I'm Not Everything I Want to Be

Klara Tasovska's 2024 Czech documentary is made from the forty-year archive of the photographer Libuse Jarcovjakova. She began shooting during the normalisation that followed the 1968 invasion, recording her own circle, the nightlife, the gay bars of Prague and, in later years, West Berlin. The film is built entirely from photographs; there is no moving image. The editing binds thousands of frames by rhythm, and voiceover taken from the photographer's own diaries carries the narrative. Jarcovjakova went unrecognised for a long time and her work was not published. The documentary does not present this as a story of discovery; the real subject is what it means to keep shooting for forty years without an audience. Who it's for: those interested in photography and the Eastern Bloc period. Who it's not for: viewers expecting moving image; the film proceeds through still frames throughout and sexuality appears explicitly.