Playing with the symbolic:
Cultural/historical mythologies in the imagery of Russian animation, from Perestroika to the present Wednesday, 28 August 2013, 12.30pm - 2.00pm ADM Library Cinema Room, Mezzanine Level
Mikhail Gurevich Born in Moscow in 1953, Mikhail Gurevich graduated with a MA with honours from the Moscow State Pedagogical University in 1976 where he specialized in teaching Russian language and literature. Since the late 1970s, he had published numerous works on history of literature, contemporary criticism, sociology of culture, pedagogical and social issues. He was a board member of a leading animation studio Soiuzmultfilm, he has also cooperated with the first independent animated film studio – Pilot. In 1992 he moved to the USA, where he completed his Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Film Studies (at University of Wisconsin). In years 2003-2004 he organized and prepared the program for the animated film festival “Cineme” in Chicago.
Russian animation of the stormy years and beyond isn’t especially known for open and direct political expression. Yet, at close look, certain (maybe overlooked) films and projects give an intriguing insight into public sentiments and tensions, translating them in rather bold and witty imagery. Playing with formerly sacred symbols or emblematic conventions, animators reveal, deliberately or not, complicated issues of cultural and historical identity – and visualize underlying mythologies. In early Pilot studio productions, almanacs Lift, we find exercises in the genre of visual joke (‘anecdote’), often loaded with indirect ideological connotations, with typical Perestroika-style ironic sentiment, but also some broader cultural sensitivity. In mid-late 1990s, so called Moscow Animation Project, gives a panorama of genres and styles, presenting in sketches and parables not only portrait of the city through its long history but also, perhaps, patterns of historical mentality itself. In 2000s, retro-nostalgic motifs become visibly noticeable, along with attempts to de- and re-construct old myths while extending them into new territories.
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http://bit.ly/mgurevich