Art Film Festival

S., the Russian Revolutions, and the historical Balfour Declaration, the Festival's program explores the turmoil of the 20th century and is dedicated to women's role in society, history and art.

2:00 PM
USA Premiere
Russian Avant-garde - A century on Revolution. New Art for a New World by Margy Kinmonth
UK 2016 | 85 min | Feature Documentary | Foxtrot Films| English
Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists, curators, and
performers and personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, the film brings the artists of the Russian
Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich and others – pioneers who flourished
in response to the Utopian challenge of building a New Art for a New World, only to be broken by implacable authority
after 15 short years. Director Margy Kinmonth, a creator of highly acclaimed documentary Hermitage Revealed, says:
“I was inspired, as an artist, to discover how many of the descendants of Russian Avant-Garde artists are themselves working as artists today. Access to their intensely moving stories brings to
life this extraordinary period of artistic innovation, which continues to exert such a powerful legacy a hundred years on.”
Q&A with Regina Khidekel, Festival’s Curator

3:45 PM
USA Premiere

Miss Bluwstein by Sivan Arbel
Biography of Hebrew poet, known simply as Rachel the Poetess
Israel 2015|55 min| Documentary |Hebrew with English subtitles
The Bank of Israel recently announced that two Israeli banknotes, which are part of a new series highlighting
renowned 20th century Israeli poets whose life and work parallel the birth of the State of Israel, will be dedicated
to two women: Rachel Bluwstein and Leah Goldberg. Rachel Bluwstein (1890 – 1931), the matriarch of modern Hebrew poetry, will grace the new oft-used bill 20-Shekel that includes vistas of her beloved Sea of Galilee shoreline,
palm trees, and verses from her signature poem “Kinneret.” The documentary to mark the 125th Birthday of Rachel,
strengthens the image of the first Hebrew poet, the immigrant from Russia, who managed to express the
emotional life of an entire generation in a language which lives and breathes to this day. Dana Olmert, Anat Weisman,
Efrat Mishori, Muki Tsur, Uri Milstein, Yehudit Ravitz, Karni Postel and others, speak, and sing along with animations and
previously unknown letters by Rachel re-paint her extraordinary character.
Q&A with Eran Polishuk, Director of Film & Media, Consulate General of Israel in New York

5:00 PM

The Babushkas of Chernobyl: A story of three unlikely heroines in the most toxic place on earth
by Holly Morris
USA 2015 | 70 min | Documentary | Russian, Ukrainian with English subtitles
In the radioactive Dead Zone surrounding Chernobyl's Reactor a community of old women cling to their ancestral homeland. While their neighbors have long since fled and their husbands gradually died off, this sisterhood of women labour to cultivate land deemed uninhabitable. Ignoring government orders and health warnings, the Babushkas of Chernobyl continue to forge an existence in one of the most toxic environments on earth.
Q&A with Yasha Klots, Assistant Professor of Russian, Hunter College, CUNY.

6:20 PM
USA Premiere

Mirrors by Marina Migunova
Russia 2013 | 119 min | Feature film | Russian with English subtitles
A feature Mirrors is the first historical-biographical feature film that focuses on the tragic fate of the poet Marina Tsvetaeva, one of the greatest poets of the 20th century. The authors follow her in Russia, then in emigration in Prague and Paris, and then upon her return to Russia, where she committed suicide a few months after she came back.
Q&A with Regina Khidekel, Festival’s Curator

Hunter College students free

http://www.russianamericanculture.com/events/film-events/2017-art-film-festival/