Away - another contemplative short

I spent a few weeks at the end of summer in Hungary and shot a contemplative short film. This time the ideal location was at "Római part" just right at the Danube bank at the suburb of Budapest. I got there by boat. The trip lasted approx thirty minutes from the downtown.

The place is a hidden jewel for those who like nature, kayaking. Small traditional open-air restaurants mainly serve fried fish with french fries (not the coated fish and chips), burgers, pancakes and cold draft beers. Runners, cyclists and dog walkers are common visitors at this area. One of the best camping site of Budapest is located within a few hundred meters.

Please click here to watch the film 

March of the Living 2016 Hungary anti racism march

Tens of thousands of participants are expected for the 14th March of the Living in the Hungarian capital on Sunday, 17 April 2016.

Some among the speakers: Hungarian Chief Rabbi Robert Frolich, Ilan Mor, Israeli Ambassador to Hungary and protagonist of the Oscar Award-winning Hungarian movie “Son of Saul” Géza Röhrig, also appeared at the event.

Crowdfunding for migrant crises documentary

The refugee crisis via the lens of a videographer who joined the bus journey of betrayed refugees at Budapest Keleti Transit Zone until the Austrian border and beyond…

Dear my Friends! Sorry for bothering you!

This is the first time I’m lunching a crowdfunding campaign and would need your contribution. Please help me raise enough money to finish this important documentary!

Do not feel your financial aid is too small to matter. In case you are not in a position to contribute financially you can still help.Follow and share this page on your favorite social media with friends, family and co-workers could just lead to the funding I need.

Thank you so much!

Click here to check the crowdfunding campagne

Journey To Nowhere - Migrants crises in Hungary

Chaos unfolded in Budapest's Keleti station as crowds of migrants and refugees who had been camped outside were finally allowed in.  Migrants and refugees thought to they are going to Sopron a Hungarian border town near Austrian border than continue their journey to Germany.

After 40 minutes travelling, Hungarian riot police stopped the train at Bicske station and wanted to force the people to the detention center to register.

Migrants were shocked to find out that their train was not heading to Austria. Currently they are in the wagons and waiting for the help of Germany and the European Union.

(next day the refugees broke out and started walking toward Austrian boarder)

Exhausted migrants in Budapest

A Nyugati pályaudvar előtt egy fiatalember banánt és ivóvizet oszt kimerült menekülteknek. Nem sokkal később két migráns fiatalember ugrott egymásnak, akiket társaik a kisebb dulakodás után szétválasztottak. A rendőrök szinte pillanatok alatt a helyszínre érkeztek és a pályaudvar területére kísérve kikérdezték a két verekedő fiatalt. Egyelőre nem tudni, miért tört ki az incidens.

Anti-Semitism at the City park in Budapest

If you're walking across the City Park in Budapest towards the playgrounds, you can see the kids happily playing while parents are chit chatting. There are two public toilets nearby, but I never seen anybody walk in besides the park employees and some homeless. Portable toilet had been placed at the entrance of both playground. It could be very useful, but paying a visit is not recommended, because of the hygiene is not reaching the minimum standard.

Besides all of this, why neither the Park management nor the local government don't care about the Anti- Semitic signs on the toilets for many month? Do they get any phone calls? Why there's no media coverage? 

Pro-Israel demonstration in Budapest / Békés demonstráció Izraelért

Pro-Israeli supporters gathered in front of and inside Europe's largest synagogue in Budapest during a demonstration to protest against Hamas' rockets that have been fired into Israeli territory.

Controversial Nazi monument has completed

Last night workers in Budapest have completed the main elements of the controversial WWII memorial to the 1944 occupation of Hungary by Nazi Germany. The monument of an eagle attacking an angel whitewashes the prominent role that pro-Nazi Hungarian governments had in the murder of more than half a million Jews during the Holocaust by presenting Hungary as a mere victim.

Titokban felállították a történelemhamísító emlékművet

Rövid interjú Suchman Tamással az éjszaka titokban felállított gyalázatos történelemhamísító emlékműnél. Véleménye szerint a Jobbik ötlete volt a szoborállítás, a kivitelezés pedig a Fidesz erősödő fasizálódását támasztja alá.

Titokban felállították a történelemhamisító emlékművet

Rövid interjú Popper Gáborral az éjszaka titokban felállított gyalázatos történelemhamísító emlékműnél.

Csillagos Házak - Tom Lantos Intézet megemlékezése

As a result of an executive order issued by the mayor of Budapest on the 16th of June 1944, Jewish inhabitants of Budapest had to move to so-called ‘yellow-star houses’ by the 21st of June. This executive order affected 200 000 people. These Yellow-star houses were to be found all around Budapest. For half a year, until the Budapest ghetto was established, everyone could see where the banished Hungarian Jews were forced to stay and who they were.

