Helena Třeštíková Traces 50 Years of Rock Star Bára Basiková on Camera

Czech director Helena Třeštíková has spent 30 years filming rock singer Bára Basiková, and the result is a documentary spanning half a century. "Bára – Diary of a Rockstar," presented at this week's Ji.hlava Documentary Film Festival, where Třeštíková received an honor for her contribution to the genre, follows a singer who, in the director's words, "defies easy musical categorization."

"Bára Basiková is a truly fascinating singer," Třeštíková says.

Before the Velvet Revolution, Basiková sang in the rock bands Precedens and Stromboli — "groups that carried a subtle anti-regime sentiment and had a significant impact," the director notes. After 1989, she turned to musicals, "a genre that had been unacceptable during the communist era and was something entirely new to the Czech audience." Třeštíková calls Basiková's performance in "Jesus Christ Superstar" "dazzling."

How did the filming begin?

Třeštíková first pointed her camera at the singer in 1996, as part of a series of ten time-lapse documentaries shot over five years about women in different professions. What drew her was domestic, not musical.

"At the time, Bára caught my attention due to her unconventional family situation: Her husband stayed home to look after the children, while Bára worked intensively and supported the entire family," the director says. "In the Czech Republic at that time, this was a highly unusual arrangement."

That project produced the film "Bára B. – Live," broadcast on Czech television. Třeštíková stayed in friendly contact with her subject, and several years later began working with the production company Negativ. They agreed to keep filming the unfolding chapters of the singer's life, and archival footage extended the film's timeline by a further 20 years.

What does 30 years of footage show?

The record is unvarnished. "Bára has always been completely honest and authentic. She never tried to present a different version of herself in front of the camera than the one she lived in her everyday life," Třeštíková says. "She spoke with total openness about all her joys and her struggles – and those struggles were quite significant: Over those 30 years, she went through three marriages and three divorces."

The director contrasts her subject with colleagues in the industry. "Openness is one of Bára's defining traits. Most other female singers carefully craft their 'media image.' Bára has never done that."

The material proved too vast for one film. A three-part broadcast version was cut alongside the theatrical release, with longer key scenes and additional material: Basiková wrote a book later adapted into a stage play, and she actively supported President Petr Pavel during the presidential election.

Why not a rockumentary?

Třeštíková says she had little interest in making a rock film this time. She wanted to tell the story of a woman and mother who happened to be a rock star. Audiences who have seen the film so far have responded to the seamless blending of Basiková's personal and professional crises.

The singer's story differs from the director's other subjects — women dealing with addiction, poverty and loneliness — in one respect. "As a well-known singer, Bára was under greater media scrutiny than the other women I've filmed, whose lives were entirely private," Třeštíková says. "While Bára's challenges were partly influenced by her profession, in her private life, she faced the same struggles as many other women."

The method behind the film remains the director's constant. "I have been working with this time-lapse documentary approach for over 40 years; it is the fundamental method of my work. It bridges the gap between documentary filmmaking and the stories that life itself writes – that is what I find so compelling and inspiring." Major life events, she adds, tend to occur offscreen, while the telling personal moments captured on camera show more.