Russian and East European Institute

Films in red were acquired during the 2007/2008 academic year.

ADAM MICHNIK AND VLADIMIR TISMANEANU 1 (MIC1) (VHS)
120 min., Lecture at Indiana University, March 3, 2000.

ADAM MICHNIK AND VLADIMIR TISMANEANU 2 (MIC2) (VHS)
120 min. Lecture at Indiana University, March 3, 2000.

ADAM MICHNIK: THE FUTURE OF DEMOCRACY AND THE ROLE OF THE INTELLECTUAL (MIC3) (VHS)
120 min. Lecture at Indiana University, March 3, 2000.

ALMONDS AND RAISINS: A HISTORY OF THE YIDDISH CINEMA (ALM)
1986, 90 min., English. Directed by Russ Karel.
Narrated by Orson Welles, this remarkable documentary is a history of the Yiddish cinema, fascinating and funny, a landmark documentary on the whole lost culture of Yiddish film. Between 1927 and 1940, Yiddish filmmakers made over 100 films in Yiddish, expressing the hopes and fears of the immigrant society-- dreams of opportunity, assimilation, social betterment, separation from family and failure. Almonds and Raisins lovingly captures the ideas and history of the Yiddish cinema and the richness of the Yiddish language.

BROKEN SILENCE (BRSL) (DVD)
4 hours 43 minutes, in Spanish, Hungarian, Polish, Russian, and Czech with English subtitles. From Steven Spielberg and Survivors of the Shoah Visual History Foundation. Five films on one DVD. Luis Puenzo, director of Some Who Lived, weaves together stories from Holocaust survivors who now live in Argentina and Uruguay with archival and modern-day footage. Puenzo also explores the connections between Nazism and the darker chapters of Argentine history. Janos Szasz, director of Eyes of the Holocaust, is the son of Holocaust survivors, and focuses here on the experiences of survivors who were children during the Holocaust. In Children from the Abyss, directed by Pavel Chukhraj, Russian Holocaust survivors tell of their experiences with resistance, betrayal, collaborators, rescuers, bystanders and the desire for revenge. Andrzej Wajda directs I Remember, a Polish-language documentary about four survivors who were either helped or betrayed by their neighbors. Hell on Earth is directed by Vojtech Jasny, who takes a look at Theresienstadt, the "model" Czech ghetto set up by the Nazis to deceive the world about how the Jews were treated.

CARPATI: 50 MILES, 50 YEARS (CAR) (VHS)
1996, 80 min, in English, Yiddish, and Russian with English subtitles. Directed by Yale Strom. In 1931 the Carpathian Mountains of the Ukraine were the home of over a quarter of a million Jews. Sixty-five years later, emigration, the Holocaust and political turmoil have left less than 1,500. Through Zev Godinger (son of Shimon, survivor of Auschwitz, Jewish community caretaker, grave digger and ice cream vendor) director Yale Strom (The Last Klezmer) affectionately chronicles the decay of a beautiful culture preserved by the faith and fate of one of it's lone survivors.

DATELINE: THE EAGLE AND THE BEAR SERIES.
An informative look at to United States and the Soviet Union in the twentieth century. Selections from the film archives of Pathe News Library ABC News and contemporary interviews with participants and eyewitnesses provide a rich overview of crucial confrontations in the Cold War struggles between the United States and Soviet Union.

• DATELINE: 1944, YUGOSLAVIA (DAT44)
  1991, 23 min. In 1943, as World War II consumed the European continent, Marshal Josip Broz Tito consolidated his power in Yugoslavia. Two years later at the close of the war, the Allied leaders devised a plan to divide post-war influence in Yugoslavia between Great Britain and the Soviet Union. Tito had emerged as an important communist ally of Stalin, but subsequent disagreements doomed the Soviet-Yugoslav relationship. In the late 1940s Tito forged a new economic relationship with the United States and ended in a rare demonstration of post-war independence: a communist government free of Soviet dominance that also maintained economic ties with the West.

