Emil Radok (22 May 1918 in Koloděje nad Lužnicí – 7 January 1994 in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

) was a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

film director A film director or filmmaker is a person who controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfillment of that Goal, vision. The director has a key role ...

. He was co-inventor of the multi-media show

Laterna Magika Laterna magika (), largely considered the world's first multimedia theatre, was founded as a cultural program at the 1958 Brussels Expo. It launched its official activity on 9 May 1959, as an independent company of the National Theatre, perform ...

which was a star attraction at the

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

pavilion at

Expo 67 The 1967 International and Universal Exposition, commonly known as Expo 67, was a general exhibition from April 28 to October 29, 1967. It was a category one world's fair held in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is considered to be one of the most s ...

In 1968 he left to exile to

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

and died there. Probably Radok's most monumental project was the "kinetic mosaic" which he designed for the

Universe of Energy The Universe of Energy was a pavilion on the eastern side of Epcot#Future World, Future World (now World Discovery) at Epcot, a theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida. One of Epcot's opening day attractions in 1982, it ex ...

pavilion at Walt Disney World's EPCOT Center theme park, which opened on 1 October 1982. Working with WED Enterprises (

Walt Disney Imagineering Walt Disney Imagineering Research & Development, Inc.—commonly referred to as Walt Disney Imagineering, Imagineering, or WDI—is the research and development arm of The Walt Disney Company, responsible for the creation, design, and construc ...

), Radok created a pre-show film for the pavilion that was projected onto a 90-foot wide screen by five synchronized 35-mm projectors. The projection surface was composed of some 100 revolving prism-shaped modules arrayed in four horizontal rows, 25 modules in each row. Each module had two white projection surfaces and one matte black surface, each 3 ½ feet square. Each module revolved independently via its own interior servo-motor. Synchronized by computer, the modules could create one large flat screen, but were also programmed to revolve in a variety of displays, combining into patterns of triangular wedges, flat panels, and black panels, all of which was precisely coordinated with the changing film images. The rippling movement of the units gave a unique "third dimension" to the projection surface. The theater accommodated 500 spectators. Due to mechanical complications, the revolving screens were not operational until 1984, two years after the park's opening. The display, which required constant mechanical maintenance, was eventually replaced in 1996 with five conventional movie screens. In 1987, Radok received the Canadian

Special Achievement Genie The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978), known as the "Etrog Awards" for sculptor ...

Award for the film ''

Taming of the Demons A tame animal is an animal that is relatively tolerant of human presence. Tameness may arise naturally (as in the case, for example, of island tameness) or due to the deliberate, human-directed process of training an animal against its initiall ...

'', which played primarily at Vancouver's

Expo '86 The 1986 World Exposition on Transportation and Communication, or simply Expo 86, was a world's fair held in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from May 2 until October 13, 1986. The fair, the theme of which was "Transportation and Communicatio ...

. His older brother and collaborator was

Alfréd Radok Alfréd Radok (17 December 1914 in – 22 April 1976) was a distinguished Czech people, Czech stage director and film director. Radok's work belongs with the top Czech stage direction of the 20th century. He is often cited as a ''formalist'' in h ...

(1914–1976).

External links

* Czech film directors Cinema pioneers Canadian multimedia artists Czech expatriates in Canada 1918 births 1994 deaths Canadian Screen Award winners People from Týn nad Vltavou Czech exiles Czechoslovak emigrants to Canada Jewish Czech film people {{CzechRepublic-film-director-stub