Laudatio delivered by prof. PhDr. Jiří Voráč, Ph.D.
Speech delivered by an Honorary Doctor Vojtěch Jasný
Your Magnificence, Spectabiles, Dear Members of the Academic Senate, Dear Guests.
With a feeling of emotion and gratitude, I accept the decision to add the academic degree doctor honoris causa to my name from today. I accept this appreciation of my life’s work with the full knowledge that, despite my advanced age, this work is not yet finished. I hope I will be allowed to contribute to the development of film art some more.
Although none of us can ever say that he has finished his scientific or artistic work. Truly expressed by the ancient Romans who said that vita brevis est, ars et scientia longa.
I accept the award for my contribution to film with a smile on my face also because it was awarded to me in the Moravian metropolis, Brno. When the editor of a New York newspaper asked me in 1990 if I would come back, I replied: I am a native of Moravia, a Czechoslovak patriot, a citizen of New York and a world citizen.
In a few words, I would like to confess my love for Brno. It is a love born in my childhood, when me and my parents regularly travelled from Wallachia to Brno to visit our relatives. As years went by, this love was strengthened by the deepening knowledge of the originality and unique nature of this Moravian metropolis. By getting to know its artists, writers, scientists, but mainly by getting to know its people. As a filmmaker, I dreamed of making a film based on the work of Mahen, Těsnohlídek or the Mrštík brothers and others. Oh how happy I was reading the monthly Host do domu!
I also taught my second wife, who came from Prague, to love Moravia and especially Brno. How could I not love Brno when my archive is provided by Professor Voráč at the Faculty of Arts. I have a big library in New York. With the huge amount of ideas that library contains, I would like to enrich the archive one day. A collection of my photographs was published in Brno, a number of excellent local actors starred in my films and I count on many of them to appear in my planned films Nebe na zemi, Božská komedie or Terezínský projekt, jako velký epos z let 1942–1945.
At the request of my now late wife Květuška, I finally said goodbye to Munich in 2011 and settled in Bystré, a city that I say is the last island of humanity. Originally, we both lived in a Home for the Elderly, now I live alone on the town’s square.
I shot three of my works in Bystré; Brno is not far from there, if you take the route through Halas’ and Kundera’s Kunštát. I will keep returning there to see my friends and the music of my beloved Janáček.
Ladies and Gentlemen…
I can only express my deep gratitude again to all those who decided to make me an honorary doctor.
I will do my best to continue to be worthy of this award. I always return the love of my friends and I like to emphasise that life without good friends is not worth it.
Thank you!