TRL Happy Childhood ENPRO

Genre: Thematic Short Film
Format: PAL/SECAM, DV-Cam, DV-AVI
Runtime: 3:27 min
Languages: EN
Series: "Life in the U.S.S.R."

Topic: The new ideology was called upon to establish a new morality, a new type of family, to educate a new person, to change and renew society. No one knew how to accomplish that. They were able to destroy immediately that which had been growing for centuries, but building something new did not work out. The Revolution and the Civil War orphaned many children. Dzerzhinsky solved this problem by founding a network of children’s colonies. 

Plot: Slogans and idealistic propaganda were some of the main instruments for the Soviet Regime in order to control their citicens. One of the consequences was the comprehension of the woman as a worker and hard contributing member of society. Children were needed, but the women should not "loose" their time with them. The state would take care. In 1927 Russia had already a great problem of orphan children all over the states. What to do about them? Well, they also could contribute to the wellfare of society, and were often put at hard work in the same way the adults were. The family in the meantime became a "Cell of the government which controlled people's lifes" and the state itself took responsability for the upbringing of its children. Organizations like the Komsomol, the Pioneers and others were created to satisfy the educational needs of the Soviet state. From a former director fo a Pioneers-Camp we learn about the spirit that prevailed in those camps. In contrast to those "happy" days experience in post-soviet Russia shows that a child which grew up without its mother lacks the necessary parental instincts and therefore often the grownup is not really able to handle a family today. A Baby becomes an unpleasent burden and still today people expect the state to take care of it.

The Series: By breaking the traditional family and religion, taking control of children’s education, prying into spouses’ bedrooms and even the minds of people with the system of denunciations, refusing people respect and their basic rights, the government corrupted the country’s population. This series wants to shed light on some of these realities using sometimes opposing points of view in the choice of interviews and supporting the explained problematic with corrisponding video materials. These short films may be useful as support material in talk-shows or educational programs. Other themes may be developed in future.

Other short films of the series:

• Communist Ideology
• Life and Death
• Opium for the People
• Repression Machine
• Soviet Families
• Youth