DOCUMENTARY

SYNOPSIS
On the night of November 17th, 1989, a massive demonstration celebrating International Students' Day was violently attacked by riot police in the streets of Prague. The repression of the students brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets in protest, beginning a 'Velvet Revolution' that led to the fall of the Communist government and the election of Vaclav Havel as President of a newly democratic nation.

The events of November 17th are well known, but few of the participants agree on why it happened or what the final outcome of the 'Velvet Revolution' really was. Many questions arise from the events of November 17th. What were the circumstances? What did the people in the streets know? What did they suspect? What do they feel now, after twenty years, about the great changes that the 'Revolution' brought? Was there really even a 'Revolution'?

The filmmakers will follow three of the original participants from the student protests of November 17th, 1989, contrasting their individual memories of the past and examining how their lives have developed. The three characters were all present at the demonstration in Narodni Trida on the night of November 17th and each has since developed a different understanding of how the events have shaped them and the history of their nation. The first character is Otto Urban, an international art curator who now lives in the historic village of Kovary, just outside Prague. The second character is Petr Cikhart, an award winning cinematographer, now living in the United States. The third character is Ondrej Sturma, an impassioned journalist and music promoter living in Zizkov, Prague.

The filmmakers have interviewed Cikhart, Urban and Sturma, along with several others who are connected to them, and have used their stories as the basis for a series of reenactments that replicate the events that occurred in Czechoslovakia during the month of November 1989. The primary reenactment occurred on the night of November 17th, 2009, when the filmmakers brought together a group of performers to reenact the roles of both demonstrators and the riot police on the site of the original student demonstration on Narodni Trida in Prague. Cikhart, Urban and Sturma met with and advised the actors playing them and they also argued amongst themselves about the events of that night and how they should be remembered. This became a catalyst for the three to re-examine their own memories of the event and to re-assess how they now perceive the pivotal events from a distance of twenty years.

Additional personalities who appear in the film include artist David Cerny, musician and journalist Jan Machacek, dissident poet Pavel Zajicek, painter Jan Hisek, and several former KSC functionaries as well as outside cultural figures who feature prominently in the narrative of the Velvet Revolution, such as Lydia Lunch, Joan Baez and Lou Reed. Other re-enacted scenes depict illegal record trading during the late 1980s and non-conformist street art and theatre around the time of the Velvet Revolution, which will expand the film's reach into the social history of the late 1980s.

TEAM
The production team boasts extensive experience in the field of documentaries. Barbara Kopple is one of the most famous documentary filmmakers in North America, having won two American Academy Awards for Best Documentary (Harlan County, USA & American Dream) as well as numerous other prizes and honors worldwide. Award-winning cameraman Gary K. Griffin served as director of photography on dozens of high-profile documentaries, including American Oscar- and Emmy-winning films as well as being awarded Best Cinematographer at Sundance 2005 (The Education of Shelby Knox). Keith Jones has worked on several documentaries as a director, producer and dramaturge including Fighter, Durban Poison and the forthcoming Punk In Africa. Jefe Brown has produced a number of docs, including The Myth on Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Durban Poison and the forthcoming Punk In Africa, as well as award-winning features such as Shut Up and Shoot Me (Best Film 2007 AFI-Dallas). He is also one of the producers of forthcoming features by Alice Nellis (Mamas & Papas) and Jan Sverak (Kuky se vraci).