RECENT CHANGES IN THE ART AND PRACTICE OF FILMMAKING IN THE FORMER SOVIET UNION EXPLORED IN A NEW FILM SERIES AT THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART
Inaugural Exhibition of an
Annual Collaboration between The Museum of Modern Art and The Confederation
of Filmmakers' Unions
Commonwealth of Independent States:
FilmFest
December 1323, 1996
With the
fall of Communism there have been fundamental changes in the content of
films and the practice of filmmaking in the former Soviet Union. These
changes are examined in Commonwealth of Independent States:
FilmFest, the inaugural exhibition of a planned annual collaboration
between The Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions, representing all of the
former Soviet republics, and The Museum of Modern Art. The series begins
December 13 and runs through December 23, 1996.
Commonwealth
of Independent States: FilmFest presents nine programs of remarkable
films made from 1993 to 1995‹difficult years financially for many
filmmakers, but a time of considerable aesthetic exploration. The series
includes new work by veteran filmmakers and emerging artists. Six of the
films in the series were made in Russia, where the major Moscow studios,
Lenfilm and Mosfilm, remain central to the film industry. Latvia,
Turkmenistan, and Kazakhstan are the other three states represented.
"The talented veteran and new directors in this series have been
working out of decentralized and financially impoverished studios, often
using antiquated equipment and hard-to-come-by film stock," says Jytte
Jensen, Assistant Curator, Department of Film and Video, who organized the
series with Galina Verevkina, Coordinator, and Rustam Ibragimbekov,
Chairman, The Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions.
"It is a
testament to their ingenuity and commitment," Jensen continues, "that these
directors have managed to produce films of the first caliber. The nine
programs in the series demonstrate considerable thematic sophistication and
formal artistry in their exploration of all aspects of contemporary
life."
A number of guests will attend the series. Directors Vladimir
Khotinenko (The Muslim), Sergei Ovcharov (Drumroll), and Lora
Stepenskaya (co-director, The Soul is Burnt Out) will be present to
introduce their films. Galina Verevkina, Nikolai Vaschenko, Chief
Consultant, The Confederation of Filmmakers' Unions, and Teimuraz
Shengelia, Director, The Foundation for the Centennial of Film, will also
be in New York City during the series.
Commonwealth of Independent
States: FilmFest opens with two films that explore how the past informs
and determines the present: Vladimir Khotinenko's moving Musulimanin
(The Muslim) (1995), the story of the return home of a Russian man who
converted to Islam while a P.O.W. in Afghanistan, and Vadim Abrashitov's
forceful Peesa dla passazira (A Play for a Passenger) (1995), a
parable in which a train passenger and his conductor are caught up in a
drama of changing power dynamics.
Russian films have always drawn on
the country's strong literary history. In the series, acclaimed
experimental filmmaker Alexandr Sokurov's hallucinatory Tixie stranichi
(Quiet Pages) (1993) draws inspiration from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's
Crime and Punishment, while Semyon Aranovich's melodrama God
sobaki (Year of The Dog) (1993), starring Inna Churikova, takes Daniel
Defoe's Robinson Crusoe as its point of departure.
A drum with a
droll personality and a Slavic version of Buster Keaton are the
protagonists in Sergei Ovcharov's Barabaniada (Drumroll) (1993), an
inventive and hilarious commentary on current conditions in Russia that
features stunning use of sound in place of dialogue. The program's other
comedy, Alexandr Rogozkin's wry Osobennosti nachionalnoy oxoti (The
Particulars of the National Hunt) (1995), is equally pointed in its wry
social commentary on post-Soviet Russia, complete with prodigious drinking
bouts.
From a country where philosophizing is a cottage industry, it is
not surprising to find two films that plumb serious moral and spiritual
matters. Bayram Abdullaev and Lora Stepanskaya's accomplished Yandym
(The Soul is Burnt Out) (1995) depicts the search for deep-rooted
humanistic values, and Aivars Freimanis's Ligzda (The Nest) (1995)
is an exploration of the interconnectedness of environment, family, and
national identity.
The final film in the series, Sergei Dvortsevoi's
Happiness (1995), explores the lives and traditions of a family of
Kazakh nomads. This stunningly beautiful documentary anchors a program of
short works from the Commonwealth.
Note: The visiting CIS directors and
film industry professionals will be available for interviews.
