The way it was?: fashioning history in Diary Film – I was 12 in’56

Abstract

This article looks at Diary Film – I was 12 in ’56 / Naplófilm – 12 voltam 56-ban (Boglárka Edvy, animator, and Sándor Silló, director, 2006), a documentary based on a child's diary written during the 1956 Hungarian uprising against Soviet hegemony, in the context of theories of history, memory and knowledge. The diary is the core material. But the documentary's idiosyncratic use of archival materials, recreated images and animations pave the way for the filmmakers to engage with history anew. The observations, interests and understandings of the child provide information that nourishes the filmmakers’ and spectators’ interpretation of Budapest in 1956, not only empowering the voices of subjects whose version of history has often remained unexplored, but also, by disrupting conventional modes of reception, forcing viewers to decipher and assemble, engaging them in the construction of historical knowledge.

Keywords::

• History
• memory
• knowledge
• documentary materials
• 1956 Hungarian uprising

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Rossen Djagalov, Gizem Ekiz, Hardy Griffin, Aslı Kotaman, István Rév, Réka Sárközy, Eser Selen, András Szekfü, Teoman Türeli, and last, but certainly not least, Mark Wyers.

Notes

^1. The documentary is in Hungarian. We cite the English subtitles.

^2. Demetz is writing specifically about ‘A Berlin Chronicle’; however, it is interesting to also think about Benjamin's notes for his book on nineteenth century Paris in this light.

^3. The essay is ‘On the Image of Proust’ in Walter Benjamin: Selected Writings 1927–1930 (2005).

^4. Benjamin begins his essay ‘Marseilles’ (in Reflections) with a quote by André Breton: ‘The street… the only valid field of experience’ (1978b, 131).

^5. See, for instance, the photomontages of John Heartfield, Hannah Höch, El Lissitzky, and Alexander Rodchenko.

^6. This discussion is indebted to Scott Bukatman's ‘Battles with Songs: The Soviet Historical Film as Historical Document,’ Persistence of Vision 3(4): 23.

^7. What is the difference between Latabár [a comedian] and Kádár? Latabár is clever and plays the fool and Kádár is a fool and plays at being clever.

^8. The phrase is taken from the translator's foreword to The Arcades Project (2002, ix).

^9. The adult Gyula became a librarian and was photographed in his interview surrounded by books.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Louise Spence

Louise Spence has published a couple of dozen articles in anthologies and journals, and is the author or co-author of several books, including Crafting Truth: Documentary Form and Meaning and the award-winning Writing Himself into History: Oscar Micheaux, His Silent Films, and His Audiences (both Rutgers University Press).

Nilgün Özten

Nilgün Özten holds a bachelor's degree in International Relations from Istanbul University and a master's degree in Communication Sciences from Kadir Has University. She studies the theories of memory, history and knowledge in the context of documentary cinema.