ČSDS YouTube Channel
We have recently expanded the main menu on our webpage by a link to our YouTube channel. Over the last few years we have been putting together our own and others’ documentary films and video-recordings from social events and scholarly discussions. We are now able to provide an overview to help in orientation.
Profile Documentary:
Archive of
Freedom at Castle Schwarzenberg
2011 marked 25 years since the foundation of the Czechoslovak Documentation
Centre for Independent Literature. For the occasion therefore we arranged
an exhibition in cooperation with the National Museum. This was held in the
autumn of 2011 in the Kampa Museum. We showed, as part of the annual events, a
documentary film by the documentary maker and journalist Dominik Jůn that
follows the path leading to the creation of one of the leading Czechoslovak
exile institutions of the second half of the 20th century and
describes the efforts of a group of cultural and political personalities in
exile, supported by allies at home and abroad, from the initial era of a
domestic “one-man band” up to today’s public beneficiary society. The
documentary can also be accessed in an
English version.
Profiles of Personalities:
Ivan Medek –
A Certain Voice
The film by documentary maker Dominik Jůn is devoted to the musicologist and
publicist Ivan Medek, signatory of Charter 77 and correspondent of Voice of
America, whose mesmerising delivery helped to bring about the events of 1989 in
Czechoslovakia. The film première that took place on 20 January 2016 in the
Václav Havel Library was connected with the National Museum exhibition
Ivan
Medek – A Directly Honest Gentleman.
Small Steps,
Large Footprints: H. Gordon Skilling in Czechoslovakia
To mark the 100 anniversary of the birth of the major Canadian historian,
political scientist and Bohemist Harold Gordon Skilling, in cooperation with the
National Museum we organised the exhibition
H. Gordon Skilling – Life
and Work, which took place from May to August 2012 at the Kampa Museum. Our
close colleague Dominik Jůn contributed a profile documentary for the occasion
which is also accessible in an
English version.
Two Films about
Jan Vladislav
An evening of student films made in 2003 and 2004 by the documentary maker
Kateřina Krusová, in which she records her meetings with the poet, writer,
essayist, translator and one-time samizdat publisher Jan Vladislav.
Recordings of social occasions:
Prime Minister
Sobotka honours Charter 77 signatory Professor Miroslav Kusý
On 8 December 2016 Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka awarded the Karel Kramář
Medal for Merit for the Restoration of Democracy, Human Rights and Freedoms to
Prof. Miroslav Kusý, political scientist, philosopher, signatory of Charter 77,
co-founder of Public Against Violence, post-November 1989 politician, Rector of
the Comenius University in Bratislava and member of our Board. The ceremony in
the Kramář Villa was recorded for us by Dominik Jůn.
Opening of the
Exhibition – German Autumn 1989 in Prague
In October and November 2014 the ČSDS and the National Museum held a joint
exhibition at the National Memorial on Vítkov,
German Autumn 1989 in
Prague. This marked
the 25th anniversary of the exodus of East German citizens to the
Federal Republic of Germany via the West German Embassy in Prague. The opening
of the exhibition on 2 October was also the occasion of the launch of the book
of the same name. Vilém Prečan delivered the introductory address on the
historical events, while Maike Freytag-Pitrocha, representative of the Embassy
of the German Federal Republic, spoke for the German side. All those present
were welcomed to the premises of the National Memorial on Vítkov by the director
of the Historical Museum Marek Junek. The celebrationwas enhanced by the
appearance of the student choir Besharmonie.
Recordings of discussions:
Slovak House
Prague - Miroslav Kusý
Recording of a discussion on the theme of contemporary Czech and Slovak
cooperation and mutual ties, held on 8 December 2016 in the Slovak House in
Prague in honour of Prof. Miroslav Kusý on the occasion of his being awarded the
Karel Kramář Medal and his recent 85th birthday. Miroslav Kusý, Vilém
Prečan, the director of the Institute for Contemporary History Oldřich Tůma and
the Ambassador of the Slovak Republic Peter Weiss took part in the initial
discussion and were later joined by the sociologist Jiřina Šiklová, the
historian Michal Macháček, the historian Vojtech Čelko, the historian and
political scientist Jiří Suk, and others.
Canadians and
Czechoslovaks during Normalisation
Recording of a discussion on the theme of the cooperation during Normalisation
between Canadian diplomats and Czechoslovak dissident circles. The discussion
took place on the evening of 9 October 2007 with the Canadian Ambassador Michael
Calcott in his residence Hadovka. There were contributions from inter
alia the diplomat Peter Bakewell, the Bohemist Markéta Goetz-Stankiewicz,
the sociologist Jiřina Šiklová and the musician, translator and writer Paul
Wilson.
