Black Russians: The Red Experience
http://www.redpalettepictures.com/film-Black-Russians.htm
Black Russians: The Red Experience
Discovering a different world where blacks with skills and education were welcomed and valued as important participants in helping to build the fledgling communist society, some of them stayed while others returned to the USA, carrying their vision with them. Their experiences fed into the civil rights movement and provided Martin Luther King with the substance for his famous speech "I have a dream…"
The story is explored through the lives and experiences of a number of those individual and their families. Their descendants live in both Russia and America today and the film also explores how they were affected by the Cold War and the rise of post-communist nationalism.
The film brings the history right up to date as the living descendants reveal how these events have shaped the way they live their life today and how it compares to the dreams of their parents and grandparents.
In particular, the film focuses on two living descendants. Yelena Khanga is a well-known Russian TV journalist who has published two books in the USA about her journey to discover her roots in black slavery. Her grandfather, originally from Mississippi, helped the Soviet Union to modernize its cotton industry. Wayland Rudd is a Moscow-based jazz singer whose seven children by different women has frequently attracted the attention of the Russian tabloid newspapers. His father moved from the USA to the USSR and became a 1930s movie star.
Leading academics in the field in both the USA and Russia together with a number of well-known black personalities set the story in context and explain what was happening.
The film is about dreams and dreamers – those who believed they and their families deserved a life better than lynching and segregation. Those who stayed in the USSR never looked back and believed in these ideals for the rest of their lives. Some of their descendants tell a different story.
Black Russians: The Red Experience, a story waiting to be told, shows how people making difficult choices and facing the unknown, driven by their dreams, can live inspirational lives and change the world.
Press
PRODUCER
Sam Pollard more »
CO-PRODUCER
Chris Hastings
DIRECTOR
Yelena Demikovsky more »
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Robert King more »
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Piero Basso (New York) more »
Miko Malkhasyan (New York) more »
Yulia Galochkina (Moscow) more »
EDITOR/LINE PRODUCER
Susan Fanshel more »
MARKETING
Nigel Edwards more »
PROJECT ASSISTANTS
Melissa Espinosa
Oskar Peakock
Johnny Lluberes
Nancy Sifton more »
RESEARCHERS
Pr. Maxim Matusevich (Seton Hall University) more »
Clarence Steinberg more »
Marlaina Martin more »
Dr. Melissa T. Smith more »
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Sara Martinez more »
Jacquelyn Christie more »
Melissa Espinosa
Project Advisory Board and Supporting Institutions »
Gallery
Interview with Carola Burroughs, a granddaughter of Williana Burroughs, New York, 2012
Wayland Rudd, Jr. is having breakfast at the cafe in Moscow, 2012
Interview with Yelena Khanga, a granddaughter of Oliver Golden and Bertha Bialek, Moscow, 2012
http://www.redpalettepictures.com/film-Black-Russians.htm
Black Russians: The Red Experience
Discovering a different world where blacks with skills and education were welcomed and valued as important participants in helping to build the fledgling communist society, some of them stayed while others returned to the USA, carrying their vision with them. Their experiences fed into the civil rights movement and provided Martin Luther King with the substance for his famous speech "I have a dream…"
The story is explored through the lives and experiences of a number of those individual and their families. Their descendants live in both Russia and America today and the film also explores how they were affected by the Cold War and the rise of post-communist nationalism.
The film brings the history right up to date as the living descendants reveal how these events have shaped the way they live their life today and how it compares to the dreams of their parents and grandparents.
In particular, the film focuses on two living descendants. Yelena Khanga is a well-known Russian TV journalist who has published two books in the USA about her journey to discover her roots in black slavery. Her grandfather, originally from Mississippi, helped the Soviet Union to modernize its cotton industry. Wayland Rudd is a Moscow-based jazz singer whose seven children by different women has frequently attracted the attention of the Russian tabloid newspapers. His father moved from the USA to the USSR and became a 1930s movie star.
Leading academics in the field in both the USA and Russia together with a number of well-known black personalities set the story in context and explain what was happening.
The film is about dreams and dreamers – those who believed they and their families deserved a life better than lynching and segregation. Those who stayed in the USSR never looked back and believed in these ideals for the rest of their lives. Some of their descendants tell a different story.
Black Russians: The Red Experience, a story waiting to be told, shows how people making difficult choices and facing the unknown, driven by their dreams, can live inspirational lives and change the world.
Press
- What would compel a black American to move to Stalinist Russia? (Washington Post)
- US Filmmaker on the Trail of Soviet Black Americans (Ria Novosti, USA)
- Eastern Europe: The Black Man's Safe Haven? (The Voice, UK)
PRODUCER
Sam Pollard more »
CO-PRODUCER
Chris Hastings
DIRECTOR
Yelena Demikovsky more »
DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT
Robert King more »
DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY
Piero Basso (New York) more »
Miko Malkhasyan (New York) more »
Yulia Galochkina (Moscow) more »
EDITOR/LINE PRODUCER
Susan Fanshel more »
MARKETING
Nigel Edwards more »
PROJECT ASSISTANTS
Melissa Espinosa
Oskar Peakock
Johnny Lluberes
Nancy Sifton more »
RESEARCHERS
Pr. Maxim Matusevich (Seton Hall University) more »
Clarence Steinberg more »
Marlaina Martin more »
Dr. Melissa T. Smith more »
GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
Sara Martinez more »
Jacquelyn Christie more »
Melissa Espinosa
Project Advisory Board and Supporting Institutions »
Gallery
Bruh....a black woman speaking Russian has got to be the most tranquil thing I've ever heard in my life.