Prague Stories

The Final projects are due on Monday. I woke up early today to begin the long process of editing, logging and capturing, and setting up some type of coherent narration. The desk in our room is a mess of laptops, wires, cables, hard drives, tapes, etc… I am praying for a miracle for this poor documentary. It is coming along so slowly and I am not entirely sure what it will look like. I spoke to George today and he gave me some great ideas for it. Also, a coordinator for the “Music on Film Film on Music” came by and spoke to us about the festival and showed us some music videos and short films that were his favorites. It was real interesting and I wish I had had more time to talk with him about music films. (Music is a great passion of mine.) But after talking with George I just headed back to the dorms and began to edit what I think is a good idea. I still have to go back and interview some people giving their thoughts on Svetozor but George gave me the confidence to just go out there and finish this film! I began to look for my favorite footage and took away the sound. I wanted the images to be able to work on their own without music or anything. So I just played my own CDs and edited away. My “rough” cut is about 7-8 minutes long. I am so tired. I have to stay up late to finish this on time….

Kino Svetozor

Today I went to see the movie “Match Point” by Woody Allen at Kino Svetozor. Svetozor is this independent movie theatre in the center of Prague. I had gone to see “Night of the Living Dead” and wanted to see “Match Point” anyway, so I figured no better place then this. In El Paso we do not have an independent movie theatre, besides the UTEP Union Cinema, where once a week film chosen by the Student Film Coordinator and Professors are shown. (These films tend to be independent/foreign most of the time.) I loved the environment of Svetozor though, an actual movie screen, cozy bar areas and everyone who works there is real young. After the movie was over I felt like just sitting somewhere and thinking about it. I ordered a glass of wine and looked at my surroundings. I began to talk to the bartender girl that was there and we began chatting about films and texas. Her boyfriend and her friend showed up and we began to try to guess what movies we liked because titles get lost in translation (no pun intended). They introduced me to the other bartender, a real young guy, and to the main head bosses of Kino Aero, Kino Svetozor and Aero Films. I had such a good time and I asked them permission to do a film on the place. Needless to say, I stayed 4 hours after the movie was over just talking and making great friends.

Communism and Living Zombies
Well, today was our first day off after this hectic week! It rained a tiny bit this morning so the day was fresh. Jazmine and I headed for the Communist Museum. It took a bit to get there but it was fine once we did. (Interesting fact, they have air raids drills in Prague in the middle of the day…) I have loved the ironic posters all over town and that was the main reason for my interest. Ironically the museum is above a McDonald’s and next to a casino….. It took Jazmine and I about an hour to find it. The museum is at Muzeum and it is a LARGE shopping district. We kept going by all these McDonald’s but not finding it anywhere. Once we did we paid the ticket price. It was great learning about all the history! At the time (right after WWII) you can empathize with the people and see why they thought communism might be a good thing. A famous part of Czech history is Prague Spring, two years where the Communist government was as liberal as a communist government could be, but it was quickly ended in 1968 by an invasion of Russian tanks and army. A Charles University student, Jan Palach, in the year anniversary of the occupation set himself on fire in Wenceslas Square to protest the invasion. In the museum there was a documentary on the Velvet Revolution and then it really hits you how cruel the police was and that these were real people. Most of the time it seems like surreal facts but this only occurred 17 years ago (1989).