With the war
still raging inside of me,
will I be able to record stories
of people that are so close to me?
Am I different now?
In the spring of 1999, Leon Gerskovic -- like many other Americans -- was watching TV news reports of thousands of refugees fleeing Kosovo and NATO planes bombing Serbia.
Unlike most other Americans, however, Leon knew firsthand what was transpiring. The news reports brought back his own memories of the war in his native Croatia only eight years earlier. As history repeated itself before his eyes, Leon could not be a detached viewer. Instead, he resolved to return to his homeland to see how victims of earlier wars were coping.
Leon interviewed no politicians, military leaders, journalists, or expert analysts. Instead he spoke to teachers, priests, farmers, veterans, young people, old people, even a garbage man. He sought no villain or victim. Instead of speaking to Serbs, Croats, and Bosnians as identities, he spoke to them as individuals.
Armed only with small DV cameras, he and his team would journey into the heart of the Balkans to seek out stories of ordinary people: people who had long since been marginalized. People only looking to be heard. Instead of seeking hard facts in a place where truth is elusive, Leon sought to explore the personal realities of the people he met. In the process, his own history would come back to haunt him.
The result is Crucible of War, a 45-minute documentary video produced for television in North America and Europe, as well as international film festivals and educational distribution. This documentary looks deeper at how ordinary people are rebuilding their lives after a decade of war and ethnic cleansing. See the trailer for the film.
This website expands on the documentary by including:
- Feature Stories which expand on the profiles included in the video and incorporate stories that didn’t make it to the edited documentary.
- Online resources and background materials to help put the documentary in context. These include a historical timeline which shows regional and world history side-by-side, links to other resources on the people and places profiled, and the latest news from the Balkans.
- A classroom study guide to be used in conjunction with the video and website. This has been developed for use in high school and higher education classes on political science, history, cross-cultural communication, media studies, and sociology.
- An Electronic Press Kit for members of the media and film festival programmers.
- BalkanTalk: an ongoing discussion forum for those interested in the countries of the region.
- Interactive components to allow those from or interested in the Balkans to share their common experiences in a virtual forum where they need not be segregated by borders or historical prejudices.
Purchase the film
Tell us what you think of the film or contribute your own stories.
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