what to tell the kids

How the project began - from the directors, Miroslav Trejtnar and Taťána Marková

This film captures footage of parents talking to their kids about their experiences during the Velvet Revolution. We want to show how we ourselves experienced that day, our perceptions of the demonstration - which we assumed was just another demonstration, not the deciding event of a Revolution.

Parents told their stories in playful ways. They gathered around a giant map set up on Narodni trida (National Street) and chose a small toy that would represent them at the time of the Velvet Revolution. It acts as their Avator, and it makes the parents' stories more playful and accessible to the children. At the same time, the Avatar allows the parents to lose their self-consciousness and shyness as they are presenting their private stories to a camera.

Our project is time sensitive. Our children are growing, their interests in our family stories are changing. We wonder if our stories will slip away forgotten, if other information that children hear at school will change their perspectives (elementary schools rarely devote much time to teaching modern Czech history).

In some families, we can see traces of the impact that our attempts to relay our stories to the children might have had, as they grow up and find their own political causes, their own passions.

Through our film, we want to inspire and motivate people to tell their personal stories to their families.

About the directors

Miroslav Trejtnar was a student of puppet design at the Academy of Performing Arts in 1989. He participated in the November 17, 1989 demonstration. He started a wooden toy-design company, KID in 1990 and designs puppets, toys and sculpure. He teaches students around the world puppet design at Puppets in Prague.

Taťána Slánská-Marková was a student of cinema studies at the Charles University Philosophical Faculty in 1989, and she was helped organize the pivotal November 17 demonstrations. She later studied at FAMU (Prague Film Academy) and in Los Angeles at USC. Táňa is a now film-maker, who has made several films, including the documentary film "Revolution Girls" about women involved in the Velvet Revolution.

From the producer

Jarmila Poláková has produced several documentary films about the events of the Velvet Revolution (Hledači pevného bodu, Evoluce z revoluce). "This specific form - animation - and for whom the film was intended - children- excited me."

The rest of the team:

Producer - Jarmila Poláková

Animation - Miroslav Trejtnar, Alžběta Beránková, Zdeněk Durdil, Sarah McNeil, Johanka Trejtnar

Editors - Matouš Outrata, Zdeněk Durdil

Camera - Libor Kozák, Dalibor Fencl

Sound - Jiří Kotˇátko, Jan Richtr, Miroslav Šimčík

Music Composed by - Jan Šikl Jr.

Sound Mix - Juraj Mravec

Color correction - Petr Andrle

Dramaturgy - Jan Gogola Jr.

Appearing in the film

Mariana and Rozalie Červenkovi; Daniela Kramerová; Anna, Johana and Libor Kozákovi; Mia and Zoe Legro; Petr Štěpánek; Taťána and Tereza Markovi; Václav Němec and Veronika Němcová; Markéta, Magdaléna, Marie and Karel Novotní; Alma and Lola Reznerovi; Alam Rezner-Purnama; Dominika and Luboš Rychvalští; Johana, Matěj and Miroslav Trejtnarovi; Kateřina Urbánková and Vladimír Urbánek; Františka and Miroslav Vosátkovi; Dalibor Fencl; Jan Fišar; Anna, Karolína Ema, Marek and Rozálie Královi; Jano Kula; Jan Vondráček

About film in the media

You can find a sample of the media coverage about the film here:

• washington post
• US News and World Report
• ABC News
• Fox News
• The Independent
• Mlada Fronta Dnes (in Czech)
• Good Morning, Czech TV (in Czech)
• Czech TV, Art Channel (in Czech)
• Hospodarske noviny (Economic Daily, in Czech)
• Ceske noviny (Czech News, in Czech)
• Eleconomista (Mexico)
• La Presse (Italy)

This film was made with the generous finacial support of:

Leigh Anderton-Hall; Stephanie Atkinson; Pia Banzhaf; Michael Beckerman; Scott Bellefeuille; Bob Beuth ; Jan Rune Blom; Rachel Bluestein; Sarah Boyd; Will, Julia, Caroline and James Bryan Barnard; Dagmar Brychová; Pavla Buchtová; Lenka Bukovská; Polie Campiteli; Shelley Cochran; Jiří Czaban; Sam Davis; Marta de Sola; Thomas Deitenbach; Jay DeYonker; Ana Diaz Barriga Lopez; Tomáš Dohnal ; Jan Donaldson; Daniel Dowhan; Natasha Dudinski; Josiah Emery; the Favaloro Pehe Family; Juan Camilo Fonnegra; Alison Freedman; Kateřina Fričová; Margaret Gaffen; Sarah Gaffen, Chris and Harry Mullin; Fedor Gál; Linda Gates; Roni Golos; Diana Gomberg; Lucie a Jim Gomezovi; Patricia Goodson; Heather Greer; Anna Grusková; Lukáš Grygera; Radka Havlová; Michal Hladík; Michelle Hlubinka; Marie Horáková; Kristin Horton; Kazumi Hunt; Hana Huntová; Yanyun Chen; Zoran Janežič; Jennifer Jansen; Manamong Ju; Emma Jussila- Scherman; Eva Kačerová; Aurelia, William, Esme, Veronika Kalovcovi; Jan Kasl; Marie Tanya Keller; Seyed Ali Mousavi Khalkhal; Veronika Kirschnerová; Jakub Klepal; Markéta Kolářová; Pam Kravetz and Craig Davis; Martha Kuhlman, Petr Štěpánek and Susan Legro; Monika Pajerová-MacDonagh; Ian MacGregor; Concetta Maglione; Terezie Mannová ; Václav Marhoul; Karin Marques; Julien McKinney Young; Petra Mejstříková; Patricia Mikes; Barbora, Ana, Klara and Andreas Muller, Alain Nasnas; Martin Němec; Karel Němeček; Thomas, Věra, Nicholas and Robert Newbold; Martina Odložilíková; Moimir Papalescu; Markéta Pavlíková; Margita Pencevova; Deborah Pleva; Jarmila Poláková; Paolo Polesello; Marek Pulkrábek; Bonita Rhoads; Claudine Rivest; Leoš Rousek; Carol, Peter and Suri Ridder; Martin Seifert; Karen Sell Sheley; Annie Stanton; Richard Stock; Jan Svoboda; Vladana Sztwiertniová; Svatopluk Šuster; Susan Tenner; Katarína Vaculíková; Jasmína Vaňková; Brigid Vidler; Milan Vinš; Nadˇa Vojtková; Zuzana Vološčuková; Marta Werenycká; Jonathan Zittrain

Special thanks to:

Juraj Mravec, Leah Gaffen, Studio Pokrok, Jiří Ptáček - Netservis, Evžen Kukla, Vernouchovi, Františka Durdilová and many others.