Manifested Time: Vadim Kostrov
After having shown his feature film Summer last spring, Doc Films will be hosting filmmaker Vadim Kostrov for his first in-person U.S. engagements this fall, October 11-13.
At age 26, Russian-born Kostrov has an impressive and acclaimed body of work which includes documentaries about Russian underground culture and young artists in Moscow. His seasonal cycle, while currently incomplete due to Kostrov's move to Paris when the war started, is an evocation of the memory of growing up in, and eventually leaving, his hometown of Nizhny Tagil. His latest works, made in France, are a heightening and maturing of an evolving cinematic language that first appeared in his earlier films and remains, amongst a myriad of cinematic influences and references, uniquely his.
Kostrov's films evade simple categorization: documentary and fiction, narrative and abstract, social and individual. They are best described as being deeply meditative and immersive. The films luxuriate in the everyday with the sense that moments are constantly becoming memories — time is both plentiful and scarce. Kostrov's camera makes this time intensely felt, capturing with a breathtaking focus the shifting warmth of sunlight against a mountainside, the dark burning of clouds on the horizon, the endless patterns of waves in the sea. Amidst these landscapes, which are simultaneously fixed and fleeting in Kostrov's films, we roam.
The retrospective Manifested Time: Vadim Kostrov will include Kostrov's Fall and Orpheus, as well as his new film Normandie and a selection of short films. The filmmaker will introduce screenings and participate in audience Q&As. A full schedule of screenings is forthcoming.
This presentation is co-sponsored by the UChicago Department of Cinema and Media Studies, the Center for East European and Russian/Eurasian Studies, the Film Studies Center, and the Parrhesia Program.
Fall (2022)
Vadim Kostrov · 99m · DCP
Fall strays from the previous seasonal film Summer and its shared character, young Vadim, by forgoing narrative and dialogue to focus on grander images and ideas. As daily occurrences come to life around the camera, an immersive state of places and memories appear, bringing the film in turns to triumphant peaks and quiet reflection. Watching a shadow fall across a lighted patch of grass is one of childhood's most exhilarating moments.
Followed by discussion with Vadim Kostrov and Prof. Maria Belodubrovskaya (Cinema and Media Studies).
Friday, October 11th 7:00 PM
Normandie (2024)
Vadim Kostrov · 87m · DCP
Normandie is Kostrov's first French feature, one that pushes the limits of his penchant for abstraction and sustained shots to new places. Partly through the film, a couple visits the exiled filmmaker in Normandy, where they are surrounded by the cliffs and the ocean, rendered otherworldly by miniDV. Their voices fall away amidst the sound of the waves while slow, painterly fades meld the entirety of the landscape — sun, sky, and sea — together.
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker.
Saturday, October 12th 7:00 PM
Orpheus (2020)
Vadim Kostrov · 116m · DCP
One of Kostrov's key early works that unlocks what's at the heart of his oeuvre, Orpheus stars the filmmaker himself and, as such, is infused with a youthful earnestness and intimacy that translates to a cinematic rawness. As in Summer, music plays an important part in the film and Kostrov's on-screen relationships. Performing it — and listening to it — is a loving act, not unlike what the camera does through its almost too-close, lingering glance.
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker.
Saturday, October 12th 9:30 PM
Shorts by Vadim Kostrov (2023-2024)
Vadim Kostrov · 70m · DCP
Kostrov's recent shorts search for a cinematic language that finds meaning in small shifts and the nearly imperceptible movement of things. The hypnotic swaying of branches, the filtering of light through shadowy crowds at Sacré-Cœur, the suspension of cloth lifted gently by wind — moments of respite, and a filmmaker's attempt to figure out cinema's relation to life. Shorts include Three Days Before Spring, Glimmering, Waning, and Dans le Sacré-Coeur.
Followed by Q&A with Filmmaker.
