Eureka!
I have found my new project for class. I realize this is late, but I only discovered the documentary on Monday and have been racing around trying to figure out what to do with it. I am going to build a site around a documentary called Dunanal or Magyar Stories (search for a description here), as I have seen it translated in the few places that it pops up on the web. The film is a compilation of interviews with residents of Dunapataj, a small town in Hungary, about what happened there during the 1956 revolution through to the making of the film in the 1980s. What makes it so important for my family and me is that my grandparents are two of the interviewees.
I did not think about using the film for my project until now, because I did not think we still have a copy of it and, until I took this class, I thought making a website about a film would be too difficult. I have been running around all week and gathering information at GMU and online, and the only catch I have found so far is with copyright issues. I am thankful that we are covering copyrights next week. Also for those of you who need help, I discovered that there is a copyright office in the library at the Johnson Center with some helpful people. As for me and Magyar Stories, I am not worried. There are probably only a few copies of the film left, and the director seems to have died and left everything to a university in Budapest. I am hoping that no one cares what I will do with it, but of course I need to verify that. If I do run into problems, I can cater my project to what is legally possible.
Before I finish this post, I want to write something about why the documentary has wider historical significance outside of my own family history, which comes up in the interviews. The film is really a primary source, with interviews from eight or nine people who lived through a revolution. All of the interviewees, I believe, are dead now, and primarily I want my project to preserve their testimonies about what happened. Their opinions come through clearly. Most supported the revolution, and two were for the status quo. All in all, it would be easy to relate many parts of the film to the big currents of 20th century European history. What is exciting about that is I can do it with new media, so I can bring in photographs, more video with news reports, newspaper articles, and even things I can scrounge up in Dunapataj. I go there about once a year, so I can work on it next summer.
There you go. I will think about my project more and come up with my outline for class next week. The details should come together over the weekend.
