"Ravishing, forgotten beauties..."This was a recent assessment in the Village Voice of a touring exhibition of films from the Soviet New Wave, an era of filmmaking that came to light largely with glasnost, and then quietly fell back out of the limelight again. There is a revival of interest in these films due to the series touring North America, organized by the Film Society of Lincoln Center and Seagull Films. Breaking with traditions of socialist art to daringly expose long-suppressed subjects, the films of this era have visual qualities and historical relevance that are perhaps unmatched in any cinema. They are treasures in another way, as well: many of the films were shelved, their directors censored or imprisoned. So it is a cinema made against all odds. And it will always have a home at PFA.PFA's Soviet film collection, celebrated for its very rare silents and its Georgian and Central Asian films, also has many splendid sixties works such as Shadows of Our Forgotten Ancestors, Molba, Ivan's Childhood, and Goodbye, Boys that have become beloved by our audience. It is a collection that we are building, adding ever more contemporary titles such as Sokurov's Days of the Eclipse and Kanévski's Freeze-Die-Come to Life! which show that the tradition of visually poetic filmmaking inherited from Dovzhenko, filtered through Paradjanov and Ilyenko, and taken to creative heights by Shepitko and Kalatozov is a heritage that will not be ignored.We wish to acknowledge the individuals whose extraordinary efforts and contributions have helped us to develop the PFA Soviet collection: Forrest S. Ciesol, George Gund III, Naum Kleiman, Don Krim, Albert Johnson, Tom Luddy, Peter Scarlet, Frieda Tanz, and Alla Verlotsky. Look for further gems from the Soviet film collection in future issues of PFA Film Notes.
