http://www.themoscowtimes.com/news/...lms-that-undermine-national-unity/514440.html
Russian Culture Ministry Moves to Ban Films That Undermine 'National Unity'
S.Nikolayev / VedomostiDaniil Dondurei
Russian films may be denied a distribution license if they are deemed to undermine the country's "national unity," according to new regulations that critics have denounced as an attempt to make filmmakers toe the Kremlin line.
The regulations were supposed to take effect on January 1, but have been delayed because the Culture Ministry is still awaiting reviews and comments on the proposed rules from other government agencies, a ministry spokesperson said Wednesday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The regulations, drafted in November, state that a film may be denied a distribution license — effectively banning it from Russian movie theaters and television screens — if it "contains content defiling the national culture, posing a threat to national unity and undermining the foundations of the constitutional order," Interfax cited the ministry as saying.
Filmmakers and critics have been outraged by the prospect.
"What is national unity? This is a completely new term, it didn't exist in the past," the chief editor of Iskusstvo Kino ("The Art of Cinema") magazine, Daniil Dondurei, was quoted by Interfax as saying. "In the past, all we had was [the term] anti-Soviet propaganda."
"Censorship is just a mechanism, but this is an ideological doctrine," Dondurei said.
The planned introduction of the new requirements appears to be part of a wider campaign by the Culture Ministry to unify Russians around Kremlin-endorsed values.
Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky earlier this week called for Russia to "consolidate the state and society on the basis of values instilled by our history," and urged the creation of a "patriotic" Internet and the spread of like-minded films, radio and television content.
Tighter government control over cinematographic expression is also likely to affect the domestic distribution of Andrei Zvyagintsev's film "Leviathan," set to hit Russian cinemas in early February.
"Leviathan" earlier this week raked in a Golden Globe award in the best foreign film category and is a contender for an Academy Award in the same category.
Russians who watch "Leviathan" in theaters are likely to see an edited version, with harsh language removed from the film's dialogue in line with a law passed last year that bans the use of expletives in the arts.
The editing of "Leviathan" appears to be a harbinger of what is to follow.
The head of distribution company Kino Bez Granits ("Cinema Without Borders"), Sam Klebanov, said that the new rules, if enacted, would be unlikely to affect many foreign films unless they specifically deal with Russia-related topics, but warned they could effectively hobble the Russian film industry, Interfax reported.
"This is, of course, primarily aimed at bringing domestic filmmakers in line, and pointing out to them their place as the 'wait staff' in the new ideological hierarchy," he was quoted as saying by the news agency.
It remained unclear how cultural officials would decide whether a film is detrimental to Russia's "national unity" or culture.
"Who is going to decide that the culture has been besmeared? The ministry? The public? A court? And on the basis of what?" director Andrei Proshkin was quoted as saying by Interfax. "How do you determine legally that the [national] culture has been besmeared? And what can besmear a culture more in the 21st century than such laws?
"I don't doubt for a second that soon we will hear about malicious attempts to smear the national culture, and the banning of films," he said, adding that that would mark a return to Soviet-era practices.
http://www.rferl.org/content/top-russian-official-ashames-of-culture-crackdown/26795559.html
Top Russian Official 'Ashamed' Of Culture Crackdown, Quits Ministry
Yevgeny Savostyanov no longer wants to work with the Culture Ministry.
Magnitsky's Final Hours A Theater Success In Moscow
The small theater stage is the world and all the people on it are to be judged, says the director of a play based on the diary of a Russian lawyer who died in prison last year. The production -- based on the daily writings of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in October after awaiting trial for nearly one year -- has been running in Moscow for more than a month and is completely booked through August, organizers say.
By Claire Bigg
January 15, 2015
Aprominent Russian public figure has slammed the country's culture minister for overseeing a deepening crackdown on artists critical of authorities, quitting a ministerial commission in protest.
Yevgeny Savostyanov, the head of Russia's Coordination Council on Intellectual Property Protection, said in an open letter that he was "ashamed" of Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and no longer wished to work with his ministry.
In his letter, addressed to Medinsky, Savostyanov resigned from both the ministry's board and its public council.
"The reason for this decision is the stance that you and the Culture Ministry have taken on a range of important matters of public interests, as well as some of your public statement and remarks for which I am ashamed," he wrote.
