The documentary heritage of Pál Schiffer

is available for research at the Opens Society Archives (OSA Archivum)

On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of his birth, the archive of the Balázs Béla prize winning film maker Pál Shiffer (1939-2001) has been made available for the public.

The archive includes approximately 7 liner meters of Hungarian language documents, scripts, photographs, interviews, and correspondence covering the entire film making process as well as media coverage of the films produced by Schiffer. The finding aid is available on-line in English and Hungarian: http://osaarchivum.org/db/fa/356.htm

Schiffer was not only a documentary film maker, he documented his era, working closely with known Hungarian sociologist: István Kemény, Gábor Havas, Zsolt Csalog, Pál Juhász, and Gábor Vági. He relied on their expertise and research results to expose social problems of the Kádár era. Works by Schiffer are also stored at OSA Archivum along with rich background information on each film project: Blak Train, What do Gypsy Children do?, Gyuri Cséplő, The Probationer, Earthly Paradise, Cowboys, Introduction to the Political Economy of Capitalism.