Abstract
This essay argues that in the 1980s the Czechoslovak State was invested in appreciating what home video might mean for this country in terms of production, distribution, exhibition, and consumption. Divided into three sections, the essay opens with a consideration of how the State-controlled media initially con- ceptualized video as a scientific invention with enormous potential to enrich socialist society, derived from its relocating media consumption from the home to public arenas.
From there, the essay focuses on the production of video content at Barrandov, before concluding with a discussion of the logics underpinning state-controlled distribution of home video. Based on research conducted in State archives and at Barrandov, analyses of the trade and popular press, and interviews conducted with key film industry figures, this essay shows how a new medium was adopted in a State-socialist country.
Given the extent to which western scholarly and popular understandings of home video derive from the example of the United States, the essay reveals how a non-American film industry responded to the availability of Hollywood films on video. It also expands the limited attention home video has thus far received in studies of Czechoslovak cinema.