Whenever you gain something, you also lose and vice versa
Helena Třeštíková, née Böhmová, was born on 22 June, 1949 in Prague. She spent her childhood at the Wenceslas square. She grew up in a cultural and inspirational environment. She graduated during the Prague Spring. After the middle school she went to the Western Germany in summer 1968 as an au-pair to get praxis necessary to get accepted to the FAMU. While her parents visited her in Bonn, the Warsaw pact armies marched to Czechoslovakia. After returning from Germany she worked as a production assistant. In September 1969 she began the documentary movie studies at the FAMU. The society was going through a phase of disillusion and depression. She searched for a theme to elaborate even in such difficult times. She was interested in development of human characters and lives in a long-term period and so she concluded the so called time-collecting method. In 1980 she began shooting the Marriage etudes; within the project she followed several husbands for six years. Using the method she also shot her other documentaries. Amongst the most famous there are Katka, René, Marriage etudes after 2é years, Marcela, Mallory and Lída Baarová - Destruction by beauty. For the documentaries she was awarded several prizes. She also teaches at the FAMU.
