news
90 Secod Cinema: My Perestroika
My Perestroika, an excerpt

In Robin Hessman’s My Perestroika, the director applies a unique blend of home video, archival footage, and personal interviews in documenting five members of the USSR’s final generation before its dissolution in 1991.

In this month’s 90 Second Cinema clip, the adult Borya, Andrei, and Olga recount their days of indifference towards the Komsomol, the youth division of the Soviet Union’s Communist party.  As they speak over home video footage of their childhood selves listening to records and playing with masks, we learn that at that young age, they simply went through the motions: “You wore a red kerchief on your neck,” Andrei recalls – the sign of Komsomol affiliation.  “But you think we were thinking about Lenin every day?  Of course not.”

During a child’s adolescent years, membership in the Komsomol was an unwritten rule – without the pedigree, hopes of getting into college or receiving a worthwhile job were nearly nonexistent.  The purpose, as Borya says in this clip, was “to turn us into upstanding citizens of Soviet society.”  But as he’s already admitted, “by that time, no one really cared.”

Earlier in the film, Borya speaks fondly about his expansive collection of old home movies after watching them with his wife Lyuba and son Mark: “It was childhood, so it was a happy time, despite the whole USSR…everything somehow seemed better.” This attitude contributes to the title, My Perestroika – the dissolution of the Soviet Union had different sentiments for each individual.  The home movies in this clip seem to back up this attitude; juxtaposed with young Mark singing fiercely along with his portable music player, the footage of young Borya listening to a record seem impossibly quaint and almost archaic.

Hessman says she chose to use home video because “Unlike the Soviet and Western propaganda, they are without an agenda.  Part of their beauty is the purity of their intention – to preserve family memories for later generations.”  This belief is further illustrated in this clip, which juxtaposes such intimate home creations with a pure propaganda advertisement for the Komsomol.  The vintage footage shows young members of the organization participating in “Communist Cleanup Day.”  The advertisement’s narrator reminds youngsters that “working with friends is always interesting…the entire country is working together.”

by Mary Iannone

share your thoughts

Name:

Email:

comments

90 seconds appear too short a time to really justify the theme. But essence was covered. I wonder if the creator has uploaded it on YouTube another version with much more time in disposal. I would love to see that on You Tube if it is there .

Posted on Aug 2, 2011 by amit sen