Bretislav Pojar

Bretislav Pojar was a Czech film director and animator, specializing in puppet animation. Pojar was born in Susice (former name "Schüttenhofen"), a small factory town in Czechoslovakia. Since the 19th century, the main employer in town was a match factory. Pojar started work as an animator in the 1940s, working under film director Jirí Trnka. Pojar mostly focused on puppet animation, while other of his films used stop-motion animation. In the 1960s, Pojar emigrated to Canada. He started producing films for the National Film Board. Pojar's short films often contained little to no dialogue, but managed to provide social commentary. He won a number of competitive awards for his films, with a highlight being the short film "To See or Not to Se", about how the actual perception of reality may help overcome our irrational fears, The film won both a "Canadian Film Award" and the "Short Film Golden Bear" of the Berlin International Film Festival. Another career highlight was the short film "Balablok" (1972), concerning the irrationality of violence and war. It used cutout animation, and won the "Grand Prix du Festival for Short Film" at the Cannes Film Festival. In the 2000, Pojar moved to the Czech Republic in order to work on animated feature films. He co-directed the feature film "Fimfárum 2" (2006), an adaptation of stories by popular writer Jan Werich (1905-1980). Pojar died in 2012, at the age of 89.