The documentary We Build Slovakia returns to the RTVS screen
It will introduce twelve new episodes.
Industrial buildings have their unmistakable charm and Greek. Old factories, breweries, slaughterhouses, reservoirs, mills, train stations and lime plants inseparably belong to the Slovak landscape and the image of our cities. However, they often end up as forgotten, looted objects without doors and windows left here from ancient times. Presence is a unique chronicle of the transformations of Slovakia in the 20th century.
A television series of six documentary portraits of places where industry was built and history was constructed WE BUILD SLOVAKIA I., broadcast RTVS at Dvojka in the premiere at the turn of 2017 and 2018.
From January 10, 2022 The cycle will return in a rerun on television and after its airing, viewers will play each week from February to watch twelve new episodes on two screens, in two premieres. WE BUILD SLOVAKIA II. a III. They will see all three cycles in quick succession.
During the implementation of the new parts, the creators of the young generation of documentary production, students or recent graduates were approached. In the new parts, they tell the stories of once important buildings, areas or thriving factories. In the section on the Dukla Lookout Tower, they recall the stories of people who have just found their place of life here, called Death Valley. They will not forget the forgotten glory of the Družba cinema, once the most modern cinema in Košice, the Merina textile complex in Trenčín, which is linked to the pre-two-stage development of the textile industry in Slovakia, or Dynamitka, which every Bratislava knows and which today represents a long-term unresolved ecological catastrophe.
New parts of the documentary cycle WE BUILD SLOVAKIA II. and III. will be a continuation of the talk about building industry and history of Slovakia in the 20th century. Through the eyes of young directors, the project follows an architecture that quickly and often disappears from our cities without a deserved discussion. In the second series of creators, through the stories of local people and monuments, they tell the broader story of the place in the context of the social, political and cultural conditions of the period. The frequent third series are thematically linked to a specific historical period of Slovakia’s construction. Through the “small” history of individual objects, each part maps one historical period in which it experienced its greatest expansion.
Viewers will be the first to see Twos on January 10 at 8:10 p.m. in reprise part o Sugar factories in Šurany, directed by Bibiana Beňová. In the backdrop of a disintegrated factory and against the background of sugar production, he will tell stories about the hot and sweet life on the Slovak-Hungarian border and about the changing forms of geographical and human borders.
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The initiating moment of the television cycle WE BUILD SLOVAKIA I. was the meeting of the author of the theme Bibiana Beňová with photographers Tomáš Manin and Juraj Fifik. Both systematically document industrial buildings in Slovakia, the abandoned ones are also functional. Their storytelling about the encounters they encountered while photographing the buildings inspired them to look for more stories. They began to compose the story of Slovakia in the 20th century from a completely different perspective than we are used to watching. In the final selection of objects for the first cycle, it was also necessary for the authors to touch on sensitive historical topics. Through a film about shoe factories in Partizánske, for example, they tell the story of the visionary of the Baťa industrial clan, which built an entire city-machine on a green field. But they also talk about the problematic coexistence of Czechs and Slovaks and are looking for unsuccessful attempts at a common state.
The playwright, producer and guarantor of the project is Peter Kerekes.
“Industrial heritage mapping is an important part of our cultural memory. We owe her. While research centers abroad deal with industrial architecture and abandoned reservoirs, breweries or glassworks are transformed into living cultural centers or original residential housing after conversions, there is no systematic inventory of industrial buildings in Slovakia. ” Peter Kerekes.
However, more and more people are realizing the appeal and value of a dilapidated industry. The survey of abandoned places created by the phenomenon of the human hand is one of the present and the interest in them is increasing in Slovakia as well.
Thanks to the creators, the dead buildings will come to life again with the stories of the monuments that once worked here, but also with the adventures of contemporary explorers, whose aesthetics magically attract vanity.
“Buildings are gradually disappearing from our memory. The circumstances under which they arose also disappeared, the old old and the circumstances under which time consumed them also served the old man. Therefore, the key theme of this series is memory. The dead buildings come to life with the stories of people who once worked, lived in the places, but also those who live there today. ” Peter Kerekes.
WE BUILD SLOVAKIA I.
10.1. – CUKROVAR ŠURANY – Bibiana Beňová
17.1. – SHOES RACE IN PARTIZAN – Bibiana Beňová
24.1. – TOBACCO IN SMOLNÍK – Bibiana Beňová
31.1. – ARMOR IN DUBNIC NAD VÁHOM – Bibiana Beňová
7.2. – NICKEL FACTORY IN SEREDIA – Bibiana Beňová
14.2. – WINTER PORT IN BRATISLAVA – Bibiana Beňová
WE BUILD SLOVAKIA II.
PROJECT 566 SEATS – Marek Moučka
DUKLA LOOKOUT TOWER – Matúš Ďuraňa
MICHALOVSKÝ ČERNOBYĽ – Paula Reisel
HAND AND Fingers – Katarina Jonisova, Miro Jelok
HEALTHY GREETINGS FROM THE BATTLE’S BATH – Dorota Vlnová
KYSAKWOOD – Paula Reisel
WE BUILD SLOVAKIA III.
- MERINA – Jana Minarikova
- WATER WORK OF CAT-TREE – Kristína Leidenfrostová
- BRATISLAVA DYNAMITE – Eduard Cicha
- SMALTOVŇA FIĽAKOVO – Lea Podhradská
- OKRASA – Mária Pinčíková
- LUCIA BAŇA – Róbert Rampáček and Palko Matia
The creation of this project was financially supported by the Audiovisual Fund.
Implemented with the financial support of the Fund for the Support of the Culture of National Minorities.
The project was financially supported by the Bratislava City Foundation.
Co-producers: RTVS, Peter Kerekes sro, Slovak Film Institute.
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