PITT TO SPONSOR RUSSIAN FILM SYMPOSIUM

PITTSBURGH, April 14 -- A Russian Film Symposium featuring recent Russian films and student short features is being presented by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh Filmmakers, and the Beehive at their Oakland locations from Monday through Saturday, May 1 through 6.

Attending this year's symposium will be director Vadim Abdrashitov and actor Sergei Makovetskii, two of Russia's best-known figures in cinema culture. Several films never before screened in the U.S. will be premiered and discussed in the context of current post-Soviet cinema. Russia's most renowned journalists, scholars, and filmmakers will participate.

Films to be shown at Carnegie Museum of Art include Abdrashitov's "Play for a Passenger" on Wednesday, May 3; Aleksei Balabanov's "Trofim" (short film) and Sergei Ursuliak's "Summer People" on Thursday, May 4; Vladimir Khotinenko's "Makarov" on Friday, May 5; and Ivan Dykhovichnyi's "Moscow Parade" on Saturday, May 6. All films will be shown at 7 p.m., have English subtitles, and will be repeated a second time later in the month. For information on this segment, call 412-622-3212.

The symposium will begin with a May Day Parade on Monday, May 1, at noon, featuring banners, floats, skits, and games in the spirit of Russia's late 1920s and early 1930s. The event, a recreation of a Soviet Red Square parade, will reproduce the carnival atmosphere with amateur workers' theatre and political puppet shows.

The theme of this year's intellectual discussion is "Nation, Fetish, Identity." An investigation of this interplay is the subject of debate in the scholarly fora that will run at the Beehive from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, May 2 through Saturday, May 6.

Films to be screened in conjunction with this part of the Symposium include Aleksei Balabanov's "Brother" and Kira Muratova's "Three Stories" on Tuesday, May 2, at 10 a.m., and 2 p.m., respectively; Valerii Ogorodnikov's "Barracks" on Wednesday, May 3, at 10 a.m.; Lidiia Bobrova's "In That Land" on Thursday, May 4, at 10 a.m.; and Otar Ioseliani's "Brigands" on Friday, May 5, at 10 a.m. For information on this segment, contact Elayne Tobin at 412-361-6905 or 412-624-FACT.

Two programs of student films will screen at the Pittsburgh Filmmakers, 477 Melwood Avenue. The first, on Tuesday, May 2, at 7 p.m., is a retrospective of student prize-winning films from Russia's St. Anna Film Festival. The second program, on Friday, May 5, at 3 p.m., screens student films from the Master Class Workshops of Russia's two leading directors, Vladimir Khotinenko and Aleksandr Mitta. For information on this segment, call 412-681-5449.

The Russian Film Symposium offers a chance for the public to view films and engage in cross-cultural dialogue. For anyone with an interest in Russian culture or cinema, this event provides an opportunity to glimpse the complex state of Russian culture today.

All events are open to the public. For full information, see www.rusfilm.pitt.edu.

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