Art Film and Diaspora / Israeli Russian Film Festivals - November 1 - 2

 
Russian American Cultural Center, in collaboration with the  Russian and 
Slavic Studies Program, Hunter College, CUNY  
is  pleased to announce:

2014  Art Film Festival 
Saturday,  November 1, 2014 
Ida  K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College,  
695  Park Ave,  New York, NY 10065 
5:00 PM 
RUSSIA! The Drama of Art in Twelve Episodes by Nina  Zaretskaya 
Russia -  USA | 2007 | 111 min  | bilingual: Russian/ English with voice 
over  translation 
The  documentary is inspired by the exhibition "RUSSIA!" that  took place 
at the Solomon R. Guggenheim museum in 2005 – 2006. That  groundbreaking 
exhibition featured more than 275 of the greatest masterpieces of  Russian Art, 
spanning the history from Thirteenth Century to the Present, large  number 
of these artworks have never been exhibited outside  Russia. 
Introducing  the international public to some of the most valued artistic 
treasures brought  together from Russia’s greatest museums, this exhibition  
was unique in scope and content,in  keeping with the Guggenheim’s 
distinguished history of presenting groundbreaking  exhibitions of Russian art, 
including Art  of the Avant-Garde in Russia: Selections from the George Costakis 
Collection  (1981), The Great Utopia: The Russian and  Soviet Avant-Garde, 
1915–1932 (1992), Amazons of the Avant-Garde (2000), and  Kazimir Malevich: 
Suprematism  (2003). 
The  documentary presents a fresh look at Russian culture by revealing its 
history,  the soul and the character of the Russian nation, helping viewers 
better  understand the Russian people and their sensibilities through the 
amazing art  they have managed to create over the centuries of their complex 
and difficult  history.  
Q  & A with Nina Zaretskaya 
7:00 PM 
Dedicated  to the 100 years of Suprematism, an art movement that laid the 
basis of visual  culture of the 20th and 21st centuries. 
Lazar Khidekel by Olga Radvilovitch and  Elena Plugatireva 
Documentary  | Russia| KanalKultura | 2011| 25 min | Russian with  English 
subtitles  
Lazar Khidekel Element – Suprematism for  Humanity 
Animation |14th  International Architecture Biennale| Venice,  Italy 
Moscow  Strelka Institute | 2014 | 3 min | English 
Program  dedicated to 100 years of Suprematism, 95 years of UNOVIS (The 
Affirmers of the  New Art) and 110thAnniversary of Lazar Khidekel (1904-1986), 
Suprematist artist,  visionary architect, one of the founding members of 
UNOVIS, celebrated today for  his role in the transition of Suprematism from 
painting to architecture, to a  movement which found its expression in real 
life - visible today in  architecture, the processes of urbanization, and the 
futuristic yet  environmentally-conscious city planning. 
Suprematism  was invented by Kazimir Malevich in 1913, first publicly 
displayed in 1915 and  four years later, a group of young artists in Vitebsk Art 
School were inspired by its implications  and embraced it as the vision of 
the future for art, architecture, and design.  Driven by a paramount urge to 
transcend boundaries between artistic mediums,  UNOVIS created a radical 
language that briefly became synonymous with the  highest ideals of the 
revolution. 
The  most prominent artists to ever emerge from the Malevich circle was 
Lazar  Khidekel who truly grasped Suprematism’s essence, its significance and  
potential, further developing Suprematist ideas, and implementing them in 
his  own oeuvre – art, architecture, design and theoretical works through his 
long  life. 
Lazar  Khidekel is a  part of a series of art documentaries Taming of the 
Talent, focusing on  the destiny of the avant-garde artists  whose youth has 
fallen to the  years of 1920s, the time of big expectations and the short 
lived  romance  with the revolution. Unlike many of the "first names" of the 
Russian  avant-garde, the heroes of these documentaries did not emigrate from 
the  Soviet Union, they also have not been touched  by the arrests and 
repressions. They lived long life, participating in the  construction period of 
the 1930s, defense industry during the WWII and post-war  reconstruction of 
the country as was the case with Lazar Khidekel, but they were  forbidden to 
publicly show or openly teach the avant-garde art. Nevertheless,  today the 
work and lasting achievement of the artists are rediscovered and  
internationally recognized. 
Alexander  Borovsky, Svetlana Domogatskaya, Irina Karasik, Natalia  
Kozyreva, Mark and Regina Khidekel, Lyudmila Martz and Natalia  Semenova are among 
art historians and museum directors interviewed in the  series. 
The  Animation was  created for the Venice Biennial 2014 as a part of the 
installation: Lazar Khidekel Element – Suprematism for  Humanity recognizing 
his contribution as one of the twenty ideas that  Russia presented to the  
world. 
As Daniel Libeskind states on the  occasion of the 2014 Lazar Khidekel 
Award for young  architects: 
"In my  view Lazar Khidekel is one of the greatest of innovators in 
architecture in our  times. His conception of space, function, and modernity is 
something which has  inspired me ever since I discovered his drawings. In 
Khidekel's work the word  'innovation' is not a footnote but is the central 
spirit of his buildings… He is  not a mere visionary of the past, but an 
architect whose work should inspire all  of us to become as young as his ethereal 
vision." 
7:30 PM Fate  of Russian Avant-garde Architecture today 
Away from All Suns _by  Isabella Willinger_ 
(http://www.imdb.com/name/nm5044356/?ref_=tt_ov_dr)  
Germany | _2013_ (http://www.imdb.com/year/2013/?ref_=tt_ov_inf)   | 74 min 
| Russian with English subtitles 
A  journey through time to the revolutionary 1920s and a portrait of 
Russian  society today. In the back alleys of Moscow, forgotten treasures lurk: 
Utopian  buildings, built in the 1920s in the spirit of Russian constructivism 
and three  Muscovites who  
are  struggling with the building’s heritage.

