The first of KineDok online events is here. From 11 to 17 October, you can watch the documentary film Pongo Calling about a truck driver, a family man, and an activist who openly opposed the systematic bullying of Romani population. There will also be an online discussion on the topics from the film on KineDok International's Facebook page on Monday 16 October at 7 PM (GMT+1).
PONGO CALLING (Tomáš Kratochvíl, 2022, Czech Republic, Slovakia, United Kingdom, 78 min.)
When Miloš Zeman publicly casts Romani people as a non-working segment of the population, reinforcing stereotypes and hostility toward them, Štefan decides to take action. Through social networks, he will call on Romani people to post photos of their work and prove not only to Zeman, but to society as a whole that these stereotypes should be refuted, not reinforced. The truck driver has thus become an activist whose path leads him to public demonstrations in Brussels. However, director Tomáš Kratochvíl's aim is not only to show the birth of a folk hero, but also the background of his family's life. The family has lived for many years as a fully-fledged part of British society. The film thus composes an epitaph not only to Štefan Pongo, who died in February 2022, and the diligence of the Roma community, but also to all the people who left the uncomfortable bubble of their homeland and were not afraid to start a better life elsewhere.
The film is available in all KineDok countries (Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Georgia and Croatia). To see it for free, you need a voucher, which you can request at films@kinedok.net.
DISCUSSION: FROM TRUCK DRIVER TO ACTIVIST
A discussion on topics from the film will take place on Monday, October 16 at 7 PM (GMT +1) on KineDok International's Facebook page. You can look forward to the son of the protagonist Mark Pongo and Dagmar Litterová, it will be moderated by Sarah Lomenová.
Dagmar Litterová
She works as the director of Horizontal Priority - Equal Opportunities, where she has been creating innovations for access to funds for 10 years. In addition to working for the European Commission and the Ministry of Social Affairs, Family and Labor, she is involved in various pro-social and charitable actions.
Sarah Lomenová
She is a Master's student at the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU. In her films she tries to leave a message that we are here on Earth together and our actions and lives affect each other. Her most recent short film, Serpentis, which observes life around a hot water pipeline, won the Pavel Koutecký Award this year along with the feature film Pongo Calling.