A documentary on LGBT+ marriage is being produced in the Czech Republic. Public support is unprecedented. Zeman does not support the amendment
How did the idea to create the documentary The Law of Love come about?
Sometime in the spring of 2018, I was approached on the street by people from We Are Fair and asked if I would sign a petition for marriage for all. As someone who is not personally affected, I asked these people if there was any difference at all between a civil partnership and marriage. When I found out that registration actually means next to nothing, that was one of the reasons I took up the subject. Of course, the actual making of the film was preceded by a lot of research and solving how to grasp and process this topic.
I have to admit that a lot of my colleagues and friends discouraged me a bit, mainly because they didn't understand why I was going to make a documentary about gay people in 2018, because it's a bit of a relic in this day and age. They didn't understand how it could be interesting. Of course, with documentaries you never have a detailed script at the beginning, because it's better to go straight into the field and see what cards you can play. That's why we first filmed at a petition for marriage for all, and I could see how Czech society was reacting to it. After that, we started going to MPs' clubs with the We Are Fair initiative, but at the same time, because the opposition's point of view was very important to me, we filmed, for example, public events of the Alliance for the Family and other movements that are in opposition to this amendment to the law.
So you tried to capture the views and arguments of both sides?
Yes, of course I see the diversity of opinions and it was very important for me to have all the participants in the debate in the film. The film was actually meant to chart the debate and the process of passing or failing to pass the amendment, but with the bill being stuck in the first reading, of course it changed the intended form of the film and I now see The Law of Love as more of a contribution to the whole debate.
I originally thought there would be some discussion at the beginning and a decision at the end as to whether or not to pass it. Instead of charting the processes and the acceptance or rejection of this amendment and significant society-wide change, the film chronicles the absurd, going nowhere, and long debate in the House of Commons, and I think it is also a very good mirror of Czech politics.
Did you manage to capture the fact that Czech politics is sometimes literally futile and often politicians don't reach a final result even after a long time?
That was actually another reason why I worked on this topic, because as I said, it's not my personal topic, but I became interested in it from a civic point of view. I had never been involved in lobbying and dealing with a law before and it was very interesting for me personally to see how the whole process works or doesn't work. I often wondered if I would have the patience and strength to push for something that was in my personal interest.
How long did it take to start the first steps to create the document since the people from We Are Fair approached you to sign the petition? Did you think of it right away?
They approached me when I was with my sound engineer Adam Blaha, who we subsequently discussed it with, because we were quite surprised at how things were going. We started to discuss it and then the idea of documenting the whole process came up. I remember after a while I went to the We Are Fair office and we started discussing it together and I had to see if they were willing to film with us, because I didn't know any of them. We needed them to open up in some way with a time-lapse documentary like this and let us film even in situations where they themselves were not comfortable, because after all, in some negotiation of the camera, it makes you a little more reticent.
Now we know that this has been done and so in 2018 the documentary started to be made?
Yes, but I think it took about a year and a half to get used to the ports and the camera in some way. But to be more specific, at the beginning I imagined that there would be two protagonists of the film. One was to be Czeslaw Walek, who is the head of the We Are Fair initiative, and the other was to be Jana Jochová, who is the chairwoman of the Alliance for the Family. I thought that it would be a kind of argumentative shoot-out and that I would go all the way to the end with these main 'heroes', which would be either the approval or disapproval of the amendment, but after Jana Jochová appeared on a talk show, I decided that it would be different.
In fact, Jana Jochová wondered aloud on the talk show whether homosexuality is a disease, but she also said that if her son were gay, she would want him to remain single, which is not an argument for marriage, but these are issues that I thought society today in the 21st century had long ago resolved. Because of that, she suddenly lost weight for me to be the imaginary other hero of the film, because something like that really has nothing to do with the marriage debate. So I abandoned the idea of going to her house to film and showing how she actually lives in her traditional family. However, even so, of course, we captured the opposition's opinion, and when I did the math, I found that over 30% of the film was actually voicing opposition views.
Has it also happened that you have been verbally attacked for the documentary, for example for supporting homosexuality etc.? After all, it's a subject that arouses the passions of many...
Fortunately, because the film is not out yet and we have only released a trailer to support our crowdfunding campaign, nothing like that has happened so far.
What should be the goal of the crowdfunding campaign that is currently still running on HitHit? I know you've already had quite a bit of success, with the first milestone of 500,000 Kč being surpassed?
The campaign is running until the end of March and we can be supported by all people who like the idea that such a film has been made and that someone has taken this topic and mapped it out over time. With a lot of artists and celebrities supporting us, either with in-kind donations or various experiences, it's not just about supporting the film, but something nice for every fan to take away or experience.
We really needed that half a million to finish the documentary, so three days before the campaign launched I was sleepless and worried about how it would turn out and if we would be able to raise that amount in a month and a half. The fact that we raised 100% of the required amount within a week has of course encouraged us again to finish the film and we are happy that we currently have all the conditions to do so.
However, the campaign is ongoing and if we raise more we have other things planned. That's why we have set two more milestones. With more money, we can add more extras to the film, or we can do things like distribute it to the East, because it's true that we are a bit of a model for Eastern countries on this issue, which may seem absurd to us, but it really is. The recorded debate may have a positive impact for them and may bring something positive to the eastern countries.
When should we expect to see the release of The Law of Love?
Originally we were thinking June, but I'm beginning to strongly doubt it. We might be happy with September or October, but we will definitely communicate everything and see how it goes. We will definitely go to cinemas all over the country. Before that we have some Czech and foreign festivals coming up.
I guess it's true that the coronavirus pandemic has dealt a blow not only to the film's release but also to the very discussion of marriage for all, which has currently been put on the back burner, have you felt that in any way too?
I certainly did, but at the same time I would hate for it to be an alibi for MPs that it was the coronavirus that stalled the negotiations, because the amendment bill was first read for the first time sometime towards the end of 2018, so there was plenty of time for them to have their say, whether it was to join the 30 other countries in the world where marriage for all exists, or to reject it. But the fact that MPs are running away from it as the subject arouses huge passions is just wrong, and really the biggest frustration is watching politicians fail to act. Our ambition is to get the issue talked about and not ignored by society in the way that our elected representatives ignore it.
Now that you've had a chance to look deeply into the whole situation, do you think there is a chance that this amendment will pass in the Czech Republic?
I think that a large part of Czech society supports marriage for all, and I think those who are hesitant just don't have enough information or don't even know that there is such a difference between a registered partnership and marriage, just like I didn't know. As to whether our House will debate the amendment and vote for or against it, that depends on the next election in October.
The House is currently made up of rather older people, and I also think that often the whole issue boils down to a debate about whether same-sex unions should be called marriage or not. At the moment, I do not feel that there is enough courage to discuss it, so it remains to be seen what the composition of the House and Senate will be after the elections and how the President, who said at the outset that he would veto the bill, will feel about it. Therefore, I really cannot make a ballpark prediction now.
It is quite likely that after all that is currently happening, the forces in the House will change quite a lot...
I'm sure. At the same time, the coronacrisis is showing how important marriage is. A lot of people see the problems that unmarried couples suddenly have because they can't get together and some of them haven't seen each other for a year because one of the couple is from abroad, for example. For this reason too, I think that in times when we need security, the view of marriage is changing quite a bit and it's not just some kind of a relic.
If you would like to support the documentary The Law of Love, you can choose one of the rewards here.
