Soros Foundation in Hungary

This collection of documentaries, television and radio programs, and amateur recordings of public events documents the activities of the Soros Foundation Hungary from 1989 to 2004. Mixed in terms of genre and quality, it provides an accurate picture of Hungarian life in the first post-Communist decade.

The collection contains recordings of Soros Foundation-sponsored public events at schools, kindergartens and summer camps to help the disadvantaged, and in particular Roma communities, as well as several cultural and educational television and radio programs supported by the Foundation, featuring a wide range of well-known Hungarian public figures. These include documentaries such as the ‘One Day’ series looking at typical life stories: a young woman from a village trying her luck in the capital city, the work of a door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman, and a young couple's superhuman efforts to come off heroin. There is also a number of interviews with George Soros, the philanthropist financier, who is even seen participating in a stand-up comedy event, peeling potatoes.