Russian Film Symposium at the University of Pittsburgh

Sat Mar 22 15:05:55 UTC 2008

The tenth annual Russian Film Symposium, "The Ideological Occult: Russian Cinema Under Putin," will run from Monday 5 May through Saturday 10 May 2008 on the campus of the University of Pittsburgh and the Melwood Screening Room of Pittsburgh Filmmakers.  Information is available online at http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu.

The title and topic of this year's Symposium are motivated by two considerations, the first of which is an historical coincidence: just as the first Symposium took place six months prior to Vladimir Putin's appointment as president of the Russian Federation, the tenth will occur two months after he has left office.  Putin's policies have had two objectives: the re-centralization of power (political and economic) in the Kremlin and the reassertion of Russia's role as a super-power in the international arena.  Both objectives originate from a paradox of history about which scholars in the social sciences and humanities have begun to devote attention, and which provides the second impulse for this year's Symposium: Russia's robust imperial practices in the relative absence of a developed civic nationhood.

The ideological occult-a nostalgic desire to resurrect a belief system-known to have failed-flourishes in an era when the very conditions for its survival no longer exist.  Taking as its departure point the cultural theorizing of two very different scholars, Peter Brooks and Frederic Jameson, our working thesis argues that contemporary Russian culture is caught between two conditions.  First, the technological restrictions on the media are no longer sufficiently repressive so as to sustain an insular ideological space where state policy may adequately control the global circulation of contending ideas.  Second, Russian civil society is not sufficiently developed-nor is there necessarily the indication that such a development would be desired-to sustain autonomous loyalty to the state, a loyalty more typical of the nation-state.

Putin's administration approaches its end in March 2008: what could we say about the ways in which Russian cinema has figured his legacy?  How has contemporary film represented the ideological configurations of today's Russia?  Some political analysts have argued that the Putin administration has been a state without ideology.  If so, its absence predates Putin: Yeltsin's declared competition (1996) of a ten-million-ruble ($ 2,000) prize to articulate a new "Russian idea" ended in stunning silence.  As politician Galina Starovoitova (assassinated in 1998 in circumstances similar to Politkovskaia) put it: "the solution is not building an official idea, but in continuing to build a civil society that will generate [its own ideas]."

"The Ideological Occult" provides two fora: public screenings at the Melwood Screening Room of Pittsburgh Filmmakers, with brief introductions and public discussion; and a scholarly component at the University of Pittsburgh, consisting of research presentations, screenings, and debate.  This year's films include Aleksei Balabanov's Cargo 200 (2007), Timur Bekmambetov's Day Watch (2006), Vladimir Khotinenko's 1612 (2007), Marina Liubakova's Cruelty (2007), Pavel Lungin's Island (2006), Anna Melikian's Mermaid (2007), Aleksandr Mindadze's Soar (2007), Aleksei Mizgirev's Hard-Hearted (2007), Aleksei Popogrebskii's Simple Things (2007), Larisa Sadilova's Nothing Personal (2007), Aleksandr Sokurov's Alexandra (2007), Vera Storozheva's Traveling with Pets (2007), and Ol'ga Zhulina's A Kiss-Not for the Press (2008).

Funding for Symposium 2008 includes the University of Pittsburgh-the Dean's Office of the School of Arts and Sciences, the University Center for International Studies, the Center for Russian and East European Studies, the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Film Studies Program, the Graduate Program for Cultural Studies, and a grant from the Hewlett Foundation-and Pittsburgh Filmmakers, as well as grants from The Trust for Mutual Understanding (NYC) and the A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust Fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation.

_________________________________________
Vladimir Padunov
Associate Director, Film Studies Program
Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures
427 Cathedral of Learning           voice: 1-412-624-5713
University of Pittsburgh               FAX: 1-412-624-9714
Pittsburgh, PA 15260                        padunov at pitt.edu

Russian Film Symposium   http://www.rusfilm.pitt.edu

KinoKultura                       http://www.kinokultura.com

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