Studio zpravodajského filmu Praha

Documentary about the Peace Congress held in Vienna in 1952. The film shows the opening speech of the President of the World Peace Council, Professor F. Joliot-Curie followed by speeches by a number of outstanding peace activists, representatives of nations from 85 countries. In addition to the main session, the film also includes footage of the meetings of the various commissions and sub-commissions, then footage of the streets of Vienna, where the peace delegates were besieged by the youth of Vienna and their requests for autographs, and then footage of the closing session of the Congress and the procession through which the Viennese greeted the peace delegates. The film was made with the cooperation of the Polish State Film, DEFY and Czechoslovak State Film.

A reportage film from the fourth annual International track-and-field meeting of the so-called Evžen Rošický Memorial. Rošický was a Czechoslovak record-holder and communist journalist, who was member of the anti-fascist resistance during the occupation and was murdered by Nazis. At the memorial, important figures from Czech athletics are presented, e.g. the runner Stanislav Jungwirth, the javelin throwers Miloš Kopřiva and Dana Zátopková, triple jumper Martin Řehák, and others.

Besides presenting an actual exhibition, this film about a Monument of National Literatuře also presents an interpretation of the history of Czech literature that was subject to the mores of that time. It looks at the exhibition chronologically, it comments on documents from the beginnings of the national literature up to the 1950s, emphasises the importance of the relationship of the present time with the national cultural tradition. It labels the museum itself as a “people’s university” and draws attention to its educational role.

Within the cultural policy framework of the 1950s, Mikoláš Aleš was, in terms of fine art, equivalent to Bedřich Smetana in music and Alois Jirásek in history and literature. This biopic presents Aleš as an artist of a devoted to his nation and its folk traditions. The movie depicts the most important events of the celebration of “Aleš’s Year” (in honour of the hundredth anniversary of Aleš’s birth), which was conceptually prepared first and foremost by the then education minister Zdeněk Nejedlý, who was also a crucial figure in terms of cultural policy.