“With an impressive number of sources, Tereza achieves an encyclopaedic overview of the audio documentary production, or feature. Her work has the potential to become a pillar of specialized literature, dealing with the present field of radio.“
—Jan Gogola, Documentarist, Tomas Bata University, Czechia
“You pick up European Radio Documentary to learn how the audio feature has evolved and is celebrated. You put it down challenged and provoked as to how to nourish creativity not just in one’s own audio making but also through the power of coming together.“
—Diarmuid McIntyre, Producer & Founder of the HearSay Festival, Ireland
“Based upon extensive research and in-depth interviews, Tereza tells the story of passionate explorers of the most discrete of all media - radio. Written with bravura, humour, impertinence, and clear historical insight.“
—Edwin Brys, Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound, Belgium
“In a period with audio bits, TV snippets and hasty competitions, Tereza makes us familiar with this sounding globe, which we must preserve like our planet on the whole.“
—Helmut Kopetzky, Author & Producer, Germany
“Tereza characterized the generational change which had been difficult to implement over the past decades. To date, no one has undertaken such task in such complexity.“
—Andrea Hanáčková, Documentarist, Palacký University, Czechia
This book studies the history and significance of radio documentaries in Europe, and the institutions that are specialized on this genre. Focused on the 50-year history of the International Feature Conference (an annual gathering of radio documentarians from around the world), the book discusses the Prix Europa, Prix Italia, the Third Coast International Audio Festival, and the HearSay Audio Arts Festival. The book tells the story of people who chose sound as their lifestyle and who spread their passion worldwide.
Tereza Reková is an award-winning producer, screenwriter, and podcaster. She is one of the current leading Czech representatives of documentary makers who reflect on their work theoretically – she teaches Radio Studies at JAMU and inspires young creators to work with audio.
This book studies the history and significance of radio documentaries in Europe, and the institutions that are specialized on this genre. Focused on the 50-year history of the International Feature Conference (an annual gathering of radio documentarians from around the world), the book discusses the Prix Europa, Prix Italia, the Third Coast International Audio Festival, and the HearSay Audio Arts Festival. The book tells the story of people who chose sound as their lifestyle and who spread their passion worldwide.
Tereza Reková
Radio Documentary Documentary Festivals IFC Podcast Audio Media History Europe North America
“The stories of the International Feature Conference, HearSay Audio Arts Festival and the founding and initiating personalities of Peter Leonhard Braun and Diarmuid McIntyre provide a riveting and fascinating read about the way to create a world that people, besides the creator, yearn to live in and a world which, in its concentration, creativity, criticalness, openness, spontaneity and perceptiveness indirectly exposes the formality, pomposity, pretentiousness, opportunism and ritualism (e.g. in the form of canonizing festivals) of the majority field of art and media. Due to an impressive number of sources, Reková achieves an encyclopaedic historical as well as contemporary overview of the audio documentary production, or feature, and I dare say that her work has the potential to become a pillar of specialized literature, dealing with the field of radio, of the present time.” (doc. Mgr. et MgA. Jan Gogola - director, scriptwriter, dramaturg and teacher at the Faculty of Film and Television Studies at the Tomas Bata University, Zlín)
“You pick up European Radio Documentary to learn how the audio feature has evolved and is celebrated. You put it down challenged and provoked as to how to nourish creativity not just in one’s own audio making but also through the power of coming together.” (Diarmuid McIntyre - Audio Producer & Founder of the HearSay International Audio Arts Festival)
“Based upon extensive research and in-depth interviews with the actors in the field, Tereza Reková tells the saga of passionate explorers of the most discrete of all media, radio, and of its power and its poetry. For more than half a century, radio has given a vibrant voice and sound to human destinies. Combining strong stories and aesthetic treatment in what we call the radio documentary or nowadays the best of podcasts.” (Tereza Reková writes with bravura, humour, and impertinence, and with clear historical insight. Edwin Brys, Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound, Belgium)
“In a media period with audio bits and TV snippets and hasty competitions Tereza makes us familiar with this sounding globe, which we must preserve like our planet on the whole. “Many years ago“ she writes in this book „when I entered the world of the radio and audio documentary production, I was immediately surrounded by a wave of solidarity, enthusiasm and support … The open arms of the creators … motivated me to stay on this road“. Walk on, Tereza! Walk on!” (Helmut Kopetzky, German Radio-Author, and Producer (* 1940))
“Tereza Reková characterized, in a radical and clear manner, the generational change which had been difficult to implement over the past decades. What brought a crucial change to the way of audio documentary makers’ way of thinking was digitalization, massive progress of podcast platforms, essential democratization of the audio space supported by the modern technologies and trends of environmentally conscious way of thinking and sustainable development. It is these findings, thoroughly argued and explained in the individual chapters, that provide the main asset of the book. It could only have been written by a person who attended all the festivals in question, talked about them with dozens of people, learned details by her own experience, personally experienced being an evaluated author, a member of a jury and an organizer of similar events. To date, no one has undertaken such an enormous task in such a complex manner.” (doc. Mgr. Andrea Hanáčková, Ph.D. – documentary maker and pedagogue at Department of Theatre and Film Studies at Palacký University in Olomouc)