This panel presents films by six contemporary Russian animators: Svetlana Andrianova, Nina Bisyarina, Liana Makaryan, Leonid Shmel’kov, Dina Velikovskaya, and Varia Yakovleva. They belong to different generations of animators and in their work, they use different styles and techniques. All of these techniques, however, including the weightless lines in Dina Velikovskaya's Ties, minimalistic drawings of Svetlana Andrianova’s Lucky Ticket and Once upon a Time There Was a House, schematic watercolors of Nina Bisyarina’s How Much Does the Cloud Weigh?, rustic cut-outs of Varia Yakovleva’s Anna, Cat-and-Mouse, and post-impressionistic Lola the Living Potato by Leonid Shmel’kov, celebrate the limitless potential of animation to create imagery. What also unites these different films is their exploration of relationships—at the focus of all of them is the topic of connectivity with others and with the world.
This screening will be available worldwide during the duration of the panel.
Curator and Host: Olga Blackledge, Assistant Professor
Department of Communications and Media Arts
Bethany College
Introducer: Laura Pontieri, Independent Scholar
Respondent: Michele Leigh, Assistant Professor
Department of Cinema and Photography
Southern Illinois University
Please register for the film screening here: https://watch.eventive.org/rfs/play/6074a4bd86f143003e0cf974
Register for the introduction and discussion here: https://pitt.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_qT5g8-IfTPy3y-i-jSDIlg