• DATELINE: 1956, BUDAPEST (DAT56)
  1989, 23 min. Following a popular revolt demanding free elections, free expression, and the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the nation, Hungary dislodged the puppet Soviet regime and replaced it with their own nationalist government. This documentary examines the national and international chain of events that led to Hungary's brief period of freedom and then details the full-scale November 4th military invasion that rolled over Budapest, killing 30,000 Hungarians and restoring Soviet domination.

• DATELINE: 1968, CZECHOSLOVAKIA (DAT68)
  1989, 23 min. Reviewing twentieth century Czecho-Slovak history and focusing on the roles played by Tomas and Jan Masaryk, Eduard Benes, Joseph Stalin, Alexander Dubcek, and Leonid Brezhnev, this documentary examines the optimistic period of liberalization known as the Prague Spring. Put into context with Brezhnev's fears of lost Soviet control, this detailed documentary examines the events that led to the eventual suppression of democracy and submission to Soviet interests.

• DATELINE: 1980, POLAND (DAT80)
  1989, 23 min. Beginning with the Soviet domination of Poland following World War II, this insightful documentary focuses on the rise to international importance of Lech Walesa and the Solidarity worker's union. Composed of millions striking for lower food prices, better working conditions, freedom of the press, and free trade unions, Solidarity threatened Soviet control in Poland as none ever had before. This investigative report documents the course of events that led to martial law under Defense Minister and party General Secretary Jaruzelski and the official banning of Solidarity at the end of 1982.

• DATELINE: 1989, HUNGARY (DATHUN)
  1991, 23 min. Highlighting events in Hungary from the 1956 to 1989, this videotape documents the slow and patient struggle of the Hungarian people to rid their country of communism and Soviet forces. From the introduction of "goulash communism" in the 1960s and 1970s to his forced resignation as party leader in 1988, the policies of Janos Kadar are discussed, as well as the impact of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev's policy of glasnost on Hungarian politics. Also covered is the reintroduction of multi-party politics under Kadar's successor, Karoly Grosz. The film ends with coverage of Hungary's role in allowing East Germans to transit Hungary in going to West Germany, a move which led to the subsequent events in East Germany.

• DATELINE: 1989, PRAGUE (DATPRA)
  1991, 23 min. This documentary traces the path of Czechoslovakia in overthrowing its communist leadership and government. The film begins with the armed suppression of the 1968 Prague Spring and moves on to the 1977 Charter 77 human rights statement, a movement of Czechoslovakian dissidents and intellectuals opposed to the repression of the Hus?k regime. By 1987, while glasnost was inspiring democratic changes in other Central European countries, repression in Czechoslovakia increased, and after the events of the summer of 1989 and the fall of the Berlin Wall in the autumn of the same year, the Czechoslovakian hard-liners were increasingly isolated. Finally in November and December, 1989, nationwide strikes and protests led to the fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia.

• DATELINE: 1989, ROMANIA (DATROM)
  1991, 23 min. In 1965, Nicolae Ceaucescu became head of the Romanian Communist Party and soon thereafter president of Romania. In seeking to be the "maverick" of the Communist Bloc, Ceaucescu undertook policies to curry favor with both the Soviets and the West. This documentary provides a look at his policies of denouncing the Soviet crushing of the 1968 Prague Spring, maintaining relations with Israel, and condemning the Soviet war in Afghanistan, while at the same time introducing a repressive police state in Romania, proposing an ultra-communist systematization of villages into agro-industrial cooperatives, and paying off his country's debt by massively exporting consumer goods and leaving his own people in short supply. These policies brought him no mercy in the revolutionary events of December, 1989.

