BSL-English supported event

A city-symphony-style, avant-garde love-letter to Kyiv made by Mikhail Kaufman, brother to Dziga Vertov, whose Man with a Movie Camera has been acclaimed as the best documentary of all time.

Mikhail was the actual ‘man behind the movie camera’ – filming while his brother directed – but whilst Vertov was clearly fascinated with industrialisation and development, Kaufman’s own film demonstrates a more human perspective for the “film eye”.  We see the city resurging into life after Winter, the daily lives of the citizens at work and play, smiling faces of children, Easter celebrations alongside the new Soviet May holidays, football matches, a mix of modern and traditional Ukrainian clothes on young and old…

A devastatingly poignant portrait of Kyiv filmed a few years after a brief spell of independence (1918 – 1920) and on the cusp of its subsequent subjugation by the Soviet Union.  After this film was made all political and cultural freedom ended and Stalin announced that Ukrainian culture would not be tolerated.

HippFest is proud to welcome Ukrainian musicians Roksana Smirnova and Misha Kalinin to the Hippodrome for the UK premiere of their new score for In Spring.

Dir. Mikhail Kaufman / 1929 / Ukraine / N/C U / 1h + short

Performing live: Roksana Smirnova (piano) & Misha Kalinin (guitar)

Screening material (and images) courtesy of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre

With support from Artists At Risk