Pitt to Host 12th Annual Russian Film Symposium May 3-8

Issue Date: 
May 2, 2010

The University of Pittsburgh and Pittsburgh Filmmakers will present the 12th annual Russian Film Symposium, titled “From Art-House to Cine-Plex: Russian Cinema’s Search for a Mass Audience,” from May 3-8.

The symposium’s films will be shown in Pitt’s David Lawrence Hall (DLH) as well as in the Melwood Screening Room (MSR), 477 Melwood Ave., Oakland.

This year’s symposium will explore the complex relationship between Russian art-house cinema and genre cinema as well as the balance between independently made films targeting small, niche audiences and Hollywood-style films aimed at mass audiences.

Renowned film scholars from Europe and the United States will present brief introductions for each film, and a discussion will follow each screening. Notable speakers will include Nikolai Izvolov, director of the sector of domestic cinema at the Russian Institute of Cinema Studies; Anthony Anemone, associate provost of foreign languages at The New School University; and Petre Petrov, assistant professor of Slavic languages and literatures at Princeton University.

Pitt’s DLH screenings are free and open to the public; admission to each of Pittsburgh Filmmaker’s MSR viewings is $7. All films contain English subtitles. The symposium will feature, in addition to the screenings, two roundtable discussions, at 2:30 p.m. May 5 and 11 a.m. May 8, both in DLH.

A screening schedule follows.

May 3

Pete on the Way to Heaven (2009), 97 minutes, directed by Nikolai Dostal, 10 a.m., DLH; The Miracle (2009), 110 minutes, directed by Aleksandr Proshkin, 2 p.m., DLH;

May 4

Sonny (2009), 96 minutes, directed by Larissa Sadilova, 10 a.m., DLH; Melody for a Street Organ (2009), directed by Kira Muratova, 2 p.m., DLH;

May 5

Help Gone Mad (2009), 118 minutes, directed by Boris Khlebnikov, 10 a.m., DLH; Wolfy, 88 minutes, directed by Vasili Sigarev, 7:30 p.m., MSR;

May 6

Tale in the Darkness (2009), 77 minutes, directed by Nikolai Khomeriki, 10 a.m., DLH; Oxygen, (2009), 75 minutes, directed by Ivan Vyrypaev, 7:30 p.m., MSR;

May 7

Crush: Five Stories About Love (2009), 92 minutes, directed by Boris Khlebnikov, Ivan Vyrypaev, Petr Buslov, Aleksei German Jr., and Kirill Serebrennikov, 10 a.m., DLH; Room and a Half (2009), 115 minutes, directed by Andrei Khrzanovskii, 2 p.m., DLH; Hipsters (2009), 115 minutes, directed by Valerii Todorovskii, 7:30 p.m., MSR; and

May 8

Taras Bulba (2009), 128 minutes, directed by Vladimir Bortko, 7:30 p.m., MSR.

For a full schedule of events and a synopsis of the screenings, visit www.rusfilms.pitt.edu.