Global South Filmmakers Critiqued Racism in Socialist Czechoslovakia Through FAMU Student Films
In 1968, Krishna Viswanath produced the documentary Black and White at Prague's FAMU, tackling issues of racial bias within Czechoslovak society. Originally from Calcutta, Viswanath had been studying at FAMU since 1965, capturing the dynamics between African men and Czech women to highlight prevailing ignorance and prejudice. The film was showcased at the 1968 Festival of Short Films in Karlovy Vary and noted in the FAMU journal Forum. Juan Carlos Delgado's 1986 work From Elsewhere focused on the discrimination faced by international students and the Roma and Vietnamese communities. Both films were created during times of relative tolerance amid censorship, with their supervisor Antonín Navrátil advocating for documentary as a means of critical examination, challenging the socialist view of internationalism and exposing racial hierarchies.
Key facts
- Krishna Viswanath created Black and White in 1968 as his FAMU graduate project
- Juan Carlos Delgado made From Elsewhere in 1986 while studying at FAMU
- Both films explicitly addressed racism toward international students in Czechoslovakia
- Black and White screened at the Festival of Short Films in Karlovy Vary in 1968
- Supervisor Antonín Navrátil championed socially engaged documentary filmmaking
- FAMU student films were subject to censorship and script approval
- The films emerged during periods of increased tolerance: 1968 and the late 1980s
- Research draws on materials from the Czech National Film Archive
Entities
Artists
- Krishna Viswanath
- Juan Carlos Delgado
- Antonín Navrátil
- Jaromil Jireš
- Drahomíra Vihanová
- Jan Procházka
- Octavio Cortazár
- Nabil Maleh
- Mohammad Lakhdar-Hamina
- Tereza Stejskalová
- James Mark
- Artemy Kalinovsky
- Steffi Marung
- Tobias Rupprecht
- Ljubica Spaskovska
- Bogdan C. Iacob
- Quinn Slobodian
- Tereza Czesany Dvořáková
- Magda Lipska
- K. Fiala
- Filip Herza
- Martin Štoll
- Peter Hames
- Matěj Strnad
- Sylva Poláková
- Michal Klodner
- Rado Ištok
- Yevgeniy Fiks
- Angela Davis
Institutions
- Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts (FAMU)
- Czech National Film Archive
- Czechoslovak Communist Party
- Indiana University Press
- Cambridge University Press
- Berghahn
- Charles University
- Palgrave Macmillan
- ARTMargins Online
- Forum
- We 1965 (My 1965)
Locations
- Prague
- Czechoslovakia
- Czech Republic
- Calcutta
- Madras
- Bombay
- India
- Colombia
- Karlovy Vary
- Poland
- Soviet Union
- Łódź
- Ghana
- Switzerland
- East Africa
- Hungary
- Central Europe
- Eastern Europe