THE DEMISE OF WESTERN COMMUNISM: FALL OF A GIANT (DEM) (DVD)
26 min. This program discusses Western democracy’s confrontation with and ultimate defeat of communism from the end of World War II to the destruction of the Berlin Wall. Events depicted include the Red Army’s invasion of Poland, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia, and the heightening of the Cold War between the U.S. and Russia through the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. The destruction of the Berlin Wall is the symbolic beginning of a new era in European history.

EASTERN EUROPE, 1900-1991
1998. This three part video series by Films for the Humanities traces the history of Eastern Europe from 1900-1991.

• 1939-1953 (EAS2) The second video covers World War II and a brief period after, from 1939-1953. This video traces how both Hitler's and Stalin's quests for power left Eastern Europe destabilized. Topics include, among others, the German invasion of Poland; the declaration of Croatian independence; the Warsaw Ghetto; the battle for Stalingrad; the Yalta Conference; and the closing of the Iron Curtain.

• 1953-1991 (EAS3) The third and final video in this series traces Eastern Europe from the death of Stalin to the rise of democracy in the late 1980s and the fall of Communism. Topics include, among others, the rise of Khrushchev; the 1956 Hungarian Revolt; Tito's socialism; the Czechoslovakian Revolution; the Helsinki Conference; Lech Walesa and the Polish miners' strike; and Gorbachev and perestroika.

EASTERN EUROPE: BREAKING WITH THE PAST
1990. Each of the thirteen episodes (51 minutes each) in the series takes viewers on an intimate journey through the events that have made Eastern Europe the focus of worldwide attention. Its fresh perspective -- seen through the eyes of the East Europeans themselves -- provides a memorable insight into the struggle and endurance of these courageous people. Each episode contains short documentaries on one theme.

• VIDEO 3: Ceausescu: Eastern Europe's Last Dictator? (EE3)
  A Lesson in Dying is a Yugoslav poet's clandestine film on the Romanian revolution. A Day in Bucharest, made in January 1990, the film documents sculptor Old Maitec's reflections on the December 1989 revolution during which his studio and life's works were destroyed. The Other Europe contains excerpts from the documentary series made in 1988 exploring life under Ceausescu. Rondino is a disturbing piece of animation examining human's capacity for cruelty.

• VIDEO 4: Touched by the Revolution (EE4)
  Let There Be Peace in this House was shot clandestinely in a Hungarian village in Romania in the last days of Ceausescu. In Free Us From Evil, the film maker returns to the same village to view life after the revolution. Gravity is an intriguing piece of Hungarian animation examining the challenges and dangers inherent in breaking with the "system."

• VIDEO 5: Tapestry of History (EE5)
  Cogito Ergo Sum contains reflections of an Estonian intellectual who refused to be co-opted by communism.Hitler and Stalin 1939 includes recently released archival footage impounded by the Soviets for 40 years and highlights the Estonian experience in World War II.

• VIDEO 6: Memories of Childhood and War (EE6)
  Gaudiopolis, an excerpt from a touching Hungarian drama, portrays the heart-wrenching stories of children orphaned by war. The Man Who Saved the Lives of Children documents the life of Gabor Stzeiho, the remarkable pastor who founded and ran the same orphanage. When Were You Born is Hungarian film maker Gyorgy Szilagy's personal exploration through images, words, and events of a life filled with memory and the experience of war.

• VIDEO 7: At the Crossroads: East European Jewry (EE7)
  An American filmmaker uses Jewish folk music as a common theme to examine the lives and recollections of Jews in Eastern Europe today.

• VIDEO 8: Theater and the Revolution (EE8)
  Theater at the End of November shows the impassioned speeches and commentary made backstage in theaters across Czecho-Slovakia and Poland that had closed in support of the revolution.

• VIDEO 9: Germany Reunites (EE9)
  Klartext - Molbis Poisoned is an example of the investigative journalism that emerged in East Germany for the first time following the revolution of 1989. It examines the serious pollution problems and decreased life expectancy in the town of Molbis. Der Spiegel TV is a bizarre report on the East German Secret Police archives of the body odors of suspected dissidents and a look at the challenges facing East German companies as they prepare to face an open economy.

