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Documentary: Chuck Norris vs CommunismDocumentary: Chuck Norris vs Communism
About the author
Sam Roggeveen
Sam Roggeveen is Program Director of the Lowy Institute’s International Security Program. He is the author of The Echidna Strategy: Australia's Search for Power and Peace (Opens in new window), published by La Trobe University Press in 2023.
This film, about the impact of contraband American VHS tapes on communist-era Romania, was released last year. The version below, available free on Vimeo and YouTube, runs to 55-odd minutes, but IMDB lists the film as having a running time of 78 minutes, so this may not be the whole thing, but it is a pretty good taste:
[vimeo:156123591]
From the film's website, here's a synopsis:
In 1980s Romania, thousands of Western films smashed through the Iron Curtain opening a window into the free world for those who dared to look. A black-market VHS racketeer and a courageous female translator brought the magic of film to the people and sparked a revolution.
Sam Roggeveen