Petr Skala

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Petr Skala (1947, Písek, Czechoslovakia) is a video artist, film director and screenwriter.

He graduated from the city’s high school and also from the Film High School in Čimelice. In 1975, he graduated from the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, majoring in documentary film, script writing and directing. A year later, he was called on to serve his mandatory 12 months in the Czechoslovak Army. Before 1985, he had in vain sought a fulltime position in film that would guarantee him at least a minimum financial security. Skala worked as a freelancer for many institutions including Krátký film (KF) Prague. Between 1981 and 1986, he had cooperated with the Czechoslovak Radio. After a management shakeup at Krátký film, he was able to secure a fulltime position with the company in 1986, three years before the Velvet Revolution. He left in 1991. Skala has directed almost 150 documentaries and promotional films and taken part in directing and making hundreds of radio programs.

In 1967, Skala started producing his own experimental work, adopting video as a medium in 1982. In 1987, Skala and Radek Pilař established the Video Department of the Union of Czech Visual Artists, which had been renamed three years later to the Video and Intermedia Association of the Union of Visual Artists. Since 1993, Skala has been the chairman of the organization and also a pedagogue at the Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts. In 2002, he has been put in charge of the Alternative Workshop there. Skala is a member of the Film and Television Association (FITES) and the Union of Visual Artists. Between 1990 and 1991, he served as an expert on the Czech Television’s commission for electronic animation. At the 1993 Deutscher Videokunst Preis in Karlsruhe, Skala was commended as one of the 50 most important videoart works in the world.

Works[edit]

  • Petr Skala: Utajený experimentátor / Petr Skala: A Hidden Experimenter, Prague: Národní filmový archiv, 2005, 166 min, DVD. [1]

Interviews[edit]

Documentary film[edit]

Literature[edit]

See also[edit]

Czech_Republic#Video art, Czech_Republic#Experimental film, avant-garde film

Links[edit]