The letter criticized Medinsky's refusal to fund Russia's prestigious festival of independent film, ArtdokFest, on the grounds that its president, Vitaly Mansky, made too many "antigovernment remarks."
"It will not receive any money as long as I am culture minister," Medinsky said in November.
Savostyanov, a former FSB official and deputy chief of the Kremlin staff, condemned Medinsky and his ministry for turning a blind eye to the frequent disruptions of concerts, exhibitions, and shows of artists critical of the government.
He also lamented the eviction of Teatr.doc, a well-known independent experimental theater in Moscow.
Theater Stormed
In December, the theater was forced out of its premises after losing an appeal against the decision of Moscow authorities to end a 12-year rental agreement.
Despite protests by Russia's art community and the intercession of Western theater heavyweights such as the Soviet-born U.S. director Aleksandr Gelman and the Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard, Moscow authorities remained deaf to its pleas.
Teatr.doc had staged plays critical of President Vladimir Putin and his politics, including on migration and nationalism.
In late December, police stormed the theater during the screening of a documentary film about Ukraine's pro-European Euromaidan movement, citing a bomb threat. They seized stage props and detained several theater staff.
The Culture Ministry then asked the theater to give a formal explanation for the screening and submit its documents for inspection.
"When the minister said he would not grant funds to Mansky for his ArtdokFest, I made amends by becoming a sponsor of the festival," Savostyanov told Interfax. "But when the story with Teatr.doc began, I thought: 'Why should I bear such mental costs?'"
Savostyanov told Interfax that he had been considering parting ways with the ministry since January 2014, when Medinsky publicly clashed with Daniil Granin, one of the country's oldest and most respected writers.
Medinsky had dismissed Granin's book about the siege of Leningrad during World War II as a "pack of lies."
The minister had poured particular scorn on Granin's assertion that the city's party elite did not go hungry during the siege and ate delicacies that were inaccessible to the rest of the population while an estimated 1 million Leningrad residents starved to death.
Russian Culture Ministry Moves to Ban Films That Undermine 'National Unity'
- By Anna Dolgov
- Jan. 15 2015 18:42
- Last edited 18:44
S.Nikolayev / VedomostiDaniil Dondurei
Russian films may be denied a distribution license if they are deemed to undermine the country's "national unity," according to new regulations that critics have denounced as an attempt to make filmmakers toe the Kremlin line.
The regulations were supposed to take effect on January 1, but have been delayed because the Culture Ministry is still awaiting reviews and comments on the proposed rules from other government agencies, a ministry spokesperson said Wednesday, the Interfax news agency reported.
The regulations, drafted in November, state that a film may be denied a distribution license — effectively banning it from Russian movie theaters and television screens — if it "contains content defiling the national culture, posing a threat to national unity and undermining the foundations of the constitutional order," Interfax cited the ministry as saying.
Filmmakers and critics have been outraged by the prospect.
"What is national unity? This is a completely new term, it didn't exist in the past," the chief editor of Iskusstvo Kino ("The Art of Cinema") magazine, Daniil Dondurei, was quoted by Interfax as saying. "In the past, all we had was [the term] anti-Soviet propaganda."
"Censorship is just a mechanism, but this is an ideological doctrine," Dondurei said.
The planned introduction of the new requirements appears to be part of a wider campaign by the Culture Ministry to unify Russians around Kremlin-endorsed values.
Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky earlier this week called for Russia to "consolidate the state and society on the basis of values instilled by our history," and urged the creation of a "patriotic" Internet and the spread of like-minded films, radio and television content.
Tighter government control over cinematographic expression is also likely to affect the domestic distribution of Andrei Zvyagintsev's film "Leviathan," set to hit Russian cinemas in early February.
"Leviathan" earlier this week raked in a Golden Globe award in the best foreign film category and is a contender for an Academy Award in the same category.
Russians who watch "Leviathan" in theaters are likely to see an edited version, with harsh language removed from the film's dialogue in line with a law passed last year that bans the use of expletives in the arts.
The editing of "Leviathan" appears to be a harbinger of what is to follow.
The head of distribution company Kino Bez Granits ("Cinema Without Borders"), Sam Klebanov, said that the new rules, if enacted, would be unlikely to affect many foreign films unless they specifically deal with Russia-related topics, but warned they could effectively hobble the Russian film industry, Interfax reported.
"This is, of course, primarily aimed at bringing domestic filmmakers in line, and pointing out to them their place as the 'wait staff' in the new ideological hierarchy," he was quoted as saying by the news agency.
It remained unclear how cultural officials would decide whether a film is detrimental to Russia's "national unity" or culture.
"Who is going to decide that the culture has been besmeared? The ministry? The public? A court? And on the basis of what?" director Andrei Proshkin was quoted as saying by Interfax. "How do you determine legally that the [national] culture has been besmeared? And what can besmear a culture more in the 21st century than such laws?
"I don't doubt for a second that soon we will hear about malicious attempts to smear the national culture, and the banning of films," he said, adding that that would mark a return to Soviet-era practices.
http://www.rferl.org/content/top-russian-official-ashames-of-culture-crackdown/26795559.html
Top Russian Official 'Ashamed' Of Culture Crackdown, Quits Ministry
Yevgeny Savostyanov no longer wants to work with the Culture Ministry.
Magnitsky's Final Hours A Theater Success In Moscow
The small theater stage is the world and all the people on it are to be judged, says the director of a play based on the diary of a Russian lawyer who died in prison last year. The production -- based on the daily writings of Sergei Magnitsky, who died in a Moscow prison in October after awaiting trial for nearly one year -- has been running in Moscow for more than a month and is completely booked through August, organizers say.
-
Street Artist Dubbed ‘Russian Banksy’ Reported Dead - Orthodox Activists Interrupt Play About Anti-Putin Punkers
- On Stage: Detained Lawyer's Final Days
By Claire Bigg
January 15, 2015
Aprominent Russian public figure has slammed the country's culture minister for overseeing a deepening crackdown on artists critical of authorities, quitting a ministerial commission in protest.
Yevgeny Savostyanov, the head of Russia's Coordination Council on Intellectual Property Protection, said in an open letter that he was "ashamed" of Culture Minister Vladimir Medinsky and no longer wished to work with his ministry.
In his letter, addressed to Medinsky, Savostyanov resigned from both the ministry's board and its public council.
"The reason for this decision is the stance that you and the Culture Ministry have taken on a range of important matters of public interests, as well as some of your public statement and remarks for which I am ashamed," he wrote.
The letter criticized Medinsky's refusal to fund Russia's prestigious festival of independent film, ArtdokFest, on the grounds that its president, Vitaly Mansky, made too many "antigovernment remarks."
"It will not receive any money as long as I am culture minister," Medinsky said in November.
Savostyanov, a former FSB official and deputy chief of the Kremlin staff, condemned Medinsky and his ministry for turning a blind eye to the frequent disruptions of concerts, exhibitions, and shows of artists critical of the government.
He also lamented the eviction of Teatr.doc, a well-known independent experimental theater in Moscow.
Theater Stormed
In December, the theater was forced out of its premises after losing an appeal against the decision of Moscow authorities to end a 12-year rental agreement.
Despite protests by Russia's art community and the intercession of Western theater heavyweights such as the Soviet-born U.S. director Aleksandr Gelman and the Czech-born British playwright Tom Stoppard, Moscow authorities remained deaf to its pleas.
Teatr.doc had staged plays critical of President Vladimir Putin and his politics, including on migration and nationalism.
In late December, police stormed the theater during the screening of a documentary film about Ukraine's pro-European Euromaidan movement, citing a bomb threat. They seized stage props and detained several theater staff.
The Culture Ministry then asked the theater to give a formal explanation for the screening and submit its documents for inspection.
"When the minister said he would not grant funds to Mansky for his ArtdokFest, I made amends by becoming a sponsor of the festival," Savostyanov told Interfax. "But when the story with Teatr.doc began, I thought: 'Why should I bear such mental costs?'"
Savostyanov told Interfax that he had been considering parting ways with the ministry since January 2014, when Medinsky publicly clashed with Daniil Granin, one of the country's oldest and most respected writers.
Medinsky had dismissed Granin's book about the siege of Leningrad during World War II as a "pack of lies."
The minister had poured particular scorn on Granin's assertion that the city's party elite did not go hungry during the siege and ate delicacies that were inaccessible to the rest of the population while an estimated 1 million Leningrad residents starved to death.
