Mutual Inspirations Festival Launch

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On September 5, at 6 pm, the Embassy of the Czech Republic presented Václav Havel's Evening. This very special kick off to the festival explored the many nuances of Havel's personality. See the official video from the festival launch.

The program featured the presentation „Prison Experience of Václav Havel in Memories and Documents“, with special guests Petra Čáslavová (Political Prisoners.eu) and Tomáš Bouška (ASPEN Prague). The screening of Jan Novák's film “Citizen Havel Goes on Vacation” (Občan Havel jede na dovolenou, 2004, 90 minutes, Czech with English subtitles) followed the presentation. The documentary recreates Václav Havel’s trip across Czechoslovakia in 1985, when he was still the country's most prominent dissident. In the course of one week, he was twice thrown into jail for 48 hours of preventive detention and followed by over 300 plain-clothed policemen.

The event concluded with the opening of the exhibition Olga Havlová: In the Memories of Her Friends and in the Photographs of Bohdan Holomíček (sponsored by ÚSTR Prague and PANT Ostrava).

In 2013 the Czech civic organization Political Prisoners.eu launched a new project aimed at exploring Václav Havel’s prison experience. The newly developed website dedicated to this project under the domain prisonerhavel.eu / vezenhavel.cz will gather different sources of information such as documents from institutions of repression, documents of human rights organizations defending Václav Havel, documents regarding the reception of Havel’s situation in the official media, samizdat as well as international media, prison correspondence, expressions of solidarity within the dissent and prison memories of Václav Havel, his friends, relatives, and cellmates.

We believe that pieces of structured and transparent information and audiovisual materials will allow for all persons interested in President Havel’s story to understand better one of the key chapters of his life. His prison experience represents an ultimate involvement as well as an important feature shaping the future career of the statesman who became a leading icon in the fight for human rights and the rights of political prisoners all over the world. Through mapping the prison experience of Václav Havel, we also hope to make available the research of Czechoslovak political imprisonment in the 1970s and 1980s in general.

YOU CAN SUPPORT THE PROJECT by sending us financial donation.
ASK FOR MORE DETAILS AT: info (at) politicalprisoners.eu
THANK YOU FOR CHOOSING TO SUPPORT US!