As part of the commemoration-series of the Open Society Archives, the Tom Lantos Institute is organising an event tocommemorate the seventieth anniversary of this tragedy and to remember the legacy of Tom Lantos, who was forced to stay at Szent István Park 25 for more than half a year during the last months of World War II.

Katrina Lantos-Swett, daughter of the late Congressman, will welcome everyone to the event in a video message. There will also be a speech from Anna-Mária Bíró, President and CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute. Students of the Berzsenyi Dániel Gimnázium, Tom Lantos’s alma mater, will read out a selection of his personal memories of that period.

http://tomlantosinstitute.hu

Csillagos Házak - Yellow Star Houses

Ambassador of Portugal in Budapest Antonio Jorge Mendes gave a speech and remembered Carlos Sampaio Garrido, ambassador and Teixeira Branquinho chargé d'affaires in mission to Budapest in 1944 who managed to rescue more than a thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.

Yellow Star Holocaust Memorials Held in Hungary

Holocaust memorials marking the 70th anniversary of the deportations of Jews from Hungary to Nazi death camps in 1944. Authorities forced some 220,000 Budapest Jews to move on June 21 into around 2,000 buildings marked with yellow Jewish Stars of David. The Yellow Star Houses project, organized by the Open Society Archives (OSA). Exploring the history I was fortunate to join behalf of the organization as a videographer/photographer. 

I start at 10am at Ujpest rakpart 5. where Ambassador of Portugal in Budapest Antonio Jorge Mendes gave a speech and remembered Carlos Sampaio Garrido, ambassador and Teixeira Branquinho chargé d'affaires in mission to Budapest in 1944 who managed to rescue more than a thousands of Hungarian Jews from the Holocaust.

Antonio Jorge Mendes with his wife

The next event I visited held at the US Embassy of Hungary. US Chargé d’Affaires André Goodfriend commemorated the rescue work of the diplomats Carl Lutz who saved thousands of lives during the Holocaust in Budapest, and was awarded the honorific “Righteous Among the Nations.” Than talked about the “Persecution of the Jews and the role of yellow-star houses in World War II.”

Hungarian-American author and journalist Kati Marton who fled her homeland, Hungary with her journalist parents also delivered a speech, then I joined to the guided walk led by US Embassy staff (Elisabeth Webster, Megan Moore, Karin Posner-Mullen to the former yellow-star houses on Aulich str, Hold str., Perczel Mor str. where Ilan Mor the Ambassador of the State of Israel also held a non-official short speech. Steven Andrew Geiger (Mensch Foundation) and his wife also joined the event.

Kati Marton and Steven Andrew Geiger 

Elisabeth Webster, André Goodfriend and Ilan Mor

As part of the commemoration-series of the Open Society Archives, the Tom Lantos Institute also organized an event to commemorate the seventieth anniversary of the tragedy and to remember the legacy of Tom Lantos, who was forced to stay at Szent István Park 25 for more than half a year during the last months of World War II. Anna-Mária Bíró, President and CEO of the Tom Lantos Institute gave an emotional speech, than Katrina Lantos-Swett, daughter of the late Congressman sent video message to the audience. At the end of the event students of the Berzsenyi Dániel Gimnázium, Tom Lantos’s alma mater read out a selection of his personal memories of that period. (US Chargé d’Affaires André Goodfriend and Ilan Mor the Ambassador of the State of Israel also joined the event.)

Anna-Mária Bíró

Protesters at Controversial WWII Monument in Budapest

Andrea Zoltai 

Iván Andrassew 

Ildikó Lendvai  és Zoltán Lovas  

Mihály Rózsa

Menetelés az életért - Marsch des lebens in Ungarn

Konrád György Kossuth- díjas író beszéde a "Menetelés az Életért" budapesten tartott megemlékezésén a Parlament oldalában felállított színpadon.



2014. április 22-27. között a Menetelés az életért közösség tagjai közel 300-an, az 1944-es halálmenetre emlékező gyaloglással több várost is felkerestek, ahol a Második Világháború alatt a német nácik, a magyar nyilaskeresztesek közreműködésével zsidókat, köztük gyermekeket mészároltak halomra.

A menetben olyan német, és magyar keresztény fiatalok kérték bocsánatukat a magyarországi zsidóságtól, akiknek nagyszülei között a náci és nyilaskeresztes népirtások elkövetői vannak.

Protesters blocked WWII monument construction site

On Friday protesters have removed the fence around the construction site of controversial WW II monument. Take a look at the photos below what else happened and think about that why....