Publication details
Czechness for Export. Czech Short Films of the 1930s–1950s in the (Inter)national Perspective
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Conference abstract |
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| Citation | |
| Description | Czech language and cultural practice established a term "short film" to describe movies lasting a maximum of 20 minutes, which are in other cultural contexts known rather according to their specialization (industrial, commercial, educational), or more generally as "useful". In the Czech context of the 1930s till 1980s, however, it was also legally stated that short films has to be a part of any public screening, as an addition to feature length film, while the state also promoted establishment of specific distribution channels for short films: non-stop cinemas called "Čas" (Time), and various nontheatrical circuits (small-gauge format). In my paper, I take a historicizing look on how and why these different agents (state, institutions) tried to create and shape various forms and facets of citizenship via these films. Therefore I'll examine the mode of address of these films, and questions of "governmentality", focusing on three main areas: labor, national consciousness, and the ideal structure of everyday life (life-style). The ways of shaping citizenship I'll reconstruct throughout the period of the most turbulent socio-political, economical and cultural changes in Czech modern history, and thus follow the project of "citizen-making" by short film from the period of Czech capitalism in the 1930s, through German occupation in early 1940s, short post-war liberal period of 1945-1948 (called Third Republic), till communism of the 1950s, and thus consider both continuities as well as novelties, similarities and differences, typical for short-film's conception of particular period. In depth analysis, however, will be based on a corpus of films intended both for national, as well as international audiences. An example of films considered both internationally representative, as well as nationally instructive, will serve me as a basis for interpretation of borders of universality and uniqueness in the construction of ideal national image. |
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