The documentary filmmaking process requires a tremendous amount of patience, discipline, creativity, and flexibility. You need to deal with people, but know how to troubleshoot technology; you must be organized, but open to spontaneity; you should be prepared for everything, but comfortable working in the unknown. For the eight students who studied abroad in the summer of 2011 in St. Petersburg, Russia, they had the added challenge of doing it all in Russian. Read more.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KY1yoOTl6cw[/youtube]
STUDENTS’ MULTIMEDIA PROJECTS
A Century of Movie Going: The Aurora Theater by Ashby Gaines
Gazprom’s Tower: Civil Society in the Venice of the North by Alex McGrath
Mikhail Chemiakin’s Monument to Peter the First: A Site of Post-Imperial Self-Reflexivity by Caitlin Oakley
Negotiating the Meanings of Smolensky Cemetery: Between Orthodoxy and Goth Subculture by William Lahue
Rethinking The Legacy of Unofficial Art in St. Petersburg: The Case of Pushkinkaya-10 Art Center by Monika Bernotas
The Marine Façade and the Petersburg Myth in Post-Soviet Russia by Sophia Kosar
Tourism: The New Kid on Nevsky Prospekt by Megan Doneski
Ashby Gaines | back to top
“A Century of Movie Going: The Aurora Theater”
The Aurora Theater opened its doors under the name The Piccadilly Theater in 1913 and since then has been the oldest continuously operating movie theater of St. Petersburg. Read the rest of Ashby Gaines paper.
“Raisa Goes to the Movies” (Dir. Ashby Gaines)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G3PchxFEuCs&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
Alex McGrath | back to top
“Gazprom’s Tower: Civil Society in the Venice of the North”
The romantic skyline of Saint Petersburg is in danger. The classic precipices of the city are under threat of being overshadowed: Peter and Paul’s Fortress, Saint Isaacs Cathedral, the Admiralty, Smolny Cathedral[1]. The tallest building in this “Venice of the North” is soon to be a gargantuan, spiraling office building. Read the rest of Alex McGrath’s paper.
“The Power of Height” (Dir. Alex McGrath)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rxwfyIIxLYk&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Caitlin Oakley | back to top
“Mikhail Chemiakin’s Monument to Peter the First: A Site of Post-Imperial Self-Reflexivity”
Over the course of the past two decades, Mikhail Chemiakin’s statue of Peter the First has received mixed responses. At its unveiling on 7 June 1991, people were appalled at the monument’s irreverent representation of emperor, but in more recent years, some Petersburgers have developed if not liking at least some strange attachment to the statue. Read the rest of Caitlin Oakley’s paper.
“A Different View of Peter” (Dir. Caitlin Oakley)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=549cFmpKtio&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL[/youtube]
William Lahue | back to top
“Negotiating the Meanings of Smolensky Cemetery: Between Orthodoxy and Goth Subculture”
The post-Soviet story of Smolensky cemetery, especially of its Orthodox section, is about the Orthodox Church restoring its symbolic control over the cemetery. In the face of this transition of power and values the Goth subculture has emerged and asserted itself in dialogue with the new dominant ideology. Read the rest of William Lahue’s paper.
Smolensky Cemetery: Goths and Orthodox (Dir. Will Lahue)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFg01G6tFJs[/youtube]
Monika Bernotas | back to top
“Rethinking The Legacy of Unofficial Art in St. Petersburg: The Case of Pushkinkaya-10 Art Center by Monika Bernotas”
One must really have the desire to find the Pushkinskaya-10 Art Center if they are to visit it. Located in an otherwise inconspicuous courtyard, off Ligovsky Prospect, which runs parallel to the street of its original name, it hides, tucked behind the bright signs of the downtown area surrounding the Moskovsky railway station. Read the rest of Monika Bernotas’ paper.
collective apARTment: the Pushkinskaya-10: Legacy of Unofficial Art (Dir. Monika Bernotas)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9s-_yavwFA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Sophia Kosar | back to top
“The Marine Façade and the Petersburg Myth in Post-Soviet Russia”
The new Marine Façade development project, located on the western edge of Vasilievsky Island, embodies the Petersburg myth and the three-hundred-year-old dichotomy between reality and dreams, the possible and the impossible, that lies at the heart of the city. Read the rest of Sophia Kosar’s paper.
The Marine Facade: Underneath Piter’s New Face (Dir. Sophia Kosar)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oS2v3V9EYgY[/youtube]
Megan Doneski | back to top
“Tourism: The New Kid on Nevsky Prospekt”
The changes in Russia, between the former Soviet era and the current Post-Communist era, have led to changes in the atmosphere and culture of Petersburg’s main street, most notably in the tourism industry on Nevsky Prospekt. Read the rest of Megan Doneski’s paper.
Tourism: The New Kid on the Prospekt (Dir. Megan Doneski)
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6SSSSGEV_8[/youtube]
Funding for the 2011 program is coming from the Reves Center for International Studies and The Parents’ Association at the College of William and Mary.
Special thanks to Professors Francie Cate-Arries and Frederick Corney for helping to develop methodological framework and syllabi for this program.