In 2006, in the context of the 50th anniversary of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, we held a special event at the Salon, focusing on personal stories of this momentous political and historical event. This year, in keeping with our interest in seeking out the "human" side of such events, we would like to mark the 1956 anniversary with the screening of a film that tells the story from an unexpected perspective.
Freedom's Fury is a US-made documentary film released in 2006 (audio in English, Hungarian, and Russian, with English subtitles). It follows the unfolding story of the '56 Revolution with a parallel focus on the Hungarian men's water polo team as they prepared to take part in that year's Olympics games in Melbourne, Australia – where, as fate would have it, they would meet their country's political nemesis, the Soviet Union, on a different field of battle, the water polo pool, in the Olympic semi-final match. The match that resulted still stands as probably the most famous water polo match in history, known for the "blood in the water" that resulted from the rough play between the teams, and especially the famous injury to one player that brought the game to an end. To tell their story, the makers of Freedom's Fury gathered together many of the players from both the Hungarian and Soviet sides of the match, and their interviews make the film a compelling look at the dramatic events of 1956.
We will be joined by journalist and human rights activist Balázs Nagy Navarro, who will offer a brief presentation and moderate our discussion. Balázs is a radio, TV, and newspaper journalist with extensive experience in international affairs, and spent ten years covering Asia and Europe for Hungarian public television. As an activist, Balázs has many years of experience working with many different organizations, including Amnesty International, and is a former Chair and current member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International Hungary. He also brought and won an important discrimination lawsuit against Hungarian public radio on the issue of equal pay for equal work. Balázs can currently be heard as host of Mindenki joga (Everybody's rights), a weekly talk show on human rights issues on Civil Radio 98FM, airing every Monday from 10am to 12pm.
For more background on Thursday's salon, we invite you to explore the following links:
- Visit the official website of Freedom's Fury
- Read Wikipedia's page on the "Blood in the Water" match
- Visit Civil Radio on the web at http://www.civilradio.hu
- View the program webpage for Mindenki joga (in Hungarian)
- Read about our 2006 event on the 50th anniversary of the Hungarian Revolution
- Listen to the audio of our 2006 event – highly recommended!
I just would like to ask what time 30th screening is???
Posted by: volkan | Wednesday, October 29, 2008 at 10:17 PM