EUGENIC MINDS (2013)

Eugenics, which scientists felt would save mankind from the burden of serious genetic defects, was once considered more important than the invention of the wheel. Many high-ranking academics based their careers on this new science as they worked to assess what trends in nature were good or bad, what was beautiful and ugly, what should be promoted and what should be evolutionarily prevented. Since the end of World War II, the words eugenics has been almost completely erased from the vocabulary of all the world's languages. Nazi ideology had used it for determining the selective criteria for the perfect race of its future thousand-year Reich. The genetically inferior were killed or robbed of their right to existence, the handicapped were eradicated, 70 million inhabitants of eastern Europe were slated for slave labor, 30 percent of the German nation was to be "cleansed." No politicians, but scientists determined the criteria for selection. And some of them were working in Prague. Eugenic Minds uses unique archival materials produced by the ideology of a better tomorrow. Artist Xénia Hoffmeisterová has worked with these materials to depict the vision of race laws that led to mass murder. Author Patrik Ouředník's literary commentary is mainly adapted from his successful book Europeana. The result is a visual essay on the limits of science and pseudoscience today, yesterday, and tomorrow.

Directed by: Pavel Štingl, 76 minutes

Dramaturgy: Hana Jemelíková, Hana Stibralová
Camera: Miroslav Janek
Editing: Tonička Janková, Otakar Šenovský
Artists: Xénia Hoffmeisterová, Jaroslav Róna, Šárka Ziková
Music: Jaroslav Kořán
Sound: Vladimír Chrastil
Literary commentary: Patrik Ouředník
Animation: Jan Míka