Ivan Diviš

Document - anniversary

director: Zdenek Potužil, Czechia 1998, 59 min.  

In the 1990s, Czech Television produced a series of recordings of meetings with the important Czech poet Ivan Diviš. The form of these records was very varied: from a focused recitation of poetry to – but no less focused – short and extensive reflections as well as discussions and polemics with colleagues. The result of this effort, in which the director Zdeněk Potužil plays a key role, is a completely unique audiovisual imprint of a unique personality of Czech culture by local standards.

prequel
GENE. Ivan Diviš, directed by Zdenek Potužil, Czech Republic 1993, 16 min.

Ivan Diviš (born September 18, 1924) was a poet and essayist. He is considered one of the most distinctive and original Czech authors of the second half of the 20th century and belongs to the generation of poets who began writing during the Protectorate. He was born into a bank clerk's family, studied at a gymnasium during World War II, and trained as a bookseller in the period 1943-1946. He was also arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo. In the years 1945–1949, he studied philosophy and aesthetics at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. Initially, he was employed in the Václav Petr bookstore and publishing house. At the beginning of the 1950s, he worked as an editor in the editorial office of Rudé práv, later he worked as a turner. In the 1960s, he became an editor at the Mladá fronta publishing house. In 1964 he converted to Catholicism. After the occupation of Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to West Germany in 1969. He became an associate of Radio Free Europe based in Munich. After the Velvet Revolution, he continued to stay in Germany, returning to Prague only in 1997, according to his own statement, only for economic reasons. He died on April 7, 1999 in Prague as a result of falling down the stairs in his own home.