One is  fighting to save her apartment building and a printing plant next 
door  -  the only construction left by  avant-garde artist and architect El 
Lissitzky. The young artist is striving to  create with his friends an 
artists´ commune in the ruin of the former house of  collective living. Architect 
wants to bring back to life an architectural  landmark – yet, he has to 
remodel it.  “All, who’ve ever been in this  house, are infected”, the  
architect  says. 

What do these buildings hold for us? What will be wiped out,  once the last 
ones fall prey to decay or into the  
hands  of real estate-speculators?

The  filmmaker works with passages of manifestos by Rodchenko, El Lissitzky 
and  Vesnin, as well as rare documentary footage from early Soviet film, 
among others  by Dziga Vertov.  
Q&A  with Regina  Khidekel 
9:00  PM RECEPTION 
FREE  OF CHARGE  but you can support by making donation: 
http://www.russianamericanculture.com/join/ 
 
RACC's  events are made possible in part with public funds from the New 
York State  Council on the Arts, a state agency, New York City Department of 
Cultural  Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and Cojeco. 
Support  the FESTIVAL! Become a RACC & Festival Committee  member! 
Donate to  Russian American Cultural Center, nonprofit organization 501 (c) 
 (3) 
520 E 76  St. # 7E, New York,  NY 10021 
www.russianamericanculture.com,  646-831-0554 

http://www.russianamericanculture.com/events/film-events/art-films-series/ 
Russian American Cultural Center, in collaboration with the  Russian and 
Slavic Studies Program, Hunter College, CUNY  
is  pleased to announce: 

