Black Box
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The Black Box [Fekete Doboz] video workshop was founded by Judit Ember, Márta Elbert, István Jávor, András Lányi and Gábor Vági in 1987. The documentary video journal produced its samizdat publications on VHS. As a civil organization they followed the events of the regime change and the National Round Table Negotiations.
Video
- Civil technikák. Fidesz [Civil Techniques. Fidesz], 1988, 71 min. A chronicle of the establishment of the Alliance of Young Democrats. The film follows young politicians (Viktor Orbán, Gábor Fodor, László Kövér, Péter Molnár, József Szájer, Tamás Deutsch), the founders of a new, independent political organization. [1]
- A Műtárgy [The Facility], 1988, 68 min. This documentary film follows the mass protests against the construction of the Gabčíkovo–Nagymaros dams on the Danube in 1988. [2]
- Plot #301, 1988, 57 min. 16 June 1988, on the 30th anniversary of the execution of Imre Nagy and other martyrs of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, a monument was unveiled in the Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris to honor the victims. On the same day, a commemoration was held in Budapest by the unmarked graves in Plot #301 at Rákoskeresztúr cemetery. The commemoration turned into an anti-dictatorship demonstration which continued at the Batthyány eternal flame and on Heroes' Square. Relatives of the victims and '56 revolutionaries remember 1956 and talk about what this day means to them.
- Még kér a nép [The People Demand], 1989, 52 min. On 23 October 1988 hundreds of people demonstrated on the 32nd anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian revolution, demanding freedom and democracy despite the attacks on demonstrators by police squads. 4 November 1988 the ex-members of the secret police and workers militia celebrated the “suppression of the counter-revolution" on Köztársaság Square. 6 months later, 15 March 1989 already tens of thousands of demonstrators marched in the streets of Budapest and openly demanded democracy, and speeches were delivered by opposition leaders János Kis, Viktor Orbán, Dénes Csengey and others. [3]
On Black Box
- Morgan Russel, "Black Box", Whole Earth Review 68, Sausalito, 1990, p 124.
- Black Box, "About Ourselves (1990)", in The Next Five Minutes Zapbook, eds. Amsterdam Cultural Studies, Amsterdam: Paradiso, 1992, p 55.
- Marianna Padi, "Black Box", in The Next Five Minutes Zapbook, eds. Amsterdam Cultural Studies, Amsterdam: Paradiso, 1992, pp 56-57.
- Chris Hill, "Where Independent Media Made a Difference: Citizen producers in Eastern Europe, 1989-1991", Community Media Review, Mar-Apr 1994.
- "István Jávor", Paměť národa, 2010. Oral history interview. (Hungarian)
