Crisis, Sociology and Agency in 1970s Hungarian Documentary Cinema

Abstract This article explores synergies between Hungarian critical sociology in the 1960–70s and documentary films made Balázs Béla Stúdió same period. It treats rationalization of social phenomena as a battle ground for meaning claims that both representatives sciences filmmakers, on one hand, called upon deficient mechanisms inner contradictions existing socialism and, other pointed to discrepancy ideological empirical perceptions reality root cause crisis characterizing consolidated Kádár regime. Adopting Clifford Geertz’s conceptual matrix experience-near experience-distant production meaningfulness, how sociologists makers sociographic documentaries alike resisted prevailing epistemic regime, more specifically they punctured undermined meanings such concepts maternity, Romani, cooperative democracy. 1