The turning of 2016-17 marks the point of transition between two anniversaries: 25 years since the Soviet Union collapsed and the centenary of the Russian revolutions of 1917. Both moments have been alternately celebrated as revolutions inaugurating a new era of promise, and lamented as catastrophes plunging Russia into chaos.
The first two events in this season are a screening of Dziga and his Brothers and a research talk by Professor Lilya Kaganovsky (University of Illinois), and both sessions concern the filmmaking of Dziga Vertov, a revolutionary documentary filmmaker whose cinema was a product of and reflection on the 1917 October revolution.
The season then continues with a screening of Leviathan one of the most prominent post-Soviet Russian films, and one seen as reflecting upon the current state of Russia.The season ends with My Perestroika, a penetrative and thought-provoking documentary film about Perestroika, the period of reform that preceded the Soviet Union’s collapse.
28.11 Evgeny Tsymbal, Dziga and his Brothers (Screening, Q&A with director) Arts one, g.19 (Hitchcock cinema) 6.30
05.12 Lilya Kaganovsky ‘Sound in Dziga Vertov's Three Songs of Lenin (research seminar) Arts one, g.19 (Hitchcock cinema) 6.30
06.12 Leviathan (screening, discussion led by Vlad Strukov) (organised by Department of Film Studies, Dr Ashvin Devasundaram) (5.30, venue tbc)
13.12 Screening of My Perestroika followed by discussion (organised by School of Politics and International relations, Dr Eleanor Bindman) (6.15, Peoples Palace One)