Blum: Masters of Their Own Destiny
Jewish Stories
•
1h 15m
Directed by Jasmila Žbanić • Documentary • 2024 • 76 minutes
After the Second World War, in devastated, rural Bosnia and Herzegovina, a country of illiterate people, the entrepreneur Emerik Blum created a large and successful global company, "Energoinvest," that operated worldwide with a billion dollars in profit. Taking advantage of the specific position of Yugoslavia that was between East and West, socialism and capitalism, the company operated on a worldwide unique business model based on the workers’ participation in management and profit. Blum turned a small engineering atelier into a great company success by operating under the self-management model. The self-management model is a system in which all employees in a factory or enterprise decide on everything concerning their company. This most democratic model worked excellently in this case but is largely unknown today. Through interviews with contemporaries who knew Blum, his workers, as well as archive interviews with himself, the film paints a portrait of a genius man and a story about a special time. The way Blum thought and worked today seems like science fiction!
Up Next in Jewish Stories
-
Harbour of Hope
Directed by Magnus Gertten • Documentary • With Irene Krausz-Fainman • 2013 • 76 minutes
In Spring 1945 Red Cross liberated thousands of concentration camp survivors and rescued them to the Malmö Harbour, Sweden. Among the thousands of survivors brought to Malmö were Irene Krausz-Fainman, Ewa Ka...
-
The Edge of Nature
Directed by Josh Fox • Documentary • 2025 • 108 minutes
What is humankind's role in nature? Is there such a thing as Nature? What does the word mean? Are human beings simply destroyers of biodiversity and balance or do we have another purpose? In The Edge of Nature, Oscar-Nominated, Emmy-Winning...
-
A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden
Directed by Michal Goldman • Documentary • 1987 • 75 minutes
The first film to document the revival of klezmer music, now a worldwide movement, Jumpin’ Night tracks two foundational groups of brilliant young musicians, Kapelye and the Klezmer Conservatory Band, and includes rare footage of the e...