World Between Us

Passion, obsession with art and a boundless determination to make her own dreams come true. Photographer Marie Tomanová came to New York as an au pair and broke through in the extremely competitive environment of the local photographer scene. Director Marie Dvořáková followed her, camera in hand, for five years, giving birth to the feature-length documentary World Between Us. In it, the director captured Tomanová's first successes overseas and her steep upward journey, but also her strong personal and artistic partnership with art historian Thomas Beachdel, without whose support she probably would not have developed her talent to its full potential. Thanks to the original directorial approach and the unprecedented openness of the main actors, we become for a moment part of the story of the American dream come true. The two Marias share the same experience of moving to the USA, building a career in a new environment and finding their roots, identity and home.

Marie Dvořáková Marie Dvořáková studied film directing at the Tisch School of the Arts, NYU and documentary filmmaking at FAMU. She is the winner of a student Oscar for her short film Who's Who in Mycology. World Between Us is her feature documentary debut. Maria's short film work has been shortlisted for the AICP Show at MoMA and the Young Director Awards at Cannes. Her short film Steenbeckstory won an award from the Directors Guild of America. She gained experience in 2D/3D animation as a creative at The Studio NYC, an animation studio in New York City. From 2016-2019, she served as Program Director of the Czech Center New York.

The screening will be followed by a discussion with the authors.