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Allegory, Folktales & Poetics of Soviet
Cinema in the Work of Sergei Parajanov
Curator: Marcin Wisniewski
January 19 - February 16, 2013
Screenings on January 19, January 26, February 2, February 9, February 16
Each screening is preceded by a lecture introduction and a film short.
Finissage - February 16, 3:30-5:30 PM
FOFA Atrium, EV 1-715
Sergei Parajanov, The Colour of Pomegranates, 1968, film still 35mm
For the full curatorial statement and for presenter biographies, please click here.
About
Allegory, Folktales & Poetics of Soviet Cinema in the Work of Sergei Parajanov is a five-part screening series consisting of the four feature-length works of Parajanov, a documentary on his life and work, short films addressing similar themes of abstraction or poetic expression as political content, and an introductory lecture preceding each week’s offerings.
While the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) hosted a retrospective of his work in 2008 and the British Film Institute organized a festival in 2010, Parajanov has, as of yet, received no Canadian curatorial attention. The upcoming monograph written by James Steffen, the Film Studies and Media librarian at Emory University in Atlanta, suggests an emergence of critical interest in the dissident filmmaker, perhaps prompted by the rising conservatism within North American social spheres and its parallels within cultural production and support.
Parajanov was imprisoned for nationalism and homosexuality in the Soviet system. His distinct style of filmmaking often brought into cinema the illuminated manuscripts of his Armenian heritage and presented complex and crystalline images of cultures usurped or overpowered. Narratives are threaded through surreal tableaux in such a way that their political integrity remains uncertain, yet proved deeply threatening. It is this complexity that inspires the FOFA Gallery to bring into focus the way in which an artist in one medium can be speaking to those in many others, drawing into engagement the very idea of artistic production as a politic in and of itself.
“Watching a Sergei Parajanov film is a cinematic experience you are unlikely to forget. His work is akin to a tone-poem, a prism of evocative images that combines magic, folk-mythology, and alchemy. It offers the aesthetic dislocation of surrealism and conjoins it with the pageantry of poetry. Parajanov forces you to enter a child’s lexicon of imagination, a sage’s vision of time and memory, and a painter’s feel for the composition of color.” - Oscar Paul Medina, Sergei Parajanov: A Persecuted Cinematic Master |
“A mixture of paganism, ritual, poetry, and dance underlies that vision, and as Parajanov pointed out, ‘We intentionally gave ourselves over to the material, its rhythm and style, so that literature, history, ethnography, and philosophy would fuse into a single cinematic image, a single act’.” - Jonathan Rosenbaum |
Parajanov’s unique alchemy has influenced popular culture in unexpected ways, appearing as quotational images in Madonna’s music videos in advertising as well as in the work of filmmakers like Derek Jarman. This unique currency bares further consideration.
Curator Marcin Wisniewski selected the film program as well as the speakers. The lecture series aims to help unpack the films and provide a framework for a larger discussion. The lecturers will address issues such as the Poetic School, the value and commercialization of beauty in art, the aesthetics and dissemination of Middle Eastern art, narrative and folktale structures as well as a presentation on Sergei Parajanov, his life and art. As such, it should provide the viewer with additional analytical tools and multiple frameworks to engage with the films on a more active level.
Screenings
January 19, 2:00 PM
Feature: Shadows of our Ancestors, Sergei Parajanov, 1965. 97 min, 35 mm, EN Subtitles.
Short: Skatne Ronatehiarontie (They Grow Together), Marion Delaronde Konwennenhon, 2012. 7 min, DVD, Animation, EN Subtitles.
Speaker: Masha Salazkina, Concordia University, Soviet Cinema & the Poetic School
January 26, 2:00 PM
Feature: The Color of Pomegranates, Sergei Parajanov, 1968. 88 min, 35 mm, FR Subtitles.
Short: Kiev Frescos, Sergei Parajanov, 1966. 15 min, DVD, EN Subtitle.
Speaker: jake moore, Galerie FOFA Gallery, The Politics of Beauty
February 02, 2:00 PM
Feature: Legend of Suram Fortress, Sergei Parajanov, 1986. 83 min, 35 mm, EN Subtitles.
Short: Prayer Beads, Han Han Li, 2012. 8:20 min, DVD, Animation, Silent.
Speake: Tatiana Levesque, McGill University, Allegory & Folktales
February 09, 2:00 PM
Feature: Ashik Kerib, Sergei Parajanov, 1988. 74 min, 35 mm, FR Subtitles.
Shorts: We refuse to be cold, Alexander Carson, 2011. 10 min, DVD, EN.
Un Marriage Chimique, Unai Miquelajáuregui, 2010. 6 min, DVD, Silent.
Speaker: Monia Abdallah, UQAM, Dissemination of the Middle Eastern Aesthetic
February 16, 2:00 PM
Feature: Parajanov: A Requiem, Ron Holloway, 1994. 54 min, DVD, EN Subtitles.
Shorts: Ciurlionis, Nadia Mytnik- Frantova, 2011. 4:40 min, DVD, EN.
The Jewelleries, Eugenie Cliché, 2012. 4 min, DVD, Silent.
Speaker: Marcin Wisniewski, curator, Parajanov: Erotics of Eclecticism
Finissage - February 16, 3:00-5:30 PM
FOFA Atrium, EV 1-715
Where:
J.A.de Sève Cinema, Concordia University
Room LB-125, J.W. McConnell Building (1400 de Maisonneuve W.)
Montreal, Quebec (Metro Guy-Concordia)
Cost:
Free admission. Everyone welcome.
Acknowledgements
The project recognizes the support of Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Canada Council for the Arts, and IITS Concordia
Link
Curatorial Statement and Presenter Biographies
© Concordia University