Cinema Press is a fictional biography of the phenomenon of printing, an ode to printmaking and a visual poem about line cuts and working machines. The film looks at the working methods and processes involved in making a print. On the broader level, it also explores the physical processes and themes that have accompanied the printmaking medium throughout history. The film’s dramaturgy approaches printmaking from a different angle: as tool of power, a craft, as the emancipation of labor of engaged collectives, and as the genesis for contemporary media. Inspiration comes from the fictional story of an injured heron, the “Ministry of the Press,” a tired “Hotel Fatigue,” and a person who steals linoleum from other people’s homes in the name of his ideals. These situations personify or represent the physical processes of printmaking or printmaking mechanisms that people merely second, or they are embodiments of these processes.

Cinema Press is the second experimental film created in collaboration with Ann Luňáková. In their artistic collaborations, Štourač and Luňáková combine field recordings and a specific sound design with experiments in the field of analog film and photography. Their interdisciplinary work involves theater, performance, art, the moving image, and literary texts.