Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives
Press Room - 2018
The Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives – Night of the Museums, June 23, 2018
Exhibition in Galeria Centralis
Farewell to the Spring - 1968 behind the Iron Curtain
1968 began in a very promising way for a few Eastern-European countries as political pragmatism seemed to replace rigid ideology. The effect of protest movements in the West had reached the region, and counter culture had begun to affect Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Poland and Hungary. The exhibition presents this tumultuous time of student protests, happenings and hippy events that all came to an abrupt end with the intervention in Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact countries.
5:00 p.m. –7:00 p.m. Guided tour of the exhibition by the curator
4:00 p.m. – 12:00 p.m. Symbols and Slogans from 1968 – Interactive program until midnight
Protest and type! Visitors can type flyers on Cold War era type-writers and print symbols of ’68 with the help of Blinken OSA staff.
4:00 p.m. – 12:00 p.m. Tours of the building: Exhibition hall and archive in a historic building. The Goldberger House, an industrial monument, is open to the public once a year. Its basement holds records of the fieldwork that underpinned Radio Free Europe's broadcasts during the Cold War, as well as collections of human rights documents.
The tours start every two hours; in English on demand
11:00 p.m. Film screening.
Techniques, Tactics, Topics, and Teams in the Hungarian Samizdat
March 13 – April 29, 2018
On the occasion of the 170th anniversary of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution, the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA) presents the exhibition FIRST DEMAND: PRESS FREEDOM.
FILM SCREENING: "OUR SCHOOL"(Şcoala noastră) by Mona Nicoară
DATE: 26/04/2018
Time: 18:00
PLACE: OSA, Arany János u. 32, 1051 Budapest
Please join us for Roma Weeks’s film screening "Our School"(Şcoala noastră), at the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (OSA).
The film "Our School", directed by Mona Nicoară, follows three Roma children from a small Transylvanian town in Romania who are among the first participants in an initiative to integrate the ethnically segregated Romanian schools.
In 2006, Alin, Benjamin, and Dana set out from their dead-end segregated school for the city, optimistic for education and new friendships with Romanians. The children’s hopes and innocent optimism quickly soured as they met with low expectations and further isolation.
Shot over four years, this tender vérité portrait fosters an intimacy in the children's profound reality and admiration for their indomitable spirit, which is punctuated by shocking instances of prejudice and ignorance. Their story touches on issues ranging from institutionalized racism, public education, and the intractability of poverty, culminating in an outrageous finale that cements the Roma children's struggle in the annals of egregious human rights violations.
"Our School" is an absorbing, infuriating, and ultimately bittersweet story of tradition and progress.
The film screening will be followed by a roundtable discussion.
The event is hosted by the Vera & Donald Blinken Open Society Archives.
After the transition of the Southern European countries in the 1970s and of the Central European countries at the end of the 1980s from totalitarian and authoritarian regimes to democratic systems, and the democratic consolidation moving on to the enlargement of the European Union, threatening phenomena have appeared on stage: instead of further consolidation of democracy, illiberal, popular and extreme political tendencies have gained ground. Citizens seem to have forgotten about the morals of the past totalitarian regimes and are indifferent towards political and civil society activities.
This project examines the civic participation and democratic ownership in 5 European countries: Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Poland and Slovakia in the last decade of the totalitarian regimes, focusing on specific fields in each
country and making video interviews with senior activists:
1. fight for free speech, samizdat in Hungary,
2. trade unions – Solidarity in Poland,
3. democratic movements helped by the Catholic and Lutheran Church – in Slovakia and Germany,
4. strikes and mass demonstrations at universities – in Greece.
A national and a transnational civil dialogue is aimed to be fostered refering to the past and the fight for democracy
under totalitarian regimes and about the present – threats to democratic achievements, civic rights, counterbalances.
Re-Verzio: A selection of the 14th Verzio Film Festival's program, including the opening film and award winners.
February 7 – March 7, 2018
5 occasions to see some of the best documentaries of recent years.
A selection of the 14th Verzio’s program, including the opening film and award winners.
Free film screenings on Wednesdays from 6pm at Blinken OSA Archive (Arany János u. 32. 1051 Budapest).
International Workshop: After ICTY – Prospects for Reconciliation and Transitional Justice in the post-Yugoslav Region
Organized by the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives and the Department of Political Science at Central European University
February 21, 2018, 13:00-18:00
At the Vera and Donald Blinken Open Society Archives (1051 Budapest, Arany János utca 32.)
In December 2017, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) completed its primary task of prosecuting crimes committed during the 1992-1995 Yugoslav wars. Hardly any of its decisions passed without controversies. However, dissatisfaction with and public denials of the last ICTY verdicts can be seen as an indication that the prosecution of war crimes left many questions regarding the establishment of transitional justice in the post-Yugoslav region still open. What have ICTY judgments achieved in terms of justice making in the former warring countries? To which extent did the ICTY verdicts contribute to a process of national and regional reconciliation? What was the role of the ICTY indictments in contesting or reproducing the dominant war narratives among the countries? Was responsibility for the committed crimes in the name of a collectivity adequately assumed?
This workshop featuring speakers from academic institutions and NGOs, aims at elaborating these questions. It will be focused, in particular, on specifying legal and political mechanisms of transitional justice, their moral justification and the possibilities for their application within the post-Yugoslav social and political context.
Admission is free and open to the public, but places are limited. For further information and registration, please contact Perica Jovchevski, jovchevski_perica@phd.ceu.edu
A program keretében tartott kétnapos műhelyfoglalkozás lehetőséget nyújtott középiskolás és egyetemista diákoknak, hogy megismerjék a 21. századi újságírás alapjait, a sajtószabadság és a független média fontosságát.
4 gyakorló újságíró mentor segítségével betekintést nyerhettek a videós újságírás alapjaiba, megtanulhatták az adatvizualizáció és adatújságírás mesterfogásait, kipróbálhatták élesben is a lapszerkesztést.
A program célja, hogy az újságírás főbb pilléreinek megismerése után egy gyakorló diák-szerkesztőség alakuljon, ahol közösen ötletelve egy laptervvel álljanak elő a résztvevő diákok. A már elkészült lapterv alapján a frissen felállt szerkesztőség március 14-re egy kész lapszámmal jelentkezik majd.
A workshop egyik apropója, hogy 2018. március 14-én a Blinken OSA Archívumban kerül megrendezésre az egyik legrangosabb európai sajtódíj, a European Press Prize díjátadó rendezvénye.
A workshop résztvevői meghívást kapnak a február 14-i European Press Prize díjátadóra valamint az aznap 14:00 órától tartandó, angol nyelvű mesterkurzusra a European Press Prize szervezésében.
Pályázati felhívás
PressUP! Média- és sajtószabadság a 21. században
KREATÍV WORKSHOP diákoknak a legjobb fiatal magyar szakemberek vezetésével