Past for the Eyes

Oksana Sarkisova is a Research Archivist at OSA Archivum, Central European University and Program Director of the International Documentary Film Festival Verzió. Péter Apor is permanent research fellow at the Institute of History, Humanities Research Center, Budapest.

• Introduction Part One: Documents of Communism: Lost and Found Rév: The Man in the White Raincoat Uitz: Communist Secret Services on the Screen: The Adventures of the Duna-gate Scandal in and Beyond Hungarian Media Varga: Façades: Private and Public in Kádár’s Kiss by Péter Forgács Solomon: Filmmaker’s Experience: Reconstructing Reality from Communist Archive Documents Part Two: Subjects of Nostalgia: Selling the Past Dakovic: Out of the Past: Memories and Nostalgia in (Post) Yugoslav Cinema Sarkisova: Long Farewells: The Anatomy of the Soviet Past in Contemporary Russian Cinema Poblocki: The Economics of Nostalgia: Socialist Films and Capitalist Commodities in Contemporary Poland Dominková: “We have democracy, don’t we?” Czech Society Reflected by Contemporary Czech Cinema Part Three: Objects of Memory: Museums, Monuments, Memorials Horváth: The Redistribution of the Memory of Socialism: Identity Formations in Hungary after 1989 Cristea - Radu-Bucurenci: Raising the Cross. Exorcising Romania’s Communist Past in Museums, Memorials and Monuments Vukov: The “Unmemorable” and the “Unforgettable”: “Museumizing” the Socialist Past in Post-1989 Bulgaria Mark: Containing Fascism: History in Post-Communist Baltic Occupation and Genocide Museums Main: How Communism Is Displayed? Exhibitions and Museums of Communism in Poland

"With their collection of essays, Oksana Sarkisova and Péter Apor aim at an interim statement about this multifaceted wave of remembrance by focusing on visual material, namely cinema and museums. Their geographical scope is broad - from the Baltic region to east central Europe and the Balkans, including Russia. They have organized the thirteen contributions in three parts "so as to reflect upon the concepts of 'document,' 'nostalgia' and 'objects,' which are crucial, but underexplored aspects of the complicated relationships between professional historical work and other spcial practices of evoking the past." Past for the Eyes is a major contribution to the booming field of studies exploring how communism is remembered in postcommunist societies."