MAYA
Desert, sun, snakes - train passing through the landscape - sex, prostitution, immorality… and in the center of everything - Maya. Her life had an apparent order, but she chose her own direction. It is a story about a woman who decided to leave a lived stereotype and run away from "something" and especially from herself to a remarkable journey. - “If you have an image the fear disappears!” - Maya is an autobiographical challenge. Inspired by the existence of Jim Morrison.
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Martina PavlíkováDirector
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Martina PavlíkováWriter
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Petr KadaňkaCinematography
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David PirochtaSound
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Martina PavlíkováProducer
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Natálie MartincováKey Cast"Maya"
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Jan Jindřich KarásekKey Cast"Sasha"
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Júlia IlčinováKey Cast"Promiscuous woman"
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Petr KozaKey Cast"Traveling salesman"
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Savva DolomanovKey Cast"Passenger"
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Project Title (Original Language):MAYA
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Project Type:Short, Student, Other
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Genres:Drama, Fiction
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Runtime:15 minutes 25 seconds
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Completion Date:December 31, 2020
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Production Budget:1,800 USD
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Country of Origin:Czech Republic
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Country of Filming:Czech Republic
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Language:Czech
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Shooting Format:16mm
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Film Color:Black & White and Color
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First-time Filmmaker:Yes
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Student Project:Yes - Film and TV School of Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
Martina Pavlíková is a director and editor. Born in the Brno, Czech Republic (1996).
Presently, she studies editing at the FAMU in Prague.
She tends more to act directing than the editing craft. According to her, editing is an integral part of understanding film image and film speech. Since 2017, she has been shooting on film material. The first short films, such as "With Love" and "Prequel 1" were made in the SUPER 8 format.
The main female heroines are often portrayed by her friends from the strip bar, where she worked for several years to finance film material and her trips abroad.
The author often deviates from the classic narrative storytelling and turns the plot into her transcendental worlds and the unique mise-en-scène, which she builds with cinematographer Petr Kadaňka (1982), with whom she collaborates on all films.
She does not like to classify in the genre, but if she had to define her work, she would choose the term "experimental comedy," as Adolfas Mekas once said about his film.
The film "Maya" is her short debut shot in 16 mm format.
“If you have an image the fear disappears!”
The first page of the screenplay for the film “Maya” began with this statement by Jim Morrison. While writing the script I was sitting on the train. I recalled a spontaneous trip to California years ago. I had lost job, with the help of which I was able to finance my activities in the field of cinematography.
However, I was absolutely sure that the summer will be dedicated to my short film debut, which would be carried in a somewhat embellished autobiographical spirit. I've teamed up with a dedicated and reliable creative team, which I call “my crew”. For example, the cameras were taken over by my close collaborator Petr Kadaňka, who only shoots on analog cameras and who created a storyboard.
The main heroine is the embodiment of Jim Morrison in a slightly gentler form. At first glance, this analogy is practically illegible. Jim didn't care what others thought of him. He behaved as he wanted, did what he wanted and took nothing into account. I wonder whether Jim really died. In his texts he writes about long journeys and people without names, about the desert, snakes, drunks and secret disappearances. Embarking on a new journey without a goal, in secret. I decided to send “Maya” on a journey in a similar spirit. No identity, no money, no ticket and no restraints.
On the road, where in one train compartment there is a Native American with Jim’s face and in another there is a dwarf with a suitcase full of rattlesnakes.
I always write roles directly from people. I knew the speech of Natálie Martini (Maya) very well from the strip bar where she worked with me. I often work with so-called naturščik, models, non-actors, whom I put alongside professional actors. Thanks to this combination, I managed to achieve a certain symbiosis and at the same time balance the acting.
Film stock shooting requires a greater degree of preparation than digital. There is no time to make mistakes and every meter is money. In our case, 510 meters of film material were shot. “Get it right the first time”.
From a seemingly ordinary environment with a flowing story, Maya gets into increasingly strange worlds. The narrative is disrupted and ends in film within film. In a porn wagon.
I don't like to hear my person being compared to other directors. The visual of the film Maya, according to some estimates, bears some marks of the “French New Wave”. I won't lie that every shooting day we prayed the whole crew to the director Truffaut so that it wouldn't rain, and in the editing room the cameraman told me that I was cutting like Godard. Last but not least, the film is named after my favorite director, Maya Deren.
Be that as it may, from yourself you can't run away. Neither Jim nor Maya nor myself.