Student documentary maker Jenna Koda (centre) is determined to tell her family’s story with the help of film crew member Lachlan Kann and lecturer Leonie Jones.

David Martinelli

UNI student Jenna Koda still vividly recalls the shock that she felt the first time her grandparents told her the story of their immigration from war-torn Slovakia to Australia in the 1950’s.

At just 15, Miss Koda sat in astonishment as her grandmother told her of the horrors she and her husband had faced as they left their homeland for a country they knew little about.

Now the creative arts student at the University of Southern Queensland is set to tell her grandparents’ story through a new documentary that she is writing and directing.

“I had no idea that my grandmother was almost shot against a wall outside her home, or that my grandfather had run back over the Polish border with bullet holes in his clothes,” Miss Koda said.

“I started talking to other family members about it and they all said the story of their life could make a great movie and that’s when I developed the idea of making a documentary.”

In February next year Miss Koda and her film crew will travel to the new Slovak Republic to find out how her family, left behind, are coping with life in a country shaped by a violent past.

“I am very intrigued to travel back to my family’s homeland so as to gain a greater understanding of their culture and openness to their history,” she said.

“I am anxious about going back this time and asking my family to give me their stories on film, because it is a very difficult and complicated issue for them to talk about and for me to understand.”

The documentary is being supervised by Bachelor of Creative Arts Head of School, Dr Janet McDonald and Creative Media Discipline co-ordinator Leonie Jones.

The documentary has also attracted interest from SBS, with Jenna hopeful that the documentary will not only be picked up by the broadcaster but also garner international attention.