Robert Buchar

There he worked as a cameraman for CBS until 1989, photographed over twenty films and documentaries in the U.S. and Europe. He also works as director of photography on independent films and commercials. Since 1989, he teaches cinematography at the Columbia College in Chicago, where he became head of the Cinematography Concentration, the faculty's cinematography program, an advanced production course he developed.

His, and David Smith's, feature-length documentary film Velvet Hangover about the Czech New Wave and the Czech film industry before and after the Velvet Revolution was screened in film festivals around the world. Some of the critics' appraisals:... an intriguing historical document which charts the state of Czech cinema in the sixties, under the years of Normalisation in the seventies and eighties, and its encounter with the new economic "liberalism" of the nineties... Featuring in Velvet Hangover (in alphabetic order): • * Jaroslav Bouček * Jaroslav Brabec * Věra Chytilová * Saša Gedeon * Zuzana Hojdová-Zemanová * Jiří Krejčík — * Antonín Máša * Jiří Menzel * Stanislav Milota * Jan Němec * Ivan Passer * Jan Svěrák — * Karel Vachek * Otakar Vávra * Drahomíra Vihanová

Currently (November 2009) Buchar's another documentary The Collapse of Communism – The Untold Story is in postproduction. According to some critics, it showcases the KGB's orchestration and management of the breakup of the Soviet Union. According to some critics, it promotes a conspiracy theory that the fall of communism in Eastern Europe was a hoax. Buchar's own view (supporting his critics): Featuring in The Collapse of Communism (in alphabetic order): • * Tennent H. Bagley * Vladimir Bukovsky * Angelo Codevilla * Petr Cibulka * František Doskočil * Joseph D.Douglass, Jr. — * Edward Jay Epstein * Robert M. Gates * Bill Gertz * Oleg Gordievsky * Vladimír Hučín * Jeff R. Nyquist — * Ion Mihai Pacepa * Jaromír Štětina * Pavel Žáček * Ludvík Žifčák

documentaries, feature-length, also as director / producer • Velvet Hangover, together with David Smith, 1999/2000, USA (in Czech: Sametová kocovina, 2002) • The Collapse of Communism – The Untold Story, 2009/2010, USA other, (mainly / also) as director of photography • Four Seasons (in Czech: Čtvero ročních dob), 2008 • Bear Not to Be, 1968 • Certainly, 1969 • The Club, 1971 • In the Sign of Eagle, 1978 • The Comets, 1979 • City in the Center of the City, 1979 • Ethology of Animals, 1980 • Basic Meditation Exercise, directed by George Drasnar (Jiří Drašnar) (in Czech), 1981 • Go West-Sing West, 1991 • Where are you, 1992 • The Land of Youth, 1992 • Granny, 1998 • Poslední z rodu, directed by Drahomíra Vihanová, Czechoslovakia, 1977

Robert Buchar is recorded with the occupation film historian. Recorded as film director, photographer, film historian, translator and film scholar.