Some Kind of Liberating Effect – Religion in Central and Eastern Europe today

Are we free to study religion in Central and Eastern Europe today? In this documentary film by Dr. Valerio Severino, twenty scholars from eight countries across twelve cities and three generations were asked this question.  Their responses are captured in this documentary, which, 30 years after the era of Scientific Atheism and underground churches, reveals a collection of life-lesson portraits intertwining personal stories with the history of science. 

The film will be followed by a discussion with Dr. Valerio Severino, director of the film and Rod Dreher, moderated by Dr. David Martin Jones.

Valerio Severino is a scholar of religion from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He has worked on research projects with the Italian Lincean Academy, the Hungarian and Polish Academies of Sciences, and the University UPOL in the Czech Republic as a Marie Curie Fellow. He is the author of Documenting the History of Religions in the Hungarian Academy of Sciences (1950‒1970). Letters, Reports, and Requests across the Iron Curtain (Brill 2021). His main fields of research include the political history of the academic study of religions.

His feature directorial debut, "Some Kind of Liberating Effect", was sponsored by the European Commission.