Fwd: Russian Film Symposium 2011 (University of Pittsburgh)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Padunov, Vladimir <[email protected]>
Date: 2011/4/1
Subject: [Shera] Russian Film Symposium 2011 (University of Pittsburgh)
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Padunov, Vladimir" <[email protected]>


 "Other Russias / Russia's Others: Films in and on the Margins"

2-7 May 2011



Just as New York is not America, so Moscow is not Russia.   And more
broadly, the center is not the periphery.  The irony embedded in the Russian
version is this: the "center" (be it Moscow or St. Petersburg) is located
near the westernmost border of the country, seven times zones away from the
easternmost border.



At their root, however, the US and Russian clichés have entirely different
meanings.  The English cliché emphasizes the ethnic and cultural diversity
of New York in comparison to the American heartland.  The Russian version
stresses the stark economic and infrastructural gap between the center and
the periphery.  Although this gap pre-dates even Soviet power, it has grown
dramatically over the past two decades.  The center has experienced a high
increase in new construction (buildings and roads); the influx of domestic
and foreign capital into the center has fostered a burgeoning middle-class
with access to all consumer goods.  Meanwhile, the periphery has been
largely ignored; living conditions have deteriorated and roads become
impassable.  Poverty has risen sharply, accompanied by shortages of
essential foodstuffs.



For much of these two decades, Russian feature films, like the political
administrative center, have ignored the periphery, focusing instead on the
increasing wealth, proliferation of consumer goods, conspicuous consumption,
and glossy life-styles in Moscow and St. Petersburg.  In part this was a
matter of convenience and economy: Moscow and St. Petersburg are the
administrative and production centers of the Russian film industry: the
Union of Filmmakers is based in Moscow and has its largest affiliate offices
in St. Petersburg; four of the five film studios in the country are located
in these two cities.



In the past two years, however, directors have increasingly turned their
attention to the conditions of life in the Russian periphery-- to the
smaller, outlying cities (Vladivostok, Perm, Rostov-on-the-Don), the rural
countryside, and even the permafrost regions.  Russian screens--the vast
majority of which are overhauled screening halls and new multiplexes in the
center--are now filled with an unexpected form of exotica: the Motherland!



Critical and popular reactions to these images have been sharply mixed.
Some have welcomed the expansion of locale shooting, the "authenticity" of
the living conditions, and the examination of the hardships in these
locations.  Many more have fiercely attacked these films for "blackening"
Russia; they compare these films to early post-Soviet *chernukha* (films
that showed the ugly underside of life, inherited from the Soviet system).



We ask you to join us during the week of 2-7 May 2011 and decide for
yourselves.





___________________________________________

Vladimir Padunov

Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures

Associate Director, Film Studies Program

University of Pittsburgh

427 Cathedral of Learning

Pittsburgh, PA 15260



Phone: 412-624-5713                      FAX: 412-624-9714



Russian Film Symposium      http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu



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-- 
Dr. Tamara Jhashi
Associate Professor of Art History
Oakland University
248.370.3389

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