PITT TO SPONSOR RUSSIAN FILM SYMPOSIUM

PITTSBURGH, April 19 -- A Russian Film Symposium, featuring recent major films and short independents, is being presented by the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Museum of Art, and the Beehive at their Oakland locations from Monday, April 30, through Saturday, May 5. All events are free and open to the public.

Attending this year's symposium will be director-scriptwriter Rustam Ibragimebekov and scriptwriter Aleksandr Mindadze, two of Russia's best-known cinema figures who will introduce their films and participate in a discussion following the screenings. Several films never before screened in the US will be premiered and discussed in the context of current post-Soviet cinema. The event also will involve Russia's best-read journalists, scholars, and critics.

Films to be shown at the Carnegie Museum of Art include Ibragimbekov's "Family," on Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m.; Sergei Bodrov's "Prisoner of the Mountains," on Thursday, May 3, at 7 p.m.; Vadim Abdrashitov's "Time of the Dancer" (script by Mindadze), on Friday, May 4, at 7 p.m.; and Aleksdandr Rogozhkin's "The Checkpoint," on Saturday, May 5, at 7 p.m. All films will have English subtitles and will be repeated a second time later in the month. For information on this segment call 412-622-3212.

The theme of this year's intellectual discussion is "Evropsk, Russia: Out of European Order?" to be held at the Beehive, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., from Monday,

April 30, through Saturday, May 5.

Films to be screened in conjunction with this part of the symposium include Sergei Solovíev's "Tender Age" and Balabanov's "Brother 2," on Tuesday, May 1, at

10 a.m. and 1.30 p.m., respectively; Khusein Erkenov's "Cold," on Wednesday, May 2, at 10 a.m.; Bakhtiar Khudoinazarov's "Moon Father," on Thursday, May 3, at 10 a.m.; and Stanislav Govorukhin's "Voroshilov Sharpshooter," on Friday, May 4, at 10 a.m.

Two independent films will be screened at the University of Pittsburgh's Masonic Temple, Fifth Avenue. Both programs feature the work of Necrorealist director Evgenii Iufit. Necrorealism, an underground movement founded in Leningrad in the 1980s, addresses "the life of the body abandoned by the soul." Screenings include Iufit's "Werewolf Orderlies" and "Suicide Monsters."

The Symposium is supported by the Ford Foundation, the National Council on Eurasian and East European Research, as well as Carnegie Museum and the University of Pittsburgh. For more information, call 412-624-7232 or go to www.rusfilm.pitt.edu.

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