The Power of the Powerless

miro · Zaslal: so leden 23, 2010 1:52 am Předmět: The Power of the Powerless

The Power of the Powerless, an award winning feature-length documentary about Vaclav Havel and the Velvet Revolution.

We are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution and the fall of communism.

The Power of the Powerless has enjoyed packed audiences at 15 international film festivals, where it won the Best Feature Documentary Audience Award from the Sacramento Film Festival, the Golden Palm Award from the Mexico International Film Festival and the Documentary Feature Honorable Mention Award from the Ojai Film Festival in California. The film has also drawn large crowds at select university screenings. Overseas, The Power of the Powerless has been seen on 10 foreign TV networks. In Australia alone, 436,000 households tuned in to ABC Australia to watch the film on December 3rd (based on published ratings). However, in the US, we have yet to pursue television distribution nor have we released the DVD publicly, so that we can first show the film in theaters.

The Power of the Powerless tells the inspiring story of the struggle for freedom and the difficult choices people had to make under communist dictatorship in Czechoslovakia, which eventually led to the Velvet Revolution of 1989.

The Power of the Powerless is particularly relevant today as the media continues to focus attention on countries such as Burma and Iran, where people are struggling for democracy and freedom. One of the largest human rights organizations in Europe, People In Need (PIN), recently licensed the rights to distribute The Power of the Powerless to dissidents in various non-democratic countries including Burma, Belarus, and others in the Middle East. PIN’s Executive Director Simon Pánek has said, “PIN believes that Agora Productions’ high-quality filmmaking and vital messages conveyed in The Power of the Powerless will inspire many who seek nonviolent methods to secure freedom, especially youth.”

Academy Award® winner Jeremy Irons, who narrates The Power of the Powerless, recently offered these words of praise for the film: “So much of history has been airbrushed. It is an exhilarating experience to watch the brutal honesty of The Power of the Powerless. To witness fallible human beings make their way through this period of turmoil, in all their hopelessness, fear and bravery, is a truly uplifting experience. I was proud to be, in a small way, involved.”

For reviews and more information on the film or to watch a trailer go to: www.thepowerofthepowerless.org (screener available upon request).