Events

Event Description

Russian Studies invites all Hamilton community members to attend the 2025 Soviet- and Post-Soviet Film Series.Vladimir Lenin characterized film as “the most important art” for the fledgling Soviet state. Film has indeed played a crucial role in documenting and shaping Russia’s Soviet and post-Soviet experience. This course will begin by exploring early Soviet masters of montage along with the pioneers of “mass” film who enjoyed greater success with audiences. We will watch films that deal with the experience of World War II and the generational shift that came with Khrushchev’s thaw, as well as arthouse cinema that practiced a more meditative cinematic sensibility. Moving on, we will consider films that spoke to the feelings of stagnation or offered de-ideologized comic diversion during Brezhnev era. We will then focus on films that capture the excitement and changing values that defined the era of Perestroika. As we move forward to the “Wild 90s,” we will take a look at films which reflect post-Soviet Russia’s experiments with democracy and capitalism. We will conclude with films that shed light on the neo-authoritarian, neo-colonialist, neo-imperialist Russia of the present. Throughout, we will devote attention to films from other countries in the Soviet and post-Soviet world.