Faces of The Russian Century

WHAT: A museum exhibit featuring original photography and multimedia content, including audio and video interview playback.

This book and movie project will send its creators throughout Russia in the summer of 2017 to capture the life stories of individuals born in the Russian Empire in 1917. 

The Children of 1917 Exhibit will offer visitors a journey through time, a vivid, multimedia means to learning about the lives of some remarkable survivors: Russians who not only were born in that tumultuous 1917, but who then lived through Civil War, industrialization, collectivization, Stalinism, World War II, the Cold War, Khrushchev, the era of Stagnation, the collapse of the USSR, and the turn of the twenty-first Century. 

Despite all the horrors and difficulties, these people grew up, fell in love, created families, raised children of their own.

This exhibit will combine striking photographic portraits of the two dozen centenarians interviewed all across Russia with video clips of their interviews, descriptive texts on their towns and lives, maps, and audio guides to help visitors get maximum benefit from the experiences.

The final documentary film will also be available for public viewing.

WHO: Produced by RIS Publications, publishers of Russian Life magazine, and publishers of The Spine of Russia and Driving Down Russia’s Spine.

WHY: To give visitors an intimate look at life in Russia over the past century – to hear and experience first hand the sort of stories that are difficult to capture in broad ranging history textbooks. It will allow them to meet Russians where they live, to hear their voices and see them up close and personal.

WHEN: The traveling exhