Scientists, punks, engineers and gurus: Soviet experimental film culture in the 1960s–1980s. Issue 1 (2nd January 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Vinogradova, Maria
• Is Part Of: Studies in Eastern European cinema. Volume 7:Issue 1(2016)
• Page Start: 39
• Page End: 52
• Publication Date: 2016-01-02
• Subjects: Amateur film -- experimental film -- media infrastructure -- nontheatrical film -- science film -- Soviet parallel cinema; Motion pictures -- Europe, Eastern -- Periodicals; Motion pictures; Europe, Eastern; Film; Osteuropa; 791.43094705
• DOI: 10.1080/2040350X.2016.1112502
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2040-350X

Abstract

ABSTRACT: This essay discusses the most popular but least understood modes of experimental cinema that developed in the Soviet Union in the period between the late 1950s and early 1990s. It focuses on two officially sanctioned types of film production, popular science and amateur cinema, each produced within specially designated film studios. My paper discusses the ways in which these studios could act as creative environments that nurtured experimental film culture. The paper argues that in the Soviet context, visual arts community and the unofficial art circles were not the only domain of experimental art and filmmaking and highlights the role of science-technological intelligentsia in artistic experimentation.