• VIDEO 10: The Polish Experience (EE10)
  Be Aware is historical footage from the first Solidarity Congress in 1980. All that is Alive takes a frightening look at severe pollution problems in Poland's Silesia region and examines the severe environmental problems that have come to light in all of the East European countries following the 1989 revolutions.

• VIDEO 11: A New World of Television (EE11)
  This looks at East European television as a reflection of their values, interests, lifestyles, and opinions. Program formats include commercials, sports, news features, soap operas, variety and game shows, documentaries, comedies, investigative reports, and made-for-TV movies.

• VIDEO 12: An Animated Journey (EE12)
  This video presents reflections on the culture and personality of the East Europeans through this outstanding form of artistic expression. Selections include award-winning animation from Yugoslavia, Hungary, Poland, Estonia, and Czecho-Slovakia. It features a mixture of styles including claymation, line-drawing, oil-painting, photo-montage, and cut-outs.

• VIDEO 13: A Generation of Artists (EE13)
  This is a portrait of three generations of famous Czech and Slovak artists -- their lives, art, and effects of politics on both.

EASTERN EUROPE: CAPTIVE LANDS (EECAP)
SPICE 1992. This curriculum guide with accompanying video explores the expansion of Soviet communism in Europe. Features include a contemporary map of Central and Eastern Europe, a look at the division of Europe, documents on the western strategy of containment towards the Soviet Union, a description of economic plans and how they worked. The video includes a 1962 American-made propaganda film titled The Truth About Communism.

EASTERN EUROPE: THE CURTAIN RISES (EAS) VHS
18 min. 1989 will stand as one of the pivotal years of European history--one likely to shape events for decades to come. This program helps students understand the recent upheavals in Eastern Europe and how 1989 will affect both Europeans and Americans.

EASTERN EUROPE: DISSIDENCE CENSORED (EEDIS)
SPICE 1992. This curriculum guide with accompanying video examines how the people of Central and Eastern Europe lived with communism and their views on freedom beyond the "iron curtain." The video includes a documentary of Romania prior to Ceausescu's overthrow and a Czech performance of a play written by Vaclav Havel.

EASTERN EUROPE: THE UNFINISHED REVOLUTION (EEUN)
SPICE 1992. The materials contained in this curriculum guide and accompanying video introduce students to what is behind the changes occurring in Central and Eastern Europe since revolutions swept through in 1989. The video includes a documentary of one of Poland's worst pollution disasters.

EASTERN EUROPE: THE CURTAIN RISES (EAS)
1991, 18 min. 1989 will stand as one of the pivotal years of European history--one likely to shape events for decades to come. This program helps students understand the recent upheavals in Eastern Europe and how the19~y will affect both Europeans and Americans.

EASTERN EUROPE'S FORGOTTEN ENVIRONMENT (EEENV)
51 min. This video features three short films from Hungary, Poland, and East Germany documenting the effects of four decades of industrial pollution in Eastern Europe. From the EARTHSCOPE Series, winner of the 1991 ACE Award for "Best Educational Series."

EXPANDING EUROPE: ROUND FIVE OF THE E.U. BUILDOUT (7 tape series)
The fifth wave of eager entrants into the European Union is expected to include Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, and Cyprus. Program one of this seven-part series takes a broad look at the economic hurdles facing these six candidates, while the rest of the series examines the fiscal health of each country within its cultural context as it prepares for accession into the E.U.

• Tape 2: CYPRUS AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EXP2) (25 mins., 2000)
  Despite the ongoing military standoff between Greek and Turkish Cypriots, Cyprus is making a bid for early entry into the European Union. In this program, Foreign Minister Ioannis Kasoulides, a member of parliament, and others from both the south and the north discuss the benefits and drawbacks of E.U. membership, balancing less economic vulnerability through a combination of the euro standard and increased military security against direct competition with the European countries. The question of reunification is also posed, although all agree that the prospect currently does not look bright.

