JANUARY 2010 FILM SHOWS

in Czech Info Centre, Hongdae (www.czechinfo.or.kr)

 

Welcome to North Korea!(dir. Linda Jablonská, 2009)        Czech, English subtitles

on Wednesday (Jan. 13) at 17:30

on Thursdays (Jan 7, 14, 21, 28) at 16:00

Tears of Congo (dir. Olga Šilhová, 2009)                                 Czech, English subtitles            on Tuesday (Jan. 19, 26) at 16:00

             on Wednesday (Jan. 27) at 17:30

             on Friday (Jan. 22) at 17:30    

The Power of the Powerless(dir. Cory Taylor, 2009)           English version

on Wednesday (Jan. 6) at 17:30

on Friday (Jan. 29) at 17:30

The Kind Revolution (dir. Petr Slavík, Jiří Střecha, 1989)      English version

on Fridays (Jan. 8, 15) at 17:30

Burma VJ (dir. Anders Østergaard, 2009)                                English, Korean subtitles

on Tuesdays (Jan. 5, 12) at 16:00

on Wednesday (Jan. 20) at 17:30

 

 

Admission: Free of charge

 

As space is limited, better book your seat for a film screening in advance

Phone: 7256765-6

These films are shown on the occassion of the 20th anniversary of the end of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia and on the sidelines of an exhibition „Unforgettable Fall of 1989“. They should remind of a fact, that there are still the „other worlds“ existing around the globe and the fight for human rights and democracy should go on.

 

 

About films:

 

Welcome to North Korea!                  (dir. Linda Jablonská, 2009)

In its catalogue, a Czech travel agency offers a “journey into the unknown”, a tour of North Korea. In Spring 2008 was the second time since 1990 that a group of Czech tourists set foot in the DPRK. The film follows twenty-seven Czechs who have decided to spend a lot of money on a sightseeing tour of a country which cultivates a cult of personality, maintains concentration camps for its citizens and doesn’t hide its development of nuclear weapons. Foreign visitors are only allowed a view of a carefully prepared illusion, thoroughly supervised by “guides”. What is more, the North Korean system is starkly reminiscent of Czech own past.  Which emotions do our travellers experience: sympathy, nostalgia or, in contrast, happiness that “we already have this behind us”? How does a Czech person, after being accustomed to almost two decades of freedom and democracy, come to terms with the directives and restrictions of a North Korean system?

The Power of the Powerless                          (dir. Cory Taylor, 2009)

Narrated by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons, The Power of the Powerless examines the struggle for freedom during the communist era in Czechoslovakia. Featuring a real-life story of playwright and opposition activist Václav Havel, who ascended to power as Czechoslovak (and later on Czech President) during the bloodless so-called Velvet Revolution of November 1989, the film investigages haunting questions about the communist past, which still linger today.

The Kind Revolution                           (dir. Petr Slavík, Jiří Střecha, 1989)

The very first Czech film made only a few days after the fall of communism in Czechoslovakia gives a raw vision of the history-in-making. It is made of documentary footage made during the so-called Velvet Revolution added with commentaries by ordinary people who were behind the end of communist rule in Czechoslovakia.

Burma VJ                                                            (dir. Anders Østergaard, 2009)

Going beyond the occasional news clip from Burma, the acclaimed filmmaker, Anders Østergaard, brings us close to the video journalists who deliver the footage. Though risking torture and life in jail, courageous young citizens of Burma live the essence of journalism as they insist on keeping up the flow of news from their closed country. Armed with small handycams the Burma VJs stop at nothing to make thein films. Their material is smuggled out of the country and broadcast back into Burma via satellite and offered for international media. The whole world has witnessed single event clips made by the VJs, but for the very first time, their individual images have been carefully put together and at once, they tell a much bigger story. The film offers a unique insight into high-risk journalism and dissidence in a police state, while at the same time providing a thorough documentation of the historical and dramatic days of September 2007, when the Buddhist monks in Burma started marching.

Tears of Congo                                                (dir. Olga Šilhová, 2009)
Eastern Congo has already found itself in the middle of war rampaging over ten years. The spiral of violence usually reaches women the most as rape became a mass weapon in the Eastern Congo close to border of Rwanda. Czech documentary film made during the escalation of clashes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in November 2008 illustrates dramatic stories of local women and children.