From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
Subject: FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS: About The Glasnost Film Festival
Followup-To: alt.activism.d
Originator: daemon@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
Organization: ?
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 08:05:19 GMT

FRIDAY NIGHT VIDEOS: About The Glasnost Film Festival


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IIIIII   ABOUT THE GLASNOST FILM FESTIVAL  Topic 12    IIIIIIIIII 
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      "There is probably no better forum for examining the  
       impact of recent radical change on the Soviet Union 
        and its people." 
             --L.A. Times, nationally syndicated review 

      "Highly recommended.  It's important for people to  
       see Russia from the inside out..." 
             --Video Librarian 


INTRODUCTION by Vivienne Verdon-Roe 

    In the summer of 1989, I was invited by the Acadamy of Motion 
Picture Arts and Sciences to speak at the Los Angeles premier of 
the Glasnost Film Festival, along with other American and Soviet 
documentary filmmakers.  That night, three films were shown. 

    I was quite unprepared for the emotional impact of these  
films.  Directed by some of the Soviet Union's most prominent 
documentary filmmakers, the films of the Glasnost Festival could 
not have been made just a few years ago.  They are a vivid re- 
flection of the changes sweeping the Soviet Union, a transforma- 
tion that is now changing our world so dramatically. 

    For the first time, Soviet documentary filmmakers can show  
Soviet life through their own eyes, without the restrictions of 
the past.  The door to a forbidden room has finally been opened. 
And what we find is somehow disturbingly familiar. 

    We see a society that is taking a moral inventory of itself, 
trying to heal itself.  Here are films exposing industry's dis- 
regard for public health and the environment.  We see squalid 
housing, depersonalized working conditions, alienated youth, dis- 
enchanted elderly people, and the disillusion of war. 

    Yet, in the midst of these only-too-familiar problems we also 
see the human spirit shining through.  The resilient character of 
the Soviet people is celebrated in profiles of once-forbidden un- 
derground artists and musicians, a former party official turned 
environmentalist, an 80 year-old Orthodox priest, and unpretent- 
ious old village women. 

    We are pulled into these films.  This is real life as we've 
never seen it.  the Glasnost Film Festival provides us with a  
very dramatic way to understand the extraordinary changes occur- 
ing in the Soviet Union.  Through this remarkable expression we 
see that with openness comes hope for a better future. 

    The Video Project is honored to present the Glasnost Film 
Festival on video. 
         --Vivienne Verdon-Roe is the President and Co-Founder  
           of the Video Project, and an Oscar-winning  
           documentary filmmaker. 

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THE GLASNOST FILM FESTIVAL is a selection of 22 Soviet document- 
ary films produced or released in the first years of the "glas- 
nost era".  All but two of the films were produced between 1986- 
1988.  EVENING SACRIFICE and ADONIS XIV were made earlier, but 
banned from distribution until recently. 

    The Festival was brought to North American audiences in 1989 
by Citizen Exchange Council and the Amnerican-Soviet Film Init- 
iative (Moscow).  The Festival films toured a number of American 
cities, with limited public screenings. 

    The films were selected by the festival sponsors from a much 
wider pool.  They were chosen to represent a variety of Soviet 
film styles and studios as well as a diverse range of current 
Soviet concerns: from reinvestigating the Stalinist past and  
looking anew at religion, to the expectations brought on by 
perestroika and glasnost.  Until recently, the Soviet document- 
ary was a vehicle for state propaganda.  Under the new openness 
decades of censorship were eased in 1986. 

    Film studios were permitted for the first time to examine 
Soviet history and contemporary issues critically.  Many of  
these films have caused quite a controversy in the Soviet Union. 

    The style of some films may at first seem unfamiliar to a 
Western audience.  The Soviets have developed their own mode of 
documentary filmmaking.  Seeing the testimony of Stalin's vic- 
tims on screen packs quite a wallop for Soviet audiences, but  
might not have the same emotional impact for Westerners. 

    All the Glasnost Festival films were produced in 35mm in 
Soviet languages.  English subtitles were added to the film 
versions for showing to a North American audience.  The films 
were transferred to video masters in the U.S.  Some subtitles 
were upgraded on the video masters to improve readibility.  

    The 22 Glasnost Festival films are presented in a 12-video 
collection. 

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PREVIEW POLICY: 
    A special Festival preview tape is available for a $10. pre- 
view charge. The tape includes 2 to 3 minute clips from all 22 
films.  After viewing the preveiw tape, you may request previews 
of individual videos also for $10. each preview.  Preview is for 
a one-week period and tapes must be returned promptly.  Please 
specify desired preview dates.  

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THE GLASNOST FILM FESTIVAL:  
                      William A. Starr, Co-chair 
                      Barbara M. Van Dyke, Co-chair 
                      Louis Menashe, Publications Editor 
                      Robert Haller, Tour Director 
                      Michael Brainerd, Admin. Director 

A PROJECT OF: Citizen's Exchange Council (New York) 

IN ASSOCIATION WITH: The American-Soviet Film Initiative (Moscow) 

PRESENTED ON VIDEO BY: The Video Project 
                       Vivienne Verdon-Roe, President 
                       Ian Thiermann, Chairman 
                       Steve Ladd, Executive Director 

VIDEO PRESENTATION MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY: 
                        Columbia Foundation 
                        Ron Schneider 
                        Tides Foundation 

SPECIAL THANKS to Sandra Carter Productions. 

Commentary and film notes adapted from the Glasnost Festival 
Program, compiled and edited by Louis Menashe.  Film Annota- 
tions adapted from descriptions by Sergei Muratov. 

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