Proto-verite in the Soviet Union

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Russian Close-Up
Dir. Albert Maysles, 1957, 33 min
Albert and David Maysles managed to buy their BMW motorcycle for only 300 dollars in Germany and travel across Eastern Europe into Russia (something Albert had done the previous year on a motor scooter). The reason that they were able to obtain the motorcycle so cheaply was that is was assumed that having the brothers' make their film about Russia while riding that bike through the Soviet Union would be good publicity. The brothers were helped in large part by the fact that they had Russian visas and by the fact that they were (officially at least) going to attend the communist youth festival in Hungary. When they got there they were some of the very few Americans that were present. This film is a document of that adventure as well as a visual diary of the places and faces encountered by Albert and David along this cross-country motorcycle ride through the former Soviet Union.
Since Russian Close-Up is a silent film Albert Maysles will provide a taped audio commentary recorded especially for this screening.

Opening in Moscow
Dir. DA Pennebaker, Shirley Clarke, Albert Maysles, 1959, 45 min
n 1959 Richard Leacock, Albert Maysles, Shirley Clark and DA Pennebaker were all in Moscow where they made this film and also helped out with Richard Leacock's film about Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic in Moscow. This movie is an impressionistic look at Kruschev's Russia centered around the opening of the american exhibition in Moscow at the 1959 world fair. The movie is fascinating as a record of the reception to the American exhibition and as a slice of life portrait of the average citizens of Moscow. In observing Russian people observing Americans play acting the role of the average U.S. citizen at the exhibition, the film documents a curious inversion where it is American lifestyle that signifies the exotic culture that is then presented and exhibited to spectators instead of the other way around. However, we in the audience are also spectators observing the spectators which creates an interesting relationship. The film cleverly cuts between shots of the spectacle of the American exhibition and shots of Moscow and its people going about their daily lives thus making a statement about the differences and similarities between Russian and American working class life during this crucial period.

AFTER THE SCREENING: DA Pennebaker present for discussion. Moderated by Malek Rasamny

Psychiatry in Russia
Dir. Albert Maysles, 1955, 14 min.
This rarely-screened film was the first professional film Albert Maysles made and the one that got him hooked. While still teaching Psychiatry at Boston University Albert Maysles received a small amount of money to make this film in the Soviet Union. Entering the country for the first time, speaking almost no Russian with very little money Albert was still able to pull- off this excellent film. When he first entered the Soviet Union Albert Maysles had no contacts whatsoever. At his hotel he ran into the famous African- American journalist William Worthy Jr. who invited him to attend a cocktail at the Romanian Embassy even though he was subsequently unable to get Albert Maysles on the guest list. With a nod and a wink from the guards Albert managed to get into the cocktail party where he met some of the most important people in the Soviet Union at the time. It was there that Mikhail Pervukhin, a high ranking official in the Soviet Politburo, introduced him to head of Psychiatry for the Soviet Union. It was this contact that allowed Albert Maysles to finally finish the film. The movie in it's profiling of various asylums and mental institutions in the Soviet Union reveals as much about the ordinary man in Russia as it does about the so-called insane.

Letter from Siberia
Dir. Chris Marker, 1957, 57 min.
Letter from Siberia was Chris Marker's first feature and an unforgettable cinematic essay/travelogue on Siberia, communism, the Soviet Union, the role of film, the traveler as well as the immediacies of both time and place. The film foreshadowed Chris Marker's reflexive and experiemental approach to the documentary format which would both become hallmarks of his unique approach to cinema verite. This film is rich in both imagery and voice-over material where Chris Marker speaks through a voice that is not his own. The film is famous for a scene of streets, buses and workers repairing a road that repeats three times. Once with a commentary that is clearly pro-Soviet, a second time with a commentary that sounds like United States propaganda and a third time where the commentary is merely observational. "A work such as Letter From Siberia demonstrates that place can only ever be event. It is this identification and elucidation of the singularities of place, moment, memory, in a screen-based medium, that will be Marker's lasting legacy." - Adrian Miles, Senses of Cinema  

AFTER THE SCREENING: Panel Discussion with director Albert Maysles and special guest.
Moderated by Matt Peterson