Twin Cities Film Premier Aftermath & The Last of the Unjust

Aftermath
Thursday, April 10
7:00p.m.
St, Anthony Main Theatre
Part of The Film Society of Mpls/St. Paul International Film Festival
Introduction by Alejandro Baer, Director CHGS

For tickets and information please click here.

Inspired by real events that haunt Poland's past, Wladyslaw Pasikowski (who wrote the screenplay for Andrzej Wajda's Katyn) turns in a hard-hitting allegory on the anti-Semitism that still raises its ugly head in his home country. Franek and Jozek are brothers who are reunited after 20 years in order to take care of the family farm. Franek, recently returned from the US, discovers that Jozek has been ostracized from the community for threatening to uncover a dark secret. As Franek and Jozek struggle to rebuild their relationship, they are drawn into a horrifying gothic tale. Upon its release in Poland, Aftermath received acclaim, but also generated intense controversy.



The Last of the Unjust
Sunday, April 13
1 p.m.
St Anthony Main Theatre
Part of The Film Society of Mpls/St. Paul International Film Festival
Introduction by Bruno Chaoaut, Chair, Department of French & Italian, former director CHGS.

For tickets and information please click here.

Claude Lanzmann returns to a series of interviews he made in 1975 with Benjamin Murmelstein, the last President of the Jewish Council in the Theresienstadt ghetto. Murmelstein was largely demonized after the war, accused of collaborating with the Nazis, with his survival being the proof. These interviews, however, tell a different story--one of a pragmatic man who fought not only for his own survival but also the survival of every Jew he could possibly help. A powerful addendum to Lanzmann's masterpiece Shoah, The Last of the Unjust employs an unadorned style for an incredibly complicated historical narrative that continues to be defined today.
Sponsored by the European Studies Consortium, Institute for Global Studies, Center for Austrian Studies, The Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of French & Italian, and The Film Society of Mpls/St. Paul.

The Czech Republic: Still in Transition? The difficult voyage from Communism to European Union - to today

Wednesday, October 17, 2012
12:00 p.m.
1210 Heller Hall

Twenty-two years ago Czechoslovakia launched itself on a journey towards a free and democratic society. Under the motto Back to Europe, people expressed their desire to recapture the interrupted tradition of excellence, openness and toleration that characterized the first Czechoslovak Republic of 1918-1938.

Led by the visionary President, Václav Havel, the Czech Republic has reached important milestones, joining NATO and the EU. The largely successful transformation can be used as a model for the closed societies such as Cuba and Iran, or the ones in early transition, such as the Arabic countries in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions. In general, the experience of Central Europe, with its successes and failures, is a useful, albeit limited tool in all attempts to calibrate transition from a close to an open society.

Dr. Klvana's career spans from being the student leader during the velvet revolution that toppled the Communist Government, to being an important journalist, public official, and now major proponent of non-profit civil society. His work with the Zdenek Bakala Global Non-Profit Programs oversees several projects, including the Vaclav Havel Presidential Library and the newly established branch of the Aspen Institute on whose Board of Directors he serves as Vice President.
He is lecturer at the New York University in Prague. He worked as press secretary and policy adviser to President of the Czech Republic, Vaclav Klaus, and in 2007-08 was a special Government Communication Envoy for the Missile Defense Program. In 2001-03 Dr. Klvana was Deputy Editor-in-chief of Hospodarske Noviny (a leading Czech daily) and in 2000-01 a senior international commentator for the Czech daily newspaper Mlada Fronta Dnes. In 2011 Dr. Klvana published his literary debut, a novel "Marina, A Russian Story" in Czech by Paseka Press. Dr. Klvana serves on the Board of Directors of Economia Publishing, a leading Czech media organization, and also on Board of ther Harvard Club in Prague, and is a member of the Czech Euroatlantic Council.
In 2012 he was awarded the prestigious Distinguished Leadership Award for Internationals from the University of Minnesota, where he earned his PhD degree in Speech Communication 1997. He also holds an MA degree in journalism from the Charles University in Prague. In 2003 he was a Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard University Kennedy School. Dr. Klvana publishes a blog in Czech in which he analyses international relations for leading Czech media. He frequently participates in international conferences.
Sponsored by: Global Studies, Austrian Studies, European Studies Consortium, History, Global Programs and Strategy Alliance.
For more information contact Katie Evans.