The international famine relief campaign to Soviet Russian in 1921 and 1922 is often seen as a turning point in humanitarianism, in the scale and scope of the efforts. But it also marks a key moment in the evolution of the media by which the appeals were made, with film playing an important role for the first time, notably with the first film ever made by Save the Children Fund, in Britain. This talk examines the reasons why this film came to be made, examining its production and reception in the context of the wider debates across the British media about the aid campaign, other films made and distributed in Britain at the time, and the history of documentary film.
Attendance is on Zoom. Tickets are free, but registration on Eventbrite is essential:
Prof. Jeremy Hicks is Professor of Russian Culture and Film at Queen Mary University of London where he teaches courses on Russian film history and literature. He is the author of four books and many articles on Russian and Soviet history, film, literature and journalism, His publications include: Dziga Vertov: Defining Documentary Film (London and New York, 2007) and First Films of the Holocaust: Soviet Cinema and the Genocide of the Jews, 1938-46 (Pittsburgh, 2012), which won the 2013 ASEEES Wayne Vucinich Prize ‘for the most important contribution to Russian, Eurasian, and East European studies in any discipline of the humanities or social sciences.’ His most recent book is: The Victory Banner over the Reichstag: Film, Document and Ritual in Russia’s Contested Memory of World War Two (Pittsburgh 2020). He is currently researching the relationship between film and the international famine relief campaign to Russia in 1921.
He has also been a consultant on a number of TV documentary films and the restoration of a film about the Holocaust and translated the Russian satirical writer, Mikhail Zoshchenko (The Galosh: Selected Short Stories, London: Angel Books, 2000; New York: Overlook Press, 2006, 2009).
Jeremy Hicks is a member of ASEEES, British Association for Slavonic and European Studies, the Modern Humanities Research Association (UK), and sits on the Council of the Society for Co-operation in Russian and Soviet Studies (UK).
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