Pitt and Pittsburgh Filmmakers to Host 11th Russian Film Symposium

The University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers will present the 11th annual Russian Film Symposium, titled The New Positive Hero: Masculinity and Genre in Recent Russian Cinema, May 4-9 on Pitt’s Oakland campus as well as at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ Melwood Screening Room (MSR), 477 Melwood Ave.

According to press coordinator Margaret Barton-Fumo, this year’s symposium is an examination of the interrelationship between two recent, seemingly unrelated developments in the Russian film industry: the emergence of genre cinema and the reconfiguration of masculinity on the screen.

Film scholars from Europe and the United States will present brief introductions to each film, and a discussion session will be held at the conclusion of each screening. Speakers will include Pitt alumnus Petre Petrov (A&S ’06G), a professor in Princeton University’s Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures; Jeremy Hicks, a senior lecturer in the Queen Mary, University of London, School of Languages, Linguistics, and Film; and Alexander Prokhorov, a professor in the College of William and Mary’s Department of Modern Languages.

Pitt-campus screenings will be presented in Room 106 of David Lawrence Hall (DLH). Pitt screenings are free and open to the public. Admission to Pittsburgh Filmmakers’ MSR is $7. All films contain English subtitles.

The film symposium’s screening schedule follows.

May 4 Vanished Empire (2008), directed by Karen Shakhnazarov, 10 a.m., DLH; Paper Soldier (2008), directed by Aleksei German Jr., 2 p.m., DLH;

May 5 Live and Remember (2008), directed by Aleksandr Proshkin, 10 a.m., DLH; Once Upon a Time in the Provinces (2008), directed by Katia Shagalova, 2 p.m., DLH;

May 6 Four Ages of Love (2008), directed by Sergei Mokritskii, 10 a.m., DLH; Wild Field (2008), directed by Mikhail Kalatozishvili, 7:30 p.m., MSR;

May 7 Mukha (2008), directed by Vladimir Kott, 2 p.m., DLH; 12 (2007), directed by Nikita Mikhalkov, 7: 30 p.m., MSR;

May 8 Captive (2008), directed by Aleksei Uchitel, 10 a.m., DLH; Russia-88 (2009), directed by Pavel Bardin, 2 p.m., DLH; Shultes (2008), directed by Bakur Bakuradze, 7:30 p.m., MSR; and

May 9 Morphia (2008), directed by Aleksei Balabanov, 7:30 p.m., MSR.

For more information, a full schedule of events, and a synopsis of screenings, visit www.rusfilms.pitt.edu or www.filmstudies.pitt.edu/events/fy09/russianfilm09.pdf.