An American director presents his view of the Orange Revolution; Russian rockers Spleen bring their “Split Personality” to Kyiv.
This month, a sensational documentary about the Orange Revolution by the American director Steve York will open in Kyiv. “They were nameless but not powerless,” as the slogan for his documentary proclaims.
York is interested in documenting how the massive, nonviolent protest was seen through the eyes of its participants. He has already shot other documentaries about protest movements, including the documentaries “A Force More Powerful,” an anthology about nonviolent movement in the 20th century, and “Bringing Down a Dictator,” about the events connected with the fall of Slobodan Milosevic.
These two movies were translated into 10 languages and largely distributed not only in the US, but in over 50 other countries. Moreover, they were nominated for a number of awards at the San Francisco, Chicago, Seattle, and Toronto Documentary Film Festivals.
In connection with the recent political events in Ukraine, it seems to be an opportune moment for such a film. Steve York promised to introduce some previously unknown facts about the Orange Revolution. The whole film is created from footage filmed in Ukraine and lasts nearly two hours. According to a journalist at Kino-Kolo magazine, who was present at the film’s pre-premier showing at the Berlin Biennale, the film documents every stage of the protest from its beginnings to the blowup. The film portrays both the factual events and the emotions as experienced by those taking part in the events.
Zhovten cinema (26 Konstyantynivska, 205-5951). From April 18. See Movies for details.
One of the top Russian rock bands of all time, Spleen, is coming to Ukraine to present its latest album “Razdvoyeniye Lichnosti” (“Split Personality”) in Kyiv and Odessa. Spleen hasn’t been to Ukraine for two years and since then the group has changed a bit. Mostly in terms of the music – you won’t hear any flute on the album, which was commonly used by Spleen in their earlier recordings, and the sound has become much heavier. Yet the overall mood of the songs has remained pretty much the same – it’s gloomy, as always, with lots of melancholy.
The lyrics vary from philosophic to even more philosophic and are written by lead singer Aleksandr Vasilyev. However, this time Vasilyev used a poem by the Russian poet Vladimir Mayakovskiy, “Lilichka!”, as lyrics for the song “Mayak” (“The Lighthouse”).
Regarding the album’s title, “Split Personality,” Vasilyev said, “All artists are, in a certain way, split in two, unbalanced, crazy.” And this state of unbalance is preserved in all of the album’s compositions.
The album is considered the best in the history of the band by the musicians themselves. In terms of the quality of the album’s sound, I can agree with this statement – Spleen surely sounds more mature now than it did before. One way or another, the band’s fans will surely be glad to see Spleen after their two-year absence, and we’ll be as eager to here the songs from “Split Personality” as their greatest hits, such as “Vykhoda Net” (“No Way Out”), “Fellini” and “Noviye Lyudi” (“New People”) – one of Spleen’s few optimistic songs.
Palats Sportu (1 Sportyvna Ploshcha, 246-7406). April 18 at 7 p.m. Tickets from Hr 50 to Hr 80.
