In celebration of International Women’s Day on March 8, 2021 and Women's History Month during the month of March, the Forum for Cultural Engagement, the United States Embassy and the American Center in Moscow will launch Frame Work, a six-part screening series featuring short films by Russian and American women filmmakers with a post-screening discussion facilitated by a moderator with the two filmmakers. Translation will be provided.
The screenings present unique pairings of films by Russian and American women filmmakers showcasing diverse narrative, experimental, documentary, and animation films. The moderators facilitating the discussion with the filmmakers include film scholars, film writers and critics and literary writers.
Frame Work is an initiative of the Forum for Cultural Engagement, curated by Cynthia Madansky.
Monday, March 15, 2021 at 6:00 PM Moscow time
(18+) Focus on Breathing by Lyaisan Yunusova, 2019, 17 min.: How to turn into a different person in 30 days? 30-year-old Albina tries to find a way to do it while looking for a well-paid job. She is being led through this tough journey not only by online studies but also by a special diary that challenges her daily.
(18+) Stranger Baby by Lana Lin, 1995, 14 min.: Moving between fiction, non-fiction, and science fiction, Stranger Baby features collaged micro-narratives and interviews that report on the multiple meanings of the term "alien." The layered soundtrack is composed of viewers speculating on the film’s images. Their responses, marked by anxiety, gravitate toward ready-made assumptions. The voices elaborate an allegory of race and gender relations that exposes the dangerous inclination toward racial profiling. The film’s internal monologue addresses both the attractive and threatening aspects of alienation, confessing to its allure while constructing a critique that challenges viewers to recognize themselves as possible agents or recipients of the vilifying gaze.
Moderator for post-screening discussion: Anastasia Kostina , a PhD Candidate in the joint program in Film and Media Studies & Slavic Languages and Literatures at Yale University.