Artist's Revolution: 10 Days in Prague 1995
Distributed by The Cinema Guild, 1697 Broadway, Suite 506, New York, 10019; 800-723-5522
Produced by Eight Winds Productions in Association with Aurora Productions and PoPcorn Pictures
Director n/a
VHS, color, 32 min.
Adult
History, Political Science
Date Entered: 11/09/2018
Reviewed by Charles Burkart, Head, Audiovisual Library, West Virginia University, Morgantown, WV 26505Artist's Revolution: 10 days in Prague covers the anatomy of the 1989 "Velvet Revolution" that ended almost 43 years of communist rule in Czechoslovakia. The film also provides a brief history of modern Czechoslovakia starting with the presidency of Tomas Masaryk, continuing with Soviet domination after World War II, through the Prague Spring of 1968, to Charter 77 and the Civic Forum, and culminating with the "Velvet Revolution" of 1989.
The major protagonists in this short historical documentary were Vaclav Havel and the revolutionary artists of Civic Forum. The structure of the documentary consists of eyewitness interviews of important events juxtaposed with relevant television clips and recent film footage of Havel.
Unfortunately, there were some technical problems associated with this production. For instance, the television film clips were very grainy. This is undoubtedly due to the poor quality of the original television broadcasts. Moreover, some interview segments were improperly lighted with poor sound quality. The appropriate short musical excerpts featured in the video were by the great Czech composer, Leos Janacek. Another bright spot is the excellent narration provided by veteran actor, Rod Steiger
The structure of Artist's Revolution: 10 Days in Prague is unsatisfactory. The chronology of events in the documentary is confusing at times. It also seemed too rushed toward the end, and concluded with too many written updates. Overall, a disappointment.
While the documentary's length (32 minutes) will be attractive to college history instructors, not recommend if other documentaries on the "Velvet Revolution" are currently available.