Marek Novák

Czech Republic

Marek Novák

producer

Sick President

Sick President is a project openly speaking about a phenomenon, which has been taunted by the society. The Czech president is apparently an alcohol addict and should start a treatment. Therefore the film opens the issue of the presidents disease and questions how much the citizens should know and how much is he entitled to ignore it. With a POV of the president, we tell the story of hundreds of thousands other Czechs, whom we can help with solution.
We use more views to tell the story. For the president’s story, it’s important to understand the world of his supporters, living mostly in little towns and villages. We begin here, with his voters, in a culture united with alcohol consumption. Here we encounter first protagonists, fighting with the addiction. We shoot at festivities, local pubs, etc. Then we move to the Prague Castle, to discover the president’s world. We encounter details. Through archive footage, doctor interview, president’s akin and his supporters we build a story, which hasn’t yet been told loud and clear. The president is an addict, with another seven hundred thousands Czechs. Thus we open an issues, which doesn’t concern just the president, but all of us.
We will appeal to the public with a transmedia campaign, which will challenge the president to a bold move - starting the alcoholism treatment. Any reaction from the Castle, including silence, is an opportunity for us to raise the topic. Everything in a positive and objective way.
The story structure is a detective story with an open ending. We search for facts, which are hidden. Every protagonist will represent certain theme and their interaction & contrast through editing will propell the storytelling, as well as the investigation itself. We consider using the director as a narrator, because of his own experience with addiction. The project outcome will be a cinematic investigation, with an essayistic and social outreach.

Investigators

Investigators want to look at the phenomena and controversial topics that are spread in our society, but have no scientific background – e.g., some types of alternative medicine or the popular eso-themes such as telepathy, out-of-body experience, bioresonance, telepathy or clairvoyance.

Investigators try to explore each topic - sometimes amusingly, but clearly and seriously in general. Other protagonists - mainly supporters of one side or another (sceptics vs. advocates) are there (not) to help them. The aim of the project is to raise public awareness. However, the authors do not want to force their own opinion upon the audience - their goal is to present facts, so that the spectator is able to create his own opinion.

We currently witness an increasing blending of esotericism and science, which makes room for imposters and greedy people. The documentary series therefore aims at objective investigation of the phenomena on the frontier of knowledge of the contemporary science so as to “separate the wheat from the chaff”. The main goal is not to unequivocally prove or refute the phenomena (the film is not a scientific study) but to describe them from a rational point of view. Attention is thus drawn to the facts. All the topics have a common element: their advocates are presenting them as clear, real and existing, even though they have never been scientifically proven.
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