Overview

In ""Countryman,"" Ed Konecnik documents his life as both an American son of immigrants and a renowned documentarian and performer of folk music in his parents' homeland of Slovakia. The importance of folk music as a genre comes into sharp focus as we see the efforts of Slovakian artists to preserve and celebrate their ancestral roots in the face of a Soviet Union which fears that public celebration of any identity other than ""Soviet"" could lead to rebellion. As part of his work as a folk singer and documentarian of Slovak culture, Ed sat in meetings with Communist Party officials where the question of what cultural arts were appropriate to make available to the public was discussed. In the 1990s, he was traveling Europe on sabbatical from his job as a U.S. public school teacher when the Iron Curtain began to fall. As the significance of the protests breaking out across Eastern Europe in 1990 became clear, Konecnik became a documentarian of the first free Czechoslovak elections after the Velvet Revolution. Later, Konecnik would have the privilege to witness the formation of the first free, self-governing Slovakia in modern history following the Velvet Divorce of Czechoslovakia. Konecnik's history is more personal than academic, charting his own firsthand experiences and emotional reactions to seeing the truth about Soviet communism after spending most of his life in the United States. Ed's life as a son of immigrants living in New York City from World War II onward sharply contrasts with his experiences visiting Soviet Slovakia and fighting to document and celebrate his parents' culture. During his tenure as a New York City public school teacher, Konecnik was awarded by Governor Mario Cuomo first place prize for the anti-smoking music video, ""Don't Start,"" that he produced with his students. It was the first of many value music videos that were included in a statewide curriculum guide ""Lessons in Values Education"" which was distributed to all schools in New York. During his career as a musician, Konecnik was invited to perform at music festivals in Slovakia and was the subject of several television and film documentaries. He was invited to record two albums by the Slovak record label Opus: an album of Slovak folk songs, and an album of folk songs with English lyrics in American country music style. His documentary ""Slovak Sunshine"" produced in 1985. As the first documentary about Czechoslovakia produced in the English language, it was used in the curricula of several universities.

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