The  Fifth Annual Russian Diaspora - Israeli Russian 
Film  Festival 
Sunday,  November 2, 2014 2:00 PM – 8:00 PM 
Ida  K. Lang Recital Hall at Hunter College,  
695  Park Ave,  New York, NY 10065 
The  Fifth Annual Festival focuses primarily on the work of young émigré 
filmmakers  presenting their first creations. It is symptomatic that starting 
new life and  being fully adapted and educated outside of the country of 
origin, artists still  like to use as a starting point their deeply rooted 
childhood memories and  impression that they experienced by themselves or taken 
from their  parents. 
One  of the festival’s participants - young American filmmaker George 
Itzhak  states: 
"At the age of one and a half, I hardly have any memories of my family’s  
immigration from Uzbekistan. I was a bundle wrapped in  blankets, barely able 
to walk, and some unknown force catapulted my family and I  more than six 
thousand miles across the world to the immigrant-clogged streets  of Queens. 
However, when I read through Lara  Vapnyar’s stories of immigration and new 
life in America  as experience by adults, I felt I understood them on a deep 
level. There’s an  idea that fears, anxieties, and experiences are passed 
down to children from  their parents. In this way, my own childhood memories, 
all of them tied to  living in Russian-speaking immigrant neighborhoods, 
were affected by my family’s  experiences and their efforts to adapt to their 
new life. The story of Broccoli is not my family’s story  directly, but 
through making this film I felt I was able to connect with them  and their 
generation. Plot specifics aside, Broccoli is a tribute to my parent’s  
generation, and the journey life took them on -- a journey I can feel through  
inherited memories, photographs, and through  storytelling." 
We will also, present a new documentary by Lina Chaplin who with her late 
husband and frequent co-director Slava  Chaplin have been the 2011 Festival  
Honorees, recognized for their outstanding contribution to the Art of the  
Cinema. Born in Russia and  graduates of the Cinematography Institute, the 
Chaplins immigrated to Israel  in 1976. For about 40 years, they have created 
dozens of documentary and feature  films, many of which have won awards in 
Israeli and international film  festivals. Most of the Chaplins' films 
emphasize the identification of Russian  immigrants with the nation of Israel, 
while simultaneously  affirming the importance of their Russian cultural roots 
to Israeli culture as a  whole. 
FESTIVAL  SCHEDULE 
 
