It is with huge sadness that my Czech-born wife Zdenka and I learned of the passing of our good friend Ladislav Františ. He was a bright light in the world of amateur filmmaking and his like we may never see again. With the film festivals he ran for so many years with such military precision, and with such infectious enthusiasm, he was a beacon of hope to the beginner and an inspiration to the experienced filmmaker.

I have been trying to think what I will miss most about not seeing Lad again and I have come to the conclusion that it will be his heart and spirit: it was huge. When he and his wife Alena first visited my wife and I for a short holiday in North Bohemia some years ago, he came laden with so many gifts we thought it must be Christmas: present after present was unloaded from the boot of his car, everything from red umbrellas, mammoth coffee-table books and Moravian wine to boxes of delicious Czech chocolates.

They say that Californian men are laidback, but those who say it had clearly never met Lad. Nothing fazed him. Alena explained that he came from a town in Moravia where all the men are like that. When he and Alena last visited us in North Bohemia, we were driving in Jablonec nad Nisou when there was a sudden bang at the front of his car before the vehicle ground to a very loud halt.

Part of the front suspension had broken and pushed its way through the top of the bonnet of the car. Zdenka arranged for the car to be towed away to a local garage where they told Lad that a part would have to be ordered and it would take a week or two to arrive. He shrugged his shoulders, saying (more or less) “OK, no problem.” The next day he and Alena set off on a 370 km four-hour coach journey back to Kroměříž. No panic. That wasn’t Lad’s way.

He was always proud to tell anyone who cared to listen that the Archbishop’s chateau and gardens of Kroměříž have for several decades been a favourite location for international films and TV series such as “The Musketeers”, “The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles”, “Napoleon”, the pictorially stunning Russian epic “Ekaterina” and Miloš Forman’s big-screen translation of Peter Shaffer’s London stage play “Amadeus”. I always envied Lad for living in such a beautiful town.

He was equally proud of his immensely talented filmmaker son, Vlad, and his granddaughter, Eliška, and would produce photos of Eliška – such a beautiful young lady - at every opportunity. He had every right to be proud of her.

Lad will be sorely missed.

Zdenka and I, and our daughter Stefanie, send our deepest condolences to Alena, Vlad and Eliška.

Dear Lad, you will never be forgotten.

God bless.
Ian Woodward
(England)