Do not quench the Spirit.
…
Instead, test everything. Hold on to what is good.
Spectacle and UnionDocs present the third entry in KOSTROV’S SEASONS just in time for a year’s end hibernation. Those who have become acquainted with Vadim Kostrov’s evolving slow cinema and vérité styles across the last six months will find comforting company with familiar and new faces that make up the filmmaker’s world as Nizhny Tagil sheds a coat of beating orange for stark white. While stillness, isolation, and allusions to Russian state surveillance come with the snow, Kostrov’s friends and protagonists persevere in the zones of warmth and performance that they seek for themselves.
Alongside WINTER, the third in Kostrov’s still-to-be completed seasons cycle, Spectacle will screen the two follow-ups to the summer-set NARODNAYA with the equally loud and spirited AFTER NARODNAYA and COMET. Kostrov’s lesser known ADA AND MAXIM, a disarming and sincere hometown Satanist romance, will also receive much deserved attention.
In keeping with each iteration of this series, Kostrov will generously grace the theater (extra cozy now that our steam heating is kicking in) with conversation and insight during remote Q&As throughout December.
ЗИМА (WINTER)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2021
91 mins. Russia.
In Russian with English subtitles.
TICKETS HERE
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1 – 7:30 PM ($10 w/Q&A)
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7 – 7:30 PM
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21 – 7:30 PM ($10 w/Q&A)
Kostrov’s third of four autobiographical seasons films undergoes a number of dramatic developments from its predecessors, both in the harsh change in tone of the Ural landscape and the upscale from miniDV to high resolution widescreen. The young Vadim, now a teenager, shelters from the winter in a repetitive interior purgatory of online Counter-Strike matches. When he does leave his home, he wanders a blanketed alien world, tagging graffiti where he can to plant seeds of color on the blank canvas that surrounds him.
ПОСЛЕ НАРОДНОЙ (AFTER NARODNAYA)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2021
107 mins. Russia.
TICKETS HERE
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 8 – 7:30 PM ($10 w/Q&A)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13 – 10 PM
A close-up survey of performances and interviews that check in on the massive ensemble that participated in opening the now-defunct Narodnaya gallery. Elegiac and nostalgic for a brief electric moment, AFTER NARODNAYA leaves open questions and hopes for sustaining a meaningful community on the outskirts.
KOMETA (COMET)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2020
121 mins. Russia.
TICKETS HERE
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15 – 4 PM ($10 w/Q&A)
MONDAY, DECEMBER 18 – 7:30 PM
The Tagil rock band Lazy Comet hit the icy streets of Moscow for a set of performances, far from the garage gallery we first met them in. This concert doc and travelog is a triumphant endnote to Kostrov’s Narodnaya Trilogy and presents an intersection between the filmmaker’s home and his formative encounter with Muscovite art communities seen in LOFT-UNDERGROUND.
АДА И МАКСИМ (ADA AND MAXIM)
dir. Vadim Kostrov, 2021
81 mins. Russia.
TICKETS HERE
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4 – 10 PM
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 10 – 7:30 PM ($10 w/Q&A)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 19 – 10 PM
A portrait of a low-key Satanist wedding shot in early 2020. The titular young couple speak candidly to the director’s wandering camera as their intimate celebration transitions into a contemplative night walk through the forested edges of Nizhny Tagil.
Presented in partnership with UnionDocs Center for Documentary Art. Special Thanks to Vadim Kostrov, Jenny Miller, Alex Derrick, and Mal de Mer Films.