“But they actually reacted completely smartly and correctly in my case, those people from State Security. Because in the eyes of those my fearful acquaintances and friends by… when they saw that I am not afraid and that I became friends with more and more chartists, with Michal Hýbek, Gabriel Gössel since about 1984, he was a chartist, a translator and one of my most intimate friends who unfortunately died on 2 April last year – we played poker together for thirty-five years – well and Nikolaj Stankovič immediately afterwards… So, they knew this and they wanted to get it over with me and they were smart about it in the way that in the eyes of those scared or fearful friends and colleagues of mine – that they made me much more dangerous for the regime than I really was. Because although I took part in many activities, I made copies of all those things – whether videocassettes or illegal Lidové noviny [People's News – trans.] and later Sport – there were only three issues – I am not sure if you know it – it was an interesting illegal quarterly periodical, better than Lidové noviny, only three issues were published before “plyšák”… [slang term for the Velvet Revolution – trans.] So, I did a lot of things but I did not sign the Charter, I was not a downright dissident but they tried to scare me off and they did it smartly because they scared really tents and tents of all the people in my surroundings. Later they confessed to me that they were afraid to talk to me.”
„I made wonderful contacts. Today, I cannot even count how many were there but it was certainly a lot over fifty. And now guess who could afford a video at that time? Usually butchers, television repairmen and so on. So, I made contacts with those people who had a video and now every one of them had about 200 videocassettes. So, they showed them to me and of course they usually had action nonsenses, horrors, thrillers, pornographic movies… So, I – to have something to offer – recorded some of those stupidities as well. But all of a sudden you notice that a certain lady, perhaps rich, has rare movies by Robert Altman. Like Short Cuts – I do not know whether Short Cuts had been already released. Or the movie The Deer Hunter – with Robert De Niro – it was not allowed to screen it at that time. And many similar movies… Well, and they did not even know what they had. And in a year or two or three I really had a lot of interesting movies at home that Vladimír Jiránek and tents of other similar famous people came here to my flat in 22 Kostelní Street, on the fourth floor without a lift. And they sat for instance on the floor… fifteen people sat on the carpet and watched movies at our place during the time I was married.”
“When they handed the identity cards over to us in the Jiráskovo theatre in Česká Lípa, the crazy dogmatic Stalinist had a speech to us and said: ‘We said in the 1950s – we are the new youth, Gottwald’s youth, and you have to say – we are the new youth, Husák’s youth.’ So, under this pressure I immediately developed clear disgust to it. It was such a kind of a rudeness and dogmatism…”
Vladimír Hendrich was born on 6 August 1956 in Česká Lípa. After maturita exam at a Secondary school of economy and services, he was hired as a novice into the editorial staff of the satirical weekly magazine Dikobraz. In 1981 he finished his study of Movie and television specialization at the Faculty of Journalism of the Charles University. After his studies he was employed as a night watchman, less than a year he worked as the head of a cinema and then he has worked as a pumper of water for three years. In 1982 he bought a video and thanks to his many contacts, he established a large video library, he screened movies at his place and later he started to make tours around the Czechoslovakia with his compiled videos. Mainly in 1980s he took part in dissent, he distributed samizdat texts and newly created video broadcasts like Originální videojournál (Original Video Journal) for which State Security started to pay attention to him. He was employed as a lecturer at Barrandov film studios, a dramaturge of the Ponrepo Cinema, an independent film journalist, a historian at Národní filmový archiv (National Film Archive), a screenwriter, a movie director and a presenter of many radio programs. In 2013 he defended his dissertation at FAMU and to this day he still lectures there. He published in many movie periodicals and he is the author of five books with mostly movie themes. Every year he organizes an award called Cena Andreje “Nikolaje” Stankoviče, which is mostly awarded to movies that are neglected by mainstream criticism. In 2021 he lived in Prague, he is divorced and childless.
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