Living the in suburban California in the 1980s, I took for granted all of the luxuries I grew up with as a little boy: a Nintendo, family pizza and board game nights, and free access to movies at the local video store. In communist Romania, things weren’t as great. That’s what the documentary Chuck Norris vs. Communism is going to explore. Here’s a synopsis for the film:
In the 1980s, Romania’s communist regime reached its most drastic stage. Ceausescu became obsessed with repaying Western loans and with building himself a palace of unprecedented proportions. TV was reduced to two hours of broadcast, focused mostly on praising Ceausescu and the regime’s achievements.
It was then that Irina Margareta Nistor dubbed over 5,000 foreign films that entered the country illegally and were distributed on the black market. Her husky and high-pitched voice became the symbol of freedom. Chuck Norris vs. Communism follows the story of the tapes, the lives that were touched by them and the people who made it possible for Romanians to escape their harsh reality through the spectacular world of film.
Director Ilinca Calugareanu will use interviews, film footage, and animation to explore this underground network of dubbed VHS tapes. The film is set to start production on March 12th, and is currently raising funds through Indie GoGo. You can learn more about the project on the film’s Indie GoGo page.
[Chuck Norris vs. Communism on Indie GoGo Via Twitch]
