Two filmmakers, Michael Idov and Miroslav Savic, participated in two of our classes and talked to our students. Michael Idov, whose TV series Optimists (Video Prime) is being used as a course material in a popular course, The Russian Spy: Culture of Surveillance, Agents, and Hackers Zoomed in from Turkey where he was shooting on location. A conversation with him attracted over 50 participants from OSU and other universities and colleges. Guided by questions prepared by Drs. Alisa Lin (who teaches the course) and Yana Hashamova, Michael Idov shared his experience of creating films in Russia as a Russian-American, about Russia’s conditions of topical restrictions and at the same time opportunities, and about working under COVID. Particularly insightful was his comment that COVID is creating new opportunities for audiences and providing new access. Particularly, he discussed the blurring of cinematic genres and of diversifying the viewing experience of the spectator. From the big screen and dark house to computer, tablet, and smart phones screens, viewers are engaging with TV and film as never before which in turn forces creators to consider experimenting with genres and platforms.
Miroslav Savic presented on the topic “The Role of Cinema in Coping with Burdensome Past” to the students in my Slavic 5457 class, “Ideology and Viewers: East European Film and Media.” He commented on two recent films by Serbian filmmaker Ognjen Glavonic, films which address the problematic conflict between Serbia and Kosovo and which have received little domestic recognition and much international acclaim. Students asked quested about the audience experience under COVID and more generally about the funding and distribution of films in the Balkans. Participants included students from the course as well as students from the Slavic Studies MA program and faculty from OSU and Kenyon college.