Alžběta Bartoníčková

Alžběta Kovandová-Bartoníčková is a documentary film director and researcher, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. Besides teaching, She is currently undertaking a PhD in ‘Film: Practice as Research’ at the University of Kent. Her PhD project lies in between documentary film and anthropology and focuses on the topic of home in London.

She has made over ten documentary and experimental films which were screened at various international film festivals (for example IDFF Jihlava, Liverpool Film Night, BEAST International Film Festival, OFF Cinema or Marienbad Film Festival) and were nominated for several film awards such as the Pavel Koutecky Award for the Best Czech Short Documentary Film or Magnesia Award for the Best Student Film. One of her films was commissioned, funded and broadcasted by Czech national TV. 

Since 2013, she also works as a freelance filmmaker and create video content for clients including FACT Liverpool, Natural History Museum London, Czech Centre London, Slovak Embassy London, Liverpool Biennial 2018, UNIQA or Czech Academy of Sciences. Before starting her PhD, she also worked on a full-time basis for Endemol Shine Group.

Alžběta completed her Bachelor’s degree at the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU (Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts) in Prague and subsequently studied for a Master of Research in Art and Design at Liverpool John Moores University. 

She is a co-founder and initiator of the first autism-friendly screenings in the Czech Republic. Kino v Klidu, for which she was awarded the Aplaus Award in 2020, and since 2015, she has worked as a media manager for the Czech Alzheimer Foundation. She had her essay Of foxes and men published in Anima Loci journal and has recently finished a documentary film Another Summer about Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in Europe.

Her research interests include: documentary and experimental film; topics of home and identity and how to express these through film; collaborative filmmaking and the role of a director in film; architecture, urban living and housing; feelings of loneliness; urban animals and other nature elements in cities; time-lapse documentary filmmaking.

PhD project: To Observe, to Interfere or to Collaborate: Reframing the Notion of Home Through Documentary Film.

Main supervisor: Dr Maurizio Cinquegrani

Second supervisor: Murray Smith

Alžběta worked as a Graduate Teaching Assistant since 2019 before becoming a lecturer in 2021. She has experience with teaching on the Film Histories; Introduction to Filmmaking; Media, Industry and Innovation; and Making Media modules.