The Los Angeles Workers Center and Hollywood Progressive co-present the revolutionary Soviet classic film, V. I. Pudovkin’s Storm Over Asia.
Unlike most Bolshevik silent movies that take place in the European parts of the Soviet Union, V. I. Pudovkin’s 1928 Storm Over Asia is set in Mongolia, where it was shot on location, with additional filming in Siberia. The sprawling saga occurs during the Russian Civil War and depicts a forerunner of Third World liberation movements, as Asians fight Western imperialists. This far-out Far East classic has the epic sweep of future big screen extravaganzas with casts of thousands, and is arguably a Soviet Spartacus or Braveheart.
In Storm Over Asia the Mongolian actor Valeri Inkizhinov portrays a fur trader believed to be a descendant of Genghis Khan. Pudovkin’s larger-than-life motion picture was scripted by noted Soviet avant-garde writer Osip Brik, poet Vladimir Mayakovsky’s friend. Storm depicts puppet governments, an actual “exotic” lamasery, English capitalists, Soviet partisans, British occupation forces, oppressed Mongolian masses and a gigantic battle that epitomizes the Revolution’s sense of not only inevitability, but invincibility. The astonishing, unforgettable special effects-fueled grand finale pitting Third World people against imperialism is guaranteed to blow you away!
However later history might unfold, one of the undeniable and irreversible achievements of the Revolution was to usher the traditional tribal societies of Asia that had been part of the Russian Empire into the modern world.
This screening of Storm Over Asia is the sixth in a monthly film series, Ten Films That Shook the World: A Cinematic Centennial Celebration of the Russian Revolution, running through November 2017 to commemorate and celebrate the 100th anniversary of the February and October 1917 Revolutions in Russia, and 1905’s mass uprisings. All 10 films screened during these 10 months are Soviet cinema classics, among the greatest political films ever made. See the entire schedule at: http://hollywoodprogressive.com/russian-revolution/.
Before each screening at the L.A. Workers Center a speaker briefly introduces each film and filmmaker. After the movie the speaker will make additional remarks, followed by a Q&A. Light refreshments are served. These black and white, silent films, with English subtitles and musical soundtracks, are screened under imperfect conditions, although this is a chance to see them projected on a big screen. Admission is free, although donations and potluck contributions are accepted.
Screenings start at 7:30 pm on the fourth Friday of each month through October: The final film showing will be on Nov. 7th, the actual centennial date. Film historian/critic Ed Rampell, author of Progressive Hollywood, A People’s Film History of the United States and a frequent contributor to People’s World, is the series’ programmer/co-presenter. For further info: laworkersedsoc@gmail.com.
Storm Over Asia screens on Fri., July 28 at 7:30 pm at the L.A. Workers Center, 1251 S. St. Andrews Place, Los Angeles 90019. The site is a couple of blocks west of Western Ave., and is only accessible from Pico Blvd.
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