“Bára Basiková is a truly fascinating singer,” says Czech documentary filmmaker Helena Třeštíková, who was honored for her contribution to the genre at this week’s Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival.
Her subject for the 50-year time lapse docu “Bára – Diary of a Rockstar,” Basiková sang in rock bands before the Velvet Revolution, including Precedens and Stromboli, “groups that carried a subtle anti-regime sentiment and had a significant impact,” says Třeštíková.
Ever the rebel, after 1989, Basiková began performing in musicals, “a genre that had been unacceptable during the communist era and was something entirely new to the Czech audience,” Třeštíková says, calling her performance in “Jesus Christ Superstar” “dazzling.”
The singer, who remains “someone who defies easy musical categorization” was the focus of Třeštíková’s own post-Velvet Revolution docu work for Czech TV, the director says.
“I began filming Bára in 1996, as part of a series of 10 time-lapse documentaries – filmed over the course of five years – about various women in different professions. At the time, Bára caught my attention due to her unconventional family situation: Her husband stayed home to look after the children, while Bára worked intensively and supported the entire family.”
“In the Czech Republic at that time, this was a highly unusual arrangement. After five years, the film ‘Bára B. – Live’ was completed and broadcast on television. Even after that, I remained in regular, friendly contact with Bára. Several years later, I began collaborating with the production company Negativ, and we agreed to continue filming the unfolding chapters of Bára’s life.”
Throughout the decades, Třeštíková has known her, she says, the singer has always shown one quality consistently: “Bára has always been completely honest and authentic. She never tried to present a different version of herself in front of the camera than the one she lived in her everyday life.
“She spoke with total openness about all her joys and her struggles – and those struggles were quite significant: Over those 30 years, she went through three marriages and three divorces.”
With the addition of archival footage, Třeštíková managed to extend her film’s timeline for a further 20 years.
“Openness,” Třeštíková says, “is one of Bára’s defining traits. Most other female singers carefully craft their ‘media image.’ Bára has never done that.”
Although the director is used to facing decades’ worth of material to go through in the edit, she says this film was built up from “a vast amount of material, and it was clear that not everything could fit into the film.”
A three-part broadcast version was cut as a result, she says. “In the television version, certain key scenes are slightly longer, and additional activities of Bára’s are included. For instance, she wrote a book that was later adapted into a stage play, and she actively supported our current president, Petr Pavel, during the presidential election.”
Třeštíková’s work has chronicled the lives of several women dealing with catastrophes, from addiction to poverty and loneliness but she says Basiková’s life and struggles were distinct from those of her other subjects.
“As a well-known singer, Bára was under greater media scrutiny than the other women I’ve filmed, whose lives were entirely private. While Bára’s challenges were partly influenced by her profession, in her private life, she faced the same struggles as many other women.”
The seamless blending of Basiková’s personal and professional crises has won over audiences who have seen “Bára: Diary of a Rockstar” so far, pointing up the strength of an approach the director adopted early on in the process.
Třeštíková said she had little interest in making a rockumentary this time, instead wanting to tell the story of a woman and mother who happened to be a rock star.
The time-lapse approach to personal docus, she adds, builds on that strength, with major life events tending to occur offscreen but telling personal moments captured on camera showing more.
“I have been working with this time-lapse documentary approach for over 40 years; it is the fundamental method of my work. It bridges the gap between documentary filmmaking and the stories that life itself writes – that is what I find so compelling and inspiring.”
