Suchergebnisse

Kékesi, Zoltán. 2015. Agents of Liberation – Holocaust Memory in Contemporary Art and Documentary Film. Trans. Reuben Fowlkes. Budapest and New York: Central European University Press; Saint Helena, CA: Helena History Press. 221 pages.

Exile, emigration and displacement have marked the trajectories of Hungarian filmmakers over the past century. Michael Curtiz, the Korda brothers—Alexander, Vincent and Zoltán—André de Toth, Emeric Pressburger, Vilmos Zsigmond, Miklós Rózsa, Peter Lorre, Géza von Radvány and other talented artists have crossed borders, cultures and languages, creating such classics as Casablanca, Somewhere in Europe, The Red Shoes and The Lost One. The legendary sign posted in Hollywood studios read: "It is not enough to be Hungarian, you have to have talent, too!" Accompanied by film extracts, rare footage, personal interviews, archive photographs, and documentary materials, my presentation explores the transnational odysseys of these Hungarian directors, producers, cinematographers, composers, actors and screenwriters whose artistic contributions became an indispensable part of international cinema, suggesting that the challenges of emigration may also offer opportunities for critique, self-examination and artistic creativity.

The post-Cold War era, with its redrawn European topographies and renegotiated political and cultural alliances, has witnessed the return of Central European Jews to the screen in fiction features, documentary and experimental films, and new media. A younger generation of filmmakers devoted to speaking out on the Holocaust and its aftermath is opening vibrant new spaces of dialogue among historians, literary and scholars, as well as within the framework of families and audiences. By articulating unresolved questions of Jewish identity, memory and history, their work both extends and interrogates prior narratives and visual representations. My presentation compares recent films by several filmmakers with regard to the contested meanings of Jewish identity; issues of gender and the filmmaker's voice and subject position; the contextualization of historical evidence; and innovative modes and genres of cinematic representation.