Ilona Kolonits (17 March 1922 – 2 August 2002) was a Hungarian documentary film director.
Contents |
Ilona Kolonits was born in Budapest to a family of political activists who took an active part in the Hungarian anti-fascist *resistance movement during the Second World War . Kolonits was influenced by the selfless social dedication of her family and also by their associations with left-wing humanist intellectuals including the Hungarian poet, Attila József. During the Second World War the Kolonits family helped and sheltered in their home victims of fascist persecution, and the teen-aged Ilona rescued of a number of Jewish children by taking them out of the Budapest getto in this way saving them from being deported to concentration camps (in 2007 Ilona Kolonits, her mother, Paolina Holka, and Ilona's two elder sisters, Margit and Paola were awarded the Righteous Among the Nations title by Yom HaShoah). During this time Erzsébet Garai who was orphaned was practically adopted into the Kolonits family and the two girls formed a friendship which lasted a lifetime. Garai later became one of the first Hungarian women film theoreticians, and for decades she was the Director of the Hungarian Film Institute and editor of its periodical, 'Filmkultúra' (Film Culture). Garai's knowledge of film and ethical theories was later to provide inspiration for Kolonits towards conceptual frameworks of her cinematic projects. In 1944 Kolonits' father, Ferenc Kolonits was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp amongst other leading members of the Hungarian Social Democratic Party, and in April 1945 he took part in the uprising which led to the liberation of the camp. The memories of fascist persecutions in Hungary against Jews and left-wing political activist left a lasting impression on Kolonits and formed the basis to her lifelong commitment to ideas of international peace and cross-cultural understanding.[1]
After the Second World War Kolonits studied acting at the College of Theatrical and Film Studies in Budapest, and in 1953 she completed her PhD in Documentary Film and Cinema at the Moscow State Institute of Cinematography (VGIK) where she met Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Aleksandrov. Kolonits befriended a number of contemporary Russian filmmakers and writers, and this is when her lifelong friendship began with the Russian film director Grigorij Csuhraj and his family.
Kolonits was amongst the first women film directors in Hungary. Between 1951 and 1989 she was employed as film director at the Mafilm Film Studios in Budapest and later at the Hungarian Documentary Film Studios. While other Hungarian women film makers of her generation including Márta Mészáros and Ilona Katkics produced films in other genres, Kolonits remained faithful throughout her life to her calling as a documentary filmmaker. In 1954 Kolonits became a fellow of the Hungarian Academy of Arts.[2] She died in Budapest.
Ilona Kolonits shot over 500 newsreels and directed over one hundred documentary, popular science and sport films, of which 17 received international and six national Hungarian festival awards.
Ilona Kolonits' best known and most disputed film is Ez It Happened (1957), the first politically directive film of the Kádár era (1957–1989) in Hungary. The film was edited from documentary footages in support of the political status quo and was narrated by faithful to the Kadar system journalists. The historical attention to this one film made early on in Kolonits' career overshadowed the importance of the considerable on international scale cinematic heritage of Kolonits' humanist documentary cinema.[3]
Kolonits' style of film making was influenced by the great Russian documentalist film directors including Dziga (Dzyga) Vertov - Following in Vertov's tradition Kolonits took an active part in shooting of footage of her films at times daring risky locations with the camera. Kolonits documentaries focused on ordinary people's lives, she liked poetical and lyrical montage and relished narration through images.[2] In 1955 Kolonits started a several decades-long series of documentary films entitled Birthday which followed the lives of a group of Hungarian women throughout their school reunions thus giving a more intimate, feminine view of a generation of Hungarian women.
Kolonits' later films in their essence promoted ideas of peace and intercultural integration through portraying the everyday lives of ordinary people around the world, often women and children, in the shadow of great historical events. In the 1960s and 1970s Kolonits filmed numerous documentaries and news items in the Middle and Far East often braving war time conditions. One of her most outstanding cinematic achievements is the short film Eroica (1975), which portrays the impact of the Vietnam War on the lives of Vietnamese women and children in a series of images harmonised to the sounds of Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Op. 55) by Ludwig van Beethoven (known as the Eroica, Italian for "heroic").
Film and Cinematic Festival awards won by Ilona Kolonits included Párizs, Moscow, Oberhausen, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Mexico City, Budapest és Miskolc .[2]
Csőke, József, 'Kolonits Ilona (1922–2002)', Krónika, Filmvilág folyóirat 3 September 2002 old.
Dr. Garai, Erzsébet, 'My Memoirs' ('Visszaemlékezéseim' ) (2003, Budapest), manuscript, in private collection, Budapest
Kolonits, Margit (Vámos Ferencné), 'My Memoirs' ('Visszaemlékezéseim' ) (10 August 1976, Budapest), manuscript, in private collection, Budapest
'Ilona Kolonits Passed Away' (Elhunyt Kolonits Ilona) (11 July 2002, MTI, (www.filmkultura.hu)
Lóránt,Stőhr, 'Nothing is Set in Stone - Conversation with Éva Kármentő' (Semmi sincs kőbe vésve - Beszélgetés Kármentő Évával)
(http://www.filmkultura.hu/2003/articles/profiles/karmentoe.hu.html#top)