SHADES OF 1968 – SPECIAL FOCUS

The 40th anniversary is a good opportunity to think over and speak about the artistic and social effects of this era, which on the one hand can be regarded as a mile stone of our New Age, but which, on the other hand, has been unfortunately neglected so far. At the end of the 1960’s the strengthened civil and student movements made a huge attempt to push the states parading their power to the background, and even if their movements were repressed, they worth to be mentioned. In the USA: peace demonstrations against Vietnam War, the civil rigths movement, and the intoduction of the hippie subculture. In the West of Europe: French students’ revolt, in East/Central-Europe: the Prague Spring, where the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies (among them with us, Hungarians, too) invaded the country to halt the reforms. Meanwhile in Hungary with the so-called “new economic mechanism” some kind of economic reforms began, and – paralelly with it – the “dance song contest” became more and more popular.

MEDIAWAVE Festival chose some characteristic events of this era as inspiration for its programmes:

— Széchenyi University organizes a conference with the help of well-known lecturers: “1968 – The Turning Point?” In addition: poster exhibition.

— Jirí Menzel was awarded by Oscar that year for “Closely Watched Trains” – our special guest is the Czech director.

— Ten Years After, the legendary rock band will help the several other bands to evoke the spirit of Woodstock on 27 April on the flood – basin of Mosoni-Danube holding concerts all the day for free.

FILM PROGRAMME

To the international film competition we recieved 1084 nominations from 66 countries from all over the world.

From them, the professional pre-selection comittee has choosen the best ones and built up the programme.

- The International Competition Programme (61 films)

4 features, 12 short fictions, 16 animations, 8 experimentals, 11 short docs and 9 documentaries.

- The International Panorama Programme (34 films)

1 feature, 9 short fictions, 10 animations, 7 music films, 2 artistic films, 3 short documentaries and 2 docs with the “shades of 1968”.

http://mediawavefestival.hu/index.php?modul=filmek&kategoria=42&nyelv=eng