"Even the people who came in and were very good and so on were basically a product of the state film. They were in an executive production, but there was basically nobody doing what we call production - being able to put together a project with everything, including the funding and knowing what to do with the project. I had some experience and an advantage in that we basically made [the films] ourselves. It's true that I started teaching and lecturing that [at FAMU] right away. It's true that I was offered the chairmanship of the department, and I was offered the Dean's position two or three times. Once, they even tried to talk me into being the Rector, but that would have been a terrible burden for me. I am by nature an stark individualist throughout my forty years of work, making my own films and projects. All those jobs are largely clerical, administrative, of a different nature, and that would take me away from my work and my teaching. Especially from my work. My advantage has been that I've actually been making my own films until now, and I tell [students] useful things so they can make their films."
"It actually began in the autumn of 1969. They [the StB] were these... not shy; let's say reserved gentlemen at Barrandov. It was in the latter half '69, like September or October, when they came, and it was basically interviews. They were interested the most in where the August footage was. They knew it had been filmed, but the stock was taken away from the labs. They were after the stock and primarily after the negative, the basis of it all. Then they summoned us to their offices in Bartolomějská or Konviktská; mainly Bartolomějská though. Please note, again... there was one important thing that's difficult for me to say; it sounds too bold - you couldn't be afraid. I didn't feel like I had done anything wrong. I as a film maker filmed the events that happened, of course. The main reason for self-defense was not to be afraid. And basically, if you weren't afraid of them, they didn't stand much of a chance. Of course they could make your life miserable, they could certainly do many other things. Theoretically, they probably could have managed to get me thrown out of the Laterna [Magika]."
"As far as I know, Standa Milota and I were the only ones from Barrandov who filmed unofficially - of course, many people filmed with amateur cameras. I felt sorry about the stock; it was immediately copied, which went rarther quickly with the black-and-white film. It was immediately distributed to embassies, basically almost all over the world, and multiplied. I felt sorry about it and I thought that we should hide it and use it here in Czechia. We didn't know how things would go, of course. So, I collected the material from day two onwards, that is, what we shot and what Standa shot."
Mgr. Jaromír Kallista was born in Prague on 18 December 1939. His father Josef Kallista worked at the Ministry of State Debt (the Ministry of Finance today) and his mother Jarmila was a teacher in Mělník. He spent his childhood in Prague‘s Hřebenky district and became fond of technology and film thanks to the nearby Walter factory and Barrandov studios. Aged eleven, he went to a boarding school in Poděbrady but was unable to continue his studies for political reasons after the communist coup in 1948, so he got an aircraft mechanic training at Walter and finished a technical high school. He completed FAMU in 1959-64, majoring in production. He joined the Barrandov Film Studio and worked on several feature films. He had film stock and camera ready and secretly filmed footage of the August 1968 invasion on his own with cameramen, which was immediately leaked abroad. Along with Evald Schorm, they secretly produced the documentaries Confusion 68 and Jan 69, which were not released for the next 20 years. In the early 1970s, he had to leave Barrandov for political reasons, banned from cultural work. He survived thanks to commissions for television and Art Centrum provided given by his colleagues, often in others‘ names. From that year on, he worked with the multi-genre theatre Laterna Magika. He faced pressure from the StB. In the 1980s, he established a strong working bond with Jan Švankmajer, with whom he mad his first semi-illegal, private film, Alice, in 1987. Shortly after the revolution, they founded the Athanor production company and made more films including Spiklenci slasti, Insatiable and Madness. Jaromír Kallista also worked at FAMU from 1989 on, teaching production, and was instrumental in modernising the instruction. He lived in Prague in 2022.
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