Staging dissent

A team of Czech, American and expat filmmakers added considerable dramatic flair to the celebrations surrounding the events of Nov. 17. The crew led a mob of more than 200 extras through a re-enactment of the legendary clash between students and riot police Nov. 17, 1989.

At the head of it all was American writer/director Gary Keith Griffin, who has contributed to documentaries about autism that were either nominated for or won Academy Awards and whose talents as a cinematographer and director of photography have been honored at Sundance Film Festival.

The footage of the event will contribute to a feature film, now in the works, which will examine the events on the ground that sparked the Velvet Revolution.

At first blush, it may strike some as odd that an American filmmaker should attempt to capture the essence of the revolution, but the story is told largely from the Czech perspective and involves intense collaboration from Czech writers, engineers and artists; including the Czech author Arnošt Lustig, who contributes to the script, and his son Josef, who is producing and co-directing the film.

The team's film, Listopad, is a work in progress, but the thrust of the story follows three teenage boys who are caught up in the turbulent events of 1989.

Griffin was inspired to write the script after getting to know several young men - three of whom are now members of the film crew - who were in the middle of Národní třida on the night of Nov. 17. The story tells the boys' tale in fictionalized terms as they evolve from typical teenagers of the period - surviving communism by drinking beer, chasing girls and obsessing over sports - into demonstrators in the streets standing up to oppression.

In the days before the anniversary, Griffin and filmmaker Jeff Brown co-hosted a visit from American documentarian Barbara Kopple. Kopple won an Academy Award for Harlan County, USA (1976) and American Dream (1991), both of which focused on the plight of union laborers on strike. She has worked consistently since the days before making independent documentary films was in vogue or even profitable. Kopple's films Woodstock: Then & Now and Shut Up & Sing (about the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks after they openly criticized former President George W. Bush and the invasion of Iraq) screened on separate evenings at Divadlo Archa and the American Center prior to the re-enactment. Kopple was also on hand to help shoot footage around Prague Nov. 17 as the team's cameras followed Listopad's real-life protagonists on the march from Albertov to Národní and elsewhere.

Asked why she has devoted so much of her life to documentary filmmaking, Kopple replied, "I love it. I get to step into people's lives in a really intense and intimate way that I wouldn't have access to otherwise."

Prior to the re-enactment, Brown explained in an interview with The Prague Post that the final shape of the product bound to emerge from the team's efforts is difficult to predict with certainty at this stage.

"You don't always know what you're going to end up with. You just have to shoot everything and see what you've got."

In a follow-up after the anniversary, Brown explained that the shoot went off without a hitch.

Whatever form Listopad eventually takes, rarely has a film set fit more seamlessly into its surroundings than Griffin and crew's did Nov. 17.

James Walling can be reached at
jwalling@praguepost.com