Beda Batka

Beda Batka
Born
Bedřich Baťka

(1922-08-21)August 21, 1922
Prague, Czechoslovakia (now Czech Republic)
DiedJune 6, 1994(1994-06-06) (aged 71)
Floral Park, New York, United States
OccupationCinematographer
Years active1963–1980

Beda Batka (Czech: Bedřich Baťka; August 21, 1922 – June 6, 1994) was a Czech and American cinematographer and a teacher in the Tisch School of the Arts.[1][2]

Batka started his career as a camera operator on the movie On the Right Track (1948). In Czechoslovakia he frequently worked with director Jiří Weiss. Batka told Weiss a story that happened at his wife's workplace. Weiss decided to use this story as a basis for his film Ninety Degrees in the Shade. In 1967 Batka was a director of photography for František Vláčil's Marketa Lazarová, which was later voted the best Czech movie of all time.[3] After he emigrated to USA, he taught cinematography at the Tisch School of the Arts.[4] Among his students were Barry Sonnenfeld, Bill Pope,[5] and the late Ken Kelsch.[6] The best known movie he worked on in America was Little Darlings.[7]

  1. ^ 88 Cinematographers Share the Best Professional Advice They've Ever Received
  2. ^ The ASC -- American Cinematographer: ASC Close-Up: Fred Elmes
  3. ^ Hoberman, J. (2013-07-03). "Prague's Savage Spring". The New York Review of Books. Retrieved 16 July 2017.
  4. ^ Directory of World Cinema: East Europe
  5. ^ Sonnenfeld, Barry (2020). Barry Sonnenfeld, Call Your Mother Memoirs of a Neurotic Filmmaker. Hachette Books. ISBN 9780316415637.
  6. ^ Williams, David E. (2023-12-14). "In Memoriam: Ken Kelsch, ASC (1947-2023) - The American Society of Cinematographers (en-US)". The American Society of Cinematographers. Retrieved 2023-12-24.
  7. ^ Little Darlings By Roger Ebert, rogerebert.com, March 25, 1980