Balázs Béla Studio
The Balázs Béla Studio (BBS) – an utterly unique formation, not only in Eastern Europe but also beyond it - started first as a film club in 1959 and was refounded in 1961 as a film studio that worked both inside and outside the structure of Socialist state filmproduction. In nearly five decades it (co-)produced more than 500 films in all genres from short features and lyrical documentary films, through long documentaries, major feature films, experimental films and video, to animations and documentations.
Several representatives of Hungarian cinema started their career at the BBS, among them István Szabó, Sándor Sara, Judit Elek, Zoltan Huszarik, Bela Tarr, Janos Xantus and Ildiko Enyedi and Gábor Bódy.
As its most decisive change, at the end of the 1960s the Studio opened its doors to "outsiders" from various fields, who have not been involved officially in film production. These artists, musicians, theatre professionals, writers and sociologists, not only contributed to a different view on documentarism – highlighted by the Series on Education I-V. (dir: Istvan Darday-Gyorgy-Laszlo Mihalyfy-Gyorgyi Szalai-Laszlo Vitezy-Pal Wilt) or The Resolution (dir: Judit Ember, Gyula Gazdag) – but turned BBS into a center of experimentalism with many of the influential representatives of the Neoavantgarde scene, including Akos Birkas, Miklos Erdely, Tibor Hajas, Agnes Hay, Dora Maurer, Tamas Szentjoby, Zoltan Jeney, Laszlo Vidovszky, and Laszlo Najmanyi.
- Exhibitions
- Other Voices, Other Rooms - Attempt(S) at Reconstruction. 50 years of Balazs Bela Studio. Curators: Livia Paldi, Sebestyen Kodolanyi. Mücsarnok Kunsthalle Budapest. 16.12.09 - 21.02.10. [1]
- Books
- Edited by film historian and critic Gabor Gelencser, a comprehensive reader featuring 22 essays entitled BBS 50. Essays for the 50th Anniversary of Balázs Béla Studio was published in parallel with the exhibition in Mücsarnok in 2009.
- Articles
- [2] (in Hungarian)
