How Not to Make People, or A Report from a Factory Making Artificial Women 1970

Directed by Helena Třeštíková

The author set her first-year “working procedure” exercise in a mannequin workshop in Prostějov. In this silent footage, we witness the meticulousness of the handcrafted production of dolls – a process that seems almost fascinating today. As the title suggests, the director shot the film – which was made during the early days of Czechoslovakia’s “normalization” period – with the aim of creating a metaphor for the establishment’s relationship with the ideally silent and uniform male and female citizens of Czechoslovakia.