Screening of a documentary film about a Czech journalist and a hero of Bulgaria, Vladimir Sis, who reported from the frontline of the Balkan War (1912-1913) as a correspondent for the Narodni Listy newspaper in Prague and became an important voice for the Czech national independence movement and the Bulgarian cause. Director of the film, Gospodin Nedelchev, will be present for Q&A after the screening. A light reception will follow the program.
Citizen Sis, 2019, directed by Gospodin Nedelchev. In Bulgarian with English subtitles.
Vladimir Sis (1889-1958) was a Czech patriot, journalist, and writer. At age 23, he sent his reports from the frontline of the Balkan War (1912-1913) as a correspondent for the Narodni Listy newspaper in Prague. He became an important voice for the Czech national independence movement and the Bulgarian cause. Persecuted by the Austro-Hungarian regime, arrested later by the Nazis, he was killed in the Leopoldov prison during the 1950s communist purges in Czechoslovakia. In 1998, Vladimir Sis was posthumously awarded the Order of T. G. Masaryk by president Vaclav Havel.
The film Citizen Sis explores the European and the Czech history of the first half of the 20th century: The Balkan Wars (1912-13), the T.G. Masaryk’s “MAFFIE” organization (1914), the World Wars, First and Second Czech Resistance – as Vladimir Sis participated directly and actively in all those events. The film was shot in Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Slovakia, and the Balkans, and features Bulgarian and Czech researchers and Sis’ close relatives.
Gospodin Nedelchev, Ph.D., is an award-winning Bulgarian film director, artist, animator, and screenwriter of more than forty animated and documentary films. As an Associate Professor, he teaches Animation Directing at the National Academy for Theater and Film Arts in Sofia, Bulgaria, and is a member of the Union of Bulgarian Filmmakers and the Union of Bulgarian Journalists.
venue: Bohemian National Hall, 1st floor Cinema, 321 E. 73rd Street, New York
Free and open to the public. Suggested donation $5. Seats are limited, on first-come, first-served basis. RSVP online through Eventbrite.
This event is organized by the Czechoslovak Society of Arts and Sciences (SVU) New York and the Bulgarian History Club in New York, with support of BBLA.