino, and She Said (2022).

All out-of-competition films will be followed by discussions with journalists, with half of the debates conducted in English.

In addition to a Q&A with Kurmasheva, Toma Istomina of the Kyiv Independent will share insights on investigating sexual war crimes in Ukraine in connection with the film He Came Back, and Hungarian reporter Balázs Kaufmann, whose investigation led to the president’s resignation, will attend the festival with his film Hungary: A Country After the Scandal.

The films screened at the festival don’t just highlight crucial reporting in some of the world’s most oppressive regimes but zoom out globally to countries where democracy is currently under threat and journalism is in peril. The festival opens with Vigilantes Inc., an investigation into voter suppression in the U.S. that premiered in September. 

The film sees investigative journalist Greg Palast uncover a large-scale effort to remove non-white Americans from voter rolls ahead of this year’s U.S. presidential election. Director David Ambrose will present the film, one of the six competing in the feature documentary category.

Another American-made documentary, Trust Me, provides a discomfiting look into the manipulative tactics used on social media, revealing how drastically the news landscape has deteriorated in the past few years.

The topical Dangerous Assignment follows Venezuelan investigative reporter Roberto Deniz as he exposes a corruption scandal within the Maduro regime, with links to Colombia and the U.S. Director Juan Ravell will attend the screening.

An informed public and a shared understanding of the world are crucial for democracy and civic institutions, says Danna—and are not possible without good journalism.

"This festival, along with the feature and documentary films we are screening, provides a way to explore journalism’s role in society, to consider how journalists are viewed, what challenges they face, and to reflect on the power of storytelling and its impact on our lives," she adds.

In addition, she says the documentary film competition is a great way to support journalists who courageously bring so many stories to light. "It is a way for media to showcase their work, to have audiences understand what they do, why they do it, and what they risk. I think this is so important right now.”