Mária Rumanová *1989 †2019

Yesterday (September 2, 2019) we were shaken by the tragic death of the exceptional filmmaker Mária Rumanová (*1989 †2019). She was only 30 years old and according to Slovak film critics Rumanová was among the most promising talents of a young generation. This generation of Slovak filmmakers overcame a deep crisis of Slovak film during authoritative Prime Minister Vladimír Mečiar's era, so called Mečiarism, in the 90s. Mária Rumanová's debut Hotel Sunrise (Hotel Úsvit) proofed that an interesing generation of documentarists is forming; they were able to experiment with conventional film style, focus on the visual side of the film and lead a dialogue with the audience. Hotel Sunrise had continental premieres at all important festivals. After the world premiere in 2016 at IDFA, the film had the North American premiere at Hot Docs in 2017, followed by the Polish premiere at Cameraimage in Torun. The Slovak premiere took place at Febiofest in spring 2017 and a year later the film was screened at One World Slovakia in Bratislava. Mária Romanová's latest project was Yearbook 2020, a documentary essay co-directed with Martin Kollár.