“Actually, filming the invasion was easy. We drove round the city, and when we saw something, we filmed it. We filmed while driving, or we stopped when we saw people gathering and so on. We didn’t witness any obviously problematic situations; I didn’t see anything really serious. Speaking of the StB, this actually made them come to Barrandov to see me and ask me where the negative was. I knew but I didn’t tell. A lady who was a really nice member of the production team kept it in a chalet in a garden colony, and I knew it but I never told.”
“I filmed the invasion in ’68; we drove round Prague with Jaromír Kalista, and Evald Schorm edited it, I think. I get to see some of my footage on TV occasionally. Strangely, it did not result in a big problem… I got reprimanded in Barrandov – I got the director general’s reprimand for wasting national resources, wasting negative stock. Also, there were these ‘tests’ after 1968 where each of the Barrandov filmmakers had to step before a panel and they would ask: ‘Comrade, what is your opinion on the occupation…’ Some said, no, I don’t like it, and they lost their jobs. There were not many of those; about six or seven who quit, including František Vláčil. When they asked him, he said, excuse me, I need a restroom, and never came back. Eliška wouldn’t let me go see the panel, so then the Party chairman and the Barrandov director visited me on set. The chair took me aside in the pub that night and said: ‘Look, we don’t want to kick anyone out, but we are forced to.’ He apologised instead of asking me whether I approved.”
“When I had made my first two films at Barrandov, this test panel asked me: ‘Comrade, what have you done – how have you contributed towards socialism?’ We had to take the test every year, and they would say: ‘You see, you are in this position, but you shouldn’t be in it without being a Party member; you need to join.’ There was a lady, a member of the production team who I made a few films with, and they called her the Red Tsarina in Barrandov. She was on that panel, and she said: ‘No, comrades, let us not make him join the party. He is not the type of person; I know him.’ She didn’t let me; later on, she didn’t let me join VUML, and so I managed somehow even without the communist party. I was sought-after, though I don’t know why, but also, I never made any films dealing with politics to a great extent, and thank God I made it through.”
Jiří Macák was born in Prague as the second of three children on 9 October 1939. Mother Marie was an accountant and father Jaroslav was a gravure printing expert in a print shop. The family lived in Braník where Jiří witnessed the end of the war, the bombing of Prague, and low-altitude air raids on trains. The family moved to Prague’s Old Town in 1945 and the witness took up primary school. He loved taking photographs since an early age, and following primary school, he joined a high school of graphic design; his father hoped he would follow in his footsteps as a printer. Having completed high school, however, Jiří filed an application with the Film and TV School (FAMU) and was admitted to study Cinematography. His graduation film was titled Fugue on Black Keys. Following graduation, he was recruited by the Barrandow studies; initially as a focus puller and later as a cameraman. He spent his two-year military service with the Army Film, making instructional films as a cameraman. Along with director Jan Schmidt, he made the only full-length military production, Late August in Hotel Ozone. On the set, he met his first wife Irena Lžičařová and spent thirteen years with her. He filmed the invasion of the Warsaw Pact armies with Jaroslav Kalista in Prague in August 1968. For that, he was interrogated by the StB and reprimanded for ‘wasting national resources’. Not being a member of the CPC, he was not allowed to work at the Barrandov studios’ international section, yet he got to made films in Kazakhstan, Bulgaria, and Tunisia. He worked with master directors such as František Vláčil, Jan Schmidt, Jiří Mencl and Oldřich Lipský, making films such as The Snowdrop Festival, The Three Veterans, The Death of a Talented Cobbler, Settlement of Crows, and Přeludy pouště/Sarab. When the Barrandov state enterprise closed down after the Velvet Revolution, Jiří Macák went on to make several films as a self-employed contractor. He worked at FAMU from 1991 to 2021, teaching film image theory. Was appointed Professor in 2005. He died on 18 January 2023.
