New journal: launch issue of _Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema_

[Condee]

Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema
Birgit Beumers, ed.

In November 2006 we shall present the launch issue of Studies in Russian and
Soviet Cinema – SRSC, which will henceforth appear three times a year. 
For information see
http://www.intellectbooks.co.uk/journals.php?issn=17503132  

The expansion of Russian cinema in recent years – from the Golden Lion and
Best Debut award in Venice in 2003 for The Return as a success for art-house
cinema, to the blockbuster release of Night Watch in July 2004 and its
subsequent sale to Fox Searchlight – has finally returned Russian cinema
onto the international scene after the economic and artistic turbulence of
the 1990s. 

SRSC fills a niche in the journal market: in an expanding field of film and
media studies, it addresses itself to Slavists and non-Slavists, cinema
buffs and film scholars, those engaged in cultural studies and history
alike. Its title is chosen to reflect a concern with the history of film,
but also to encompass those former Soviet republics that have since gained
independence. We are keen to cover extensively research in animation and
documentaries. 

Meanwhile, we should note that Kinokultura, the only English-language
internet journal devoted to contemporary Russia cinema, edited by two people
from the SRSC team, is busy expanding its activities on line, developing its
unique coverage of visual culture into video-art and expanding its coverage
to the geographic context of Russian cinema with its special issues. 

SRSC is designed to give an opportunity for publication to research into the
history of Russian and Soviet cinema, and how Russian cinema compared with
developments in European and world cinema. Indeed, no development in
contemporary culture can be fully understood without the rich history and
the background of the Soviet and Russian film industry, many areas of which
remain hitherto unexplored. SRSC aims to devote a section in each of the
three issues to special formats: one issue will have a focus for book
reviews, another for documents in translation, and the third will publish a
script as special feature. 

I am delighted to open the “scripts” section in this first issue with a
hitherto unpublished piece: it is the novella Cross-Eyed Sasha, which formed
the basis for Sergei Bodrov’s film S.E.R – Freedom is Paradise (Svoboda –
eto rai, 1989), an important film of the perestroika period that won
international recognition – among others, the Grand Prix des Amériques at
the Montreal Film Festival in 1989, and the Wolfgang Staudte Award at the
Berlin International Film festival in 1990. The novella has been translated
by Professor Michael Heim of the University of California at Los Angeles. It
is an enormous pleasure and a great honour to have Cross-Eyed Sasha in the
first issue of this new journal. I am most grateful to Sergei Bodrov and
Michael Heim for their kind help and support, and their permission to
publish the text in SRSC.  

Furthermore, the first issue offers three long articles that are as
wide-ranging as a new journal could wish for: their contributors come from
the United Kingdom and the United States, they include postgraduate and
established scholars: there is no better way of making clear that we aim –
across the board – at a high level of international scholarship. All our
articles are peer-reviewed, and without the massive support of co-editors
and peer reviewers, editorial and advisory boards, this issue could not have
come into shape. 

The articles are presented in this issue, and in future issues, in
chronological order. They cover the 1930s with a piece on the purges, thus
exploring the political and historical aspect of cinematic culture; the
1960s with an article that uses concepts of Lotman and Bakhtin to explore
the banned feature film The Commissar; and a study of the reception history
of Men'shov’s 1980 Oscar- winner Moscow does not believe in tears. 

With your active support, I hope that SRSC can maintain a fine level of
scholarship and present a wide range of material. I look forward to hearing
from you with suggestions, comments and submissions, and I hope you enjoy
the read!

Birgit Beumers, Editor 


Prof. Nancy Condee, Director
Graduate Program for Cultural Studies
2206 Posvar Hall
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, PA 15260
412-624-7232

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