September 21, 2008 "Howling With the Angels" To Be Shown at the Library on Oct. 22

In March 1939, Hitler’s army marched into Prague, Czechoslovakia. Jan Bodon, a young, blond-haired, blue-eyed captain in the Czech Army, was recruited to join the Nazis. He promptly fled and joined the resistance movement instead, and was later selected to help in the assassination of Reinhard Heydrich, the notorious “Butcher of Prague.” In a powerful documentary titled “Howling with the Angels” (2006), director Jean Bodon (Jan’s son) explores the truth about his father’s World War II experiences and his family’s Jewish lineage. The award-winning film, which garnered a Hugo award at the Chicago International Film Festival, will be shown (in Czech with English subtitles) at the Library of Congress at noon on Wednesday, Oct. 22, in Room 139 of the James Madison Building, located at 101 Independence Ave. S.E., Washington, D.C. The event, which is free and open to the public, is sponsored jointly by the Library’s Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound and European Divisions, the Hebrew Language Table, and in cooperation with the Czech Embassy. Tickets are not required but seating is limited. Jean Bodon, a professor of communications studies at the University of Alabama in Birmingham, will attend the Oct. 22 screening and answer questions. Bodon has worked as a feature film director and producer and as a director of documentaries and television commercials. His works have been shown on HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, The Movie Channel, E!, TLC, Pay-per-view and many other cable systems and networks throughout the world. Bodon’s extensive work in the area of film includes a book on Charlie Chaplin, which was prefaced by filmmaker François Truffaut, and “Cinema: an introduction” prefaced by film director Robert Wise. Bodon is a member of the Directors Guild of America and the Société des Réalisateurs de Films. In addition to filmmaking awards, in 2000 he was honored with the President’s Excellence in Teaching Award.