Courage (2015)

This longitudinal documentary film follows Jaroslav Róna as he works on the sculpture Courage in 2014 and 2015. In its style – a loose multi-year interview between the sculptor and the filmmaker – the film is something of a follow-up to Description of a Struggle, made 12 years earlier during the making of Róna's Franz Kafka monument in Prague.
The bronze equestrian statue, designed for the public space, is an allegory of Courage. With the statue's unveiling, Brno's Moravia Square thus possesses all four of the Platonic virtues as envisioned in the square's redesign by architect Petr Hrůša. The sculpture is dedicated to Jobst of Luxembourg, Margrave of Moravia.
The sculpture's realization involved various ups and downs, a long public competition, and much media discussion. The City of Brno experienced numerous clashes of opinion and political arguments, which were covered in the local press and on the airwaves. The realization and unveiling of the sculpture – whose significance has more than once been compared to that of Myslbek's St. Wenceslas, was an important test of public dialogue about art in the public space, of coverage in publically-funded media outlets, and of communication between politicians and the artistic community across several electoral periods.
Over the course of two years, the small documentary crew (director Pavel Štingl and cameraman Miroslav Janek) shifted the interviews with Jaroslav Róna towards a broader context than just the work itself. During the months spent modelling the equestrian statue, the dialogues between the filmmaker and the artist expanded to include the sculptor's relationship to urban space over the course of changing political regimes, the relationship between traditional and conceptual art, the collaboration between sculptors and architects during various eras, and the courage of contemporary artists to work in public space that has been democratized by hypercritical public debate.
Courage the film is not a defense of Courage the statue. It is the documentarian's natural obligation to witness the creation of extraordinary things happening in contemporary art.

COURAGE (2015), 70 minutes

Directed by: Camera: Sound: Edited by: Dramaturgy: Production: Producers:

Pavel Štingl Miroslav Janek Vladimír Chrastil, Michael Míček, Matěj Němec Tonička Janková, Jakuv Voves Hana Jemelíková, Kateřina Ondřejková Alice Tabery, Marta Hostinská Pavel Štingl, Jarmila Hoznauerová

The film was made possible by support from the State Cinema Fund. A co-production of Czech Television + K2.