2:00 PM 
Voices from the Booth by Lina  Chaplin (USA Premier) 
Israel  2014 | Documentary, 49 min | Russian and Hebrew with English  
subtitles 
You  meet them everywhere, ten thousands of security people. They 
immigrated to  Israel at an advanced age, doing  security work in order to survive. 
In their previous life, they had free  professions. The film focuses on a few 
security guards who insisted on remaining  creative - an optimistic note in 
the quasi-tragic destiny of these people. Docaviv Festival 2014 
3:00 PM 
Next Year in Jerusalem by Anat  Kuznetzov-Zalmanson (USA  Premier) 
Israel, 2014  | Demo for a documentary film, 14 min. | Russian and Hebrew 
with English  subtitles 
It  started with the action of a few, the few became many, and the echoes 
of  their bravery have reverberated through history. 
_Visit http://www.next-year-in-jerusalem-movie.com/_ 
(http://www.next-year-in-jerusalem-movie.com/)  
Q&A  with Jon Hogan,  the film's grant writer, and Israel Zalmanson, a 
member of the  group who spent 8 years in a labor camp 
3:40 PM 
Pur by Anat  Vovnoboy (USA Premier) 
Israel  2013 | Documentary, 13 min | Russian with English and Hebrew  
subtitles 
“Pur”  is a story of Purimspiel plays staged by small groups of Jewish 
dissidents  during the Soviet regime, when all expression of Jewish culture was 
strictly  forbidden. Rare archival footage shows these young men and women 
crowded in  small apartments across Moscow and Leningrad, rediscovering  the 
old but long-buried story of Megillat Esther. Using the tale of the foolish 
 Persian king and his evil adviser, the dissidents expressed their 
criticism of  the oppressive Soviet regime and its foolish and evil leaders. Every 
one of them  knew that simply participating in this amateur show could lead 
to lifelong  imprisonment, or worse. 
4:00 PM 
Broccoli by  George Itzhak 
USA 2014  |Short film, 24:18 min | Russian with English subtitles 
"Broccoli"  is a Russian-language short film that tells the story of Nina, 
a recent  immigrant from Russia, who  copes with her relocation to Brooklyn 
and her  ensuing divorce through a strange affinity for vegetables. 
Based  on the short story by Lara Vapnyar. 
Q&A  session with director George Itzhak 
4:30 PM 
For  the first time, we included new rapidly developing media:  Animation 
Galani by  Soslan Bitarov  
Israel docu-animation | http://vimeo.com/34099684  
"Galani"  is a humorous retelling via cut out of the filmmaker's 
experiences as a soldier  in the IDF (Zahal). The emotional journey from solitary 
outsider,  misunderstanding and misunderstood, to feeling a sense of camaraderie 
and  solidarity, accompanies the chronology from boot camp to squad  
commander. 
4:45 PM 
Budke by  Gideon Latzman (USA Premier) 
Israel  2012 |Short film, 17 min | Russian with English subtitles 
After  immigrating to Israel, a Ukrainian art critic is  forced to work as 
a parking lot security guard. He turns his mundane existence  into beautiful 
philosophical prose as he observes Israeli  society. 
5:15 PM 
Nemez (German) by Stanislav Güntner 
Drama|  Germany 2012 | 93 min | Russian and German with English  subtitles 
_Mark  Filatov_ 
(http://www.german-films.de/filmarchive/browse-archive/view/person/person/filatov/) , _Emilia  Schüle_ 
(http://www.german-films.de/filmarchive/browse-archive/view/person/person/schuele/) , _Alex  Brendemühl_ 
(http://www.german-films.de/filmarchive/browse-archive/view/person/person/brende
muehl/)  
Nemez”  means “The German”. This is how 20-year old Dima is called by his 
boss, art  thief Georgij. After a failed burglary into the flat of a coin 
collector, Nemez  is sent to a juvenile detention center. Once released, he 
wants to make a fresh  start. 
_Stanislav  Güntner_ 
(http://www.german-films.de/filmarchive/browse-archive/view/person/person/guentner-1/)   was born in in Cheljabinsk/Russia in 1977 
and studied at the University of Television and Film Munich from 1999-2006. 
 His films include the shorts THE FORTH WALL (2001), SAY YOU LOVE ME 
(2002),  PRACTICAL GIRL (2003), GUNSHOTS (2005), LONELY ISLAND (2007), and his 
feature  debut NEMEZ (2012). 
Q  & A session 
7:00 PM  PANEL DISCUSSION 
Discussion  moderated by Olga Gershenson,  Academic adviser of the 
festival; Dr. Regina Khidekel, Founder and  curator of the festival,  Dean  
Movshovitz, Director of Film & Media, Consulate General of Israel in New  York, 
David D'Arcy, film critic for  Screen International, Artinfo, film director 
George Itzhak, writer Lara Vapnyar and film director Slava Tsukerman. 
Supporters:  RACC's events are made possible in part with public funds from 
the New York  State Council on the Arts, a state agency, New York City 
Department of Cultural  Affairs, in partnership with the City Council, and 
Cojeco. 
 
Deep  gratitude to Diana Bagrationi Foundation and VK Studios. 
Free  of charge  but you can support the festival by making donation on our 
website:  http://www.russianamericanculture.com/join/   
Become a  RACC & Festival Committee member! 
Donate  to Russian American Cultural Center,  nonprofit organization 501 
(c) (3) 
520 E 76  St. # 7E, New York,  NY 10021 
www.russianamericanculture.com,  646-831-0554 

http://www.russianamericanculture.com/events/film-events/art-films-series/ 
http://www.russianamericanculture.com/events/film-events/fifth-annual-russia
n-diaspora-israeli-russian-film-festival/ 
Art  Film and Diaspora / Israeli Russian Film Festivals - November 1 -  2

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