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My Perestroika begins theatrical run at IFC on March 23rd

My Perestroika
Playing March 23 – 29 at

IFC CENTER

323 Sixth Avenue at West Third Street | (212) 924-7771

To buy tickets: http://www.ifccenter.com/films/my-perestroika/

Following a remarkable tour of US film festivals which included Sundance, New Directors/New Films, Full Frame (where it won the 2010 Filmmaker Award), and Silverdocs (where it won a 2010 Special Jury Award), MY PERESTROIKA will have a theatrical release this Spring via distributor International Film Circuit.

Produced, directed and shot by Robin Hessman in her feature filmmaking debut, MY PERESTROIKA is an intimate and lovingly crafted portrait of the last generation of Soviet children brought up behind the Iron Curtain. The theatrical premiere of MY PERESTROIKA is set for March 23rd at New York City’s IFC Center, followed by a national rollout including Boston on April 8th and Los Angeles on April 15th.

When the USSR broke apart in 1991, a generation of young people faced a new realm of possibilities. Hessman’s documentary tells the story of several Moscow schoolmates who went from sheltered Soviet childhoods through the hopes of Gorbachev’s Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) and the chaos of the USSR’s dissolution, to building new lives as adults in Post-Soviet Russia. Today, Borya and Lyuba are married history teachers; Olga is a single mother who works for a billiard table rental company; Ruslan, once a famous punk musician, now busks in the Moscow metro; and Andrei owns a thriving chain of menswear stores. With candor and humor, each paints a picture of the challenges, dreams and disillusionment they’ve faced in Russia’s post-communist era.

Interweaving the contemporary world with vintage home movies and Soviet propaganda footage from the era, director Hessman, who spent years living in Moscow as a film student and later as a producer on the Russian Sesame Street, reveals a Russia rarely ever seen on film, where people are frank about their lives and forthcoming about their country. Engaging, funny and positively inspiring, in MY PERESTROIKA politics is personal, and history progresses one day, one life at a time.

“intimate and lovely. Follows five classmates who came of age right before the Iron Curtain fell – the children of a vanished world. Charting the ways that time, memory, and a rapidly changing society have affected their lives, it’s playful, insightful, hypnotic, and, ultimately, superb.” – Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine

“PROFOUNDLY INSIGHTFUL and overall STUPENDOUS. One of the year’s best documentaries.” – Stewart Nusbaumer, The Huffington Post

“ENGROSSING!” – David Lewis, San Francisco Chronicle

“Remarkably candid…. full of surprises!” – Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times

Groups of 10 or more may purchase discounted group tickets ($10.00 each—$3.00 off regular admission) for any non-holiday Monday-Thursday shows, excluding shows after 5pm on the opening night of a film’s engagement; the discount is also available for Friday shows that begin before 5pm. To arrange for group sales, contact Chris Wells cwells@ifccenter.com or by phone at 212 924 6789.

Starts	March 23 2011
Ends / Deadline	March 29 2011
Homepage	www.myperestroika.com
Contact	info@myperestroika.com
Issues	International, Europe, U.S./Foreign Relations, Media, Politics/Government