Czech Radio: All-Sokol Rallies and Spartakiades

synopsis

For most of the 20th century, mass physical education events took place at various intervals in the Strahov stadium, from which many audio and film titles have been preserved. A closer look reveals that these are valuable comparative materials, telling us a lot not only about the changes in exercise as a result of the replacement of the all-soccer meetings by Spartakiádas, but also about the audio and audiovisual techniques that provided the desired publicity for these state-sponsored events. Listening to the radio sounds of the mass exercises, the two-hour tape will encourage you to follow the audio dimension of the projected film images, where you will learn about the depiction of the rallies and Spartakiadás as both world and regional events at the same time, and last but not least, your attention will be captivated by the stylized representation of the child and army drill sergeants, whose strong representation in the sounds and films cannot be ignored. Tomáš Dufka, from the Czech Radio Archive, and Terezie Hlaváčková and Alena Šlingerová, from the National Film Archive, will guide you through a selection of radio reports and film documentaries from 1938–1965. In addition to broadcasts by the leading radio reporters Miloslav Disman, Franta Kocourek, and Josef Cincibus, the programme will also include reports from the 1965 Spartakiáda by the then editors of Czechoslovak, Radio Zdeněk Svěrák and Miloň Čepelka. The film part will offer, among other things, selections from Martin Frič’s documentaries on the 10th All-Sokol Meeting (1938) and the first national Spartakiada (1955), as well as Václav Hapl’s documentary Concerto grosso, on the military parade at the 3rd Spartakiáda (1965). The programme is followed by a public listening of the podcast series ČRo Plus Rozehra at the Horácké divadlo.