• Tape 3: SLOVENIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EXP3) (25 mins., 2000)
  Geographically perceived as part of the Balkans, Slovenia is striving for statehood in the E.U. in the hope of differentiating itself from its bellicose neighbors. This program describes Slovenia, a politically stable democracy on a sound financial footing, as a special case among E.U. applicants. The country's record of respecting the rights of its ethnic minorities and its prime location as an economic gateway to southeastern Europe are points in its favor, although the country's low agricultural output and difficult transition to industrial privatization may become stumbling blocks. Observations by Foreign Minister Boris Frlec are included.

• Tape 5: POLAND AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EXP5) (25 mins., 2000)
  In this program, a diverse cross-section of Poles ranging from President Aleksander Kwasiniewski to laborers, farmers, and students talk about Poland's preparations for entry into the European Union. While the construction and shipbuilding industries are especially optimistic, other groups - most notably the power generation industry and farmers - are less so, citing concerns over meeting E.U. standards while dealing with layoffs and rising debt. Improved relations between Poles and ethnic Germans and the issue of restitution of or compensation for property confiscated from Jews during World War II are also addressed.

• Tape 6: THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EXP6) (25 mins., 2000)
  Since the Velvet Revolution, the western portion of what used to be Czechoslovakia has set its sights on integrating its economy into world markets. Using profiles of car manufacturer Skoda, brewery Pilsner Urquell, and up-and-coming fashion designer Klara Nademlynska, this program assesses the Czech Republic's assets and liabilities as it moves toward joining the ranks of the European Union. It is hoped that E.U. membership will help stabilize the economy, but can challenges such as the environmental remediation of the Black Triangle and the integration of the republic's Roma (Gypsy) minority be met in time?

• Tape 7: ESTONIA AND THE EUROPEAN UNION (EXP7) (25 mins., 2000)
  Committed to swift national reform, Estonia is retooling itself into a free trade-driven parliamentary democracy. This program examines the economic, environmental, and judicial challenges facing the small but dynamic Baltic country in its efforts to become eligible for membership in the E.U. Fiscal and monetary policies, pollution, and legal reform are high on the agenda, as Estonia's young visionaries pursue strategic partnerships abroad while tackling domestic issues such as more fully integrating the country's ethnic Russians. The comments of Prime Minister Mart Siimann round out the program.

GYPSIES AND THE FREEDOM TO HATE (GYP)
2002, 22 min. Ironically, the Gypsies or Roma of eastern Europe, a people historically persecuted, were protected under the communist system; the disintegration of that system has opened the floodgates of a repressed hatred. In this program, ABC News correspondent Chris Bury looks at an age-old prejudice that has resurfaced in such countries as Hungary and the Czech Republic. Inheriting a legacy of discrimination and even slavery, the Roma, as this profile shows, are an ethnic group with the lowest education levels and highest welfare rates in Europe.

THE HOLOCAUST IN MEMORY OF MILLIONS (HOL1)
1994, 60 min. From the halls of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, veteran journalist Walter Cronkite chronicles the entire story of the Holocaust--from the rise of the Nazi party and their plan to exterminate the Jewish people to tales of incredible bravery among Holocaust survivors and those who liberated the concentration camps. This Discovery Channel documentary combines original footage and personal photographs with oral histories by those who survived.

LATCHO DROM. (LAT)
1996, 103 min. French with English subtitles. Written and directed by Tony Gatlif.
Hailed as one of the best ten films of the year, Latcho Drom is a remarkable travelogue of the Gypsies or the Rom people. More than just a musical documentary, it captures the resilient perseverance of the Gypsies through years persecution and poverty. From the barren desert landscapes of the Rajasthan to the picture-postcard cafes of France, these traveling musicians share the sheer joy of life that invigorated their ancestors.

