Pussy Riot documentary

Sun Dec 29 20:08:26 UTC 2013

Dear Kenneth,

Interesting suggestion.

1. Marching? There are 5 million rubles fines for any kind of marching in
Russia now... http://rapsinews.com/judicial_news/20120720/263855578.html
2. It's almost the New Year's Eve, the main Russian holiday. People are
busy decorating New Year trees and buying tangerines and ingredients for
Olivie salad. That's why the amnesty happened now and not earlier/later.
3. Maybe you mainly go to places where they consume cappuccinos? Try to
explore more:) Also, Moscow and St. Pete is not Russia...

*Best regards,*
*Ksenia Kologrieva*

Cloudberry Language School

Phone: 773-942-6262

www.cloudberrylanguageschool.com

Find a Common Language!

On Sun, Dec 29, 2013 at 11:44 AM, Allan, Kenneth <kenneth.allan at uleth.ca>wrote:

>  This is interesting. But I'm in Russia now, and the people are hardly
> marching in the streets. In Moscow and St. Petersburg, the main industry
> appears to be the manufacturing and consumption of cappuccinos. It seems to
> me there are more potentially interesting approaches, perhaps less
> self-involved and self-glorifying on the part of the activists.
>
>
>  Best,
> Kenneth Allan
> University of
> 
> Lethbridge
>
>  ------------------------------
> *From:* SEELANGS: Slavic & East European Languages and Literatures list [
> SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU] on behalf of Ludmila Snigireva [
> ludmilasnigireva at GMAIL.COM]
> *Sent:* Sunday, December 29, 2013 8:05 AM
>
> *To:* SEELANGS at LISTSERV.UA.EDU
> *Subject:* Re: [SEELANGS] Pussy Riot documentary
>
>  Миш, посмотри, что Серебрянников пишет. Я получила по своей
> проф.рассылке.
> On 29/12/2013 00:16, Sarah Hurst wrote:
>
> Here's my translation of a reply from the artistic director of the Gogol
> Theatre:
>
> Kirill Serebrennikov
> 5 hours ago near Moscow, Russia
> Even recently in all my interviews I asserted like a mantra: "There's no
> censorship in the theatre, there's no censorship in the theatre, in the
> theatre there's no..." That's it, we're fucked, there's censorship in the
> theatre! Cynical, pointless and idiotic.
> Now any freedom, any desire to find sense, any desire to express oneself -
> it's all stuck in the impenetrable gloom and hassle which has arrived,
> filled all the space around us and controls us. We thought that somewhere -
> in the theatre, in the "trendy" cafes, at home, or at the computer - there
> was still a little free air. It's like climbing on top of a wardrobe in a
> flood and looking for salvation under the ceiling, where there's still some
> air. That's it! We're fucked! There's no air! The "overwhelming majority"
> got the air. It - this majority - orders a government for itself, and the
> government orders the music to amuse and delight this majority.
> They've banned us from holding the premiere of the film "Pussy Riot: A
> Punk Prayer" and a meeting with Nadia Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina.
> Maxim Pozdorovkin had flown in specially from New York. All the work of
> Irina Prokhorova, who was supposed to host the conversation, has been
> cancelled. After a whole day of tense negotiations a banning document
> arrived from the department of culture at my request, which signifies one
> thing: censorship in action. That's it, it's over! Who could be so afraid
> of a peaceful conversation between a few hundred audience members at the
> Gogol Centre and some young women who have been amnestied? Who could be so
> afraid of the premiere of a film that has received a pile of prizes and
> that can't tell us anything new either about the government or about
> ourselves, as it was made rather a long time ago? I don't get it...
> The premiere and the conversation won't happen.
> At the Moscow Art Theatre they'd only just finished the prosecutor's
> checks on my play The Pillowman, when a whole series of letters and appeals
> appeared from "outraged and offended" citizens about Kostya Bogomolov's
> play. They demand Tabakov's resignation. They demand "a lawsuit", "a ban",
> "a closure"... And it's clear that this isn't just an increase in seasonal
> schizophrenia - this is very real religious censorship. We're fucked!
> Welcome! We've made it! Now the fanatics will tell us how to put on plays,
> what we can do and say on stage, and what we can't. Everyone knows what's
> happening at the Moscow Art Theatre, everyone reads the news. And where are
> all our professional societies? Why are you silent? Did you piss
> yourselves? Well done! Next time they'll come for you.
> And finally - an ethical Charter for the "fuckoff" of cinematographers -
> who have concluded an accord by this fucking symphony. Censorship that
> they're trying to bring in not by the hands of bureaucrats, not by the
> clergy, but now by the hands of our colleagues themselves - the most adroit
> and nimble students of "the Dragon". This is what's the most disgusting and
> odious. Yes, a weak person, but it's possible even for this weak person
> just to go around it, it's possible to try "not to be, not to participate,
> not to do it", but it's possible to happily kick down a comrade, help him
> to fall, make sure he doesn't get up, and at the same time be happy at the
> "elimination of a rival". You're living right, friends! It'll all work out
> for you.
> To sum up, it's a shame that we've had to cancel the event. For me it's
> unbelievably repulsive and foul. I never thought that, to speak in the
> words of the classics, "I'd fall into such fucking crap". I call on all
> people for whom the concepts of honesty and freedom are alive, for whom the
> worth and right of an artist to create speak freely are important, to rally
> round and oppose the coming Gloom. In word, in action, in art, whatever you
> can do.
> And I hope that when this shameful bullshit ends, we, remembering all
> this, will laugh at ourselves, and will write the truth about this petty
> little period. If "the overwhelming majority" doesn't cancel us, the truth
> and everything else before then. But experienced people tell me that
> because of our cowardice and laziness this "bullshit" will never end.
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