Ladislav Helge - Cesta za občanským filmem – Bilík Petr (2012)

Chapters from the History of Czechoslovak Cinema after 1945 Ladislav Helge is considered one of the most engaged filmmakers in the history of Czech cinema. Films such as School of Fathers, The Great Solitude, and Shame in the 1950s and 60s sharply opposed party demagoguery and aesthetics and remain valuable testimonies to the competition between free creative expression and censorship, as well as the communist conception of culture and its mission. Helge entered the film industry shortly after World War II, and his active filmmaking career ended with the onset of normalization, when he was completely barred from working in the field as an enemy of the new regime. A significant part of Helge's life also consists of his organizational and political engagement, which peaked with his work for the Film and Television Union and his leading role in the Coordinating Committee of Artistic Unions at the end of the 1960s. Both organizations were at the forefront of the renewal process and defended Czech culture from devastation after the invasion of Warsaw Pact troops. During the 1970s, Helge was interrogated multiple times by the StB, worked in various professions, and ultimately found refuge in Laterna Magika. After 1989, he attempted to protect Czech cinema from wild privatization and briefly served as the head of...