A LIFE OF SONG: A PORTRAIT OF RUTH RUBIN (LIF2)
1992, 38 min., English. Directed by Cindy Marshall.
This powerful documentary explores the life of Ruth Rubin, covering her determination to preserve, collect and transmit the vibrant legacy of Yiddish folksongs. Yiddish love songs, work songs and protest songs are interwoven with historical photographs of shtetl life in Eastern Europe , evoking a feeling of a life that once was, but that is being kept alive, in part through the work of a this remarkable woman.

THE LOST WOODEN SYNAGOGUES OF EASTERN EUROPE (LOS1)
2000, 48 min. Before WWII, more than a thousand wooden synagogues dotted the shtetls of Eastern Europe. Many had stood for centuries, testaments to the craftsmanship and faith of the Jewish communities in the region. This documentary tells the story of the synagogues, the life that surrounded them before the war and what has happened to the them in the last fifty years.

LUBOML: MY HEART REMEMBERS (LUB)
2002, 57 min.
This historical video uses rare film footage, an extensive collection of archival photos, and interviews with former residents to re-create the fabric of daily life in the predominantly Jewish market town, or shtetl of Luboml in prewar Poland. The video reveals Luboml as a vibrant town where religious tradition and community life coexisted. No quaint rural village, Luboml was an important regional market town, complete with theater, a cinema, electric lights, sports teams, and numerous trades and businesses, factories and workshops. Nazi genocidal actions in Poland in 1941-42 destroyed the Jewish community in Luboml, including the execution of nearly all its Jewish citizens, as recounted through moving interviews with Holocaust survivors and other former residents of Luboml.

MASTERS OF ANIMATION VOLUME 3: THE EAST EUROPEANS. (MAS)
1986, 120 min. Animation from Hungary, Poland, Yugoslavia, and Russia is examined. Works of Ivanov-Vano, Borivoj Dovnikovic, Witold Giersz, and Gyula Macskassy, among others, are highlighted.

THE MOSLEMS OF EASTERN EUROPE: THE BALKANS. (MOS3)
1977, 27 min., A study of the Moslem populations of Albania, Bulgaria, Romania, and Yugoslavia. The program shows the mosques, houses, bridges, and bazaars which reflect the influence of Islamic culture in the Balkans. The spoken narrative provides background about the history and social consequences of the Ottoman empire's domination of the area.

THE PILOT GUIDE TO CZECH REPUBLIC AND SOUTHERN POLAND (CZH) VHS
Traveler Justine Shapiro starts her journey in the Czech capital of Prague. Traveling north through Teplice she visits the beautiful spa town of Karlovy. After spending the night in a medieval castle she crosses the border into Poland where she visits the historic city of Krakow. She ends her journey in Zahopane and the beautiful Tatras mountains.

REUNIFICATION: 10 YEARS LATER (REU)
1998, 10 min. This video examines the ways that Eastern European countries are adapting to the ideas of capitalism and privatization. It also provides an overview of the disorder and poverty that has accompanied the independence of some of these countries.

SUMMER IN IVYE (SUM)
2001, 72 min. English. Directed by Tamar Rogoff.
Inspired by her 1991 visit to Ivye, Belarus, the home of her ancestors, American choreographer Tamar Rogoff launched an international theater production in a forest outside this remote, dirt-road village, where 2,524 Jewish residents of the town—including 29 Rogoffs—were killed by Nazis on May 12, 1941. Bringing together an unlikely mix of actors, including renowned Lithuanian actor Kostas Smoriginas and Yiddish theater veteran David Rogow, dancers, musicians, and local townspeople, Rogoff pays homage to these people and the layers of life that filled this once vibrant, predominantly Jewish town.

THE WALL COMES DOWN. (WAL)
See VIDEO KITS.

Note: All Central Asian films have been moved to the Inner Asian and Uralic National Resource Center. Please contact them if you would like to borrow one of these movies. iaunrc@indiana.edu or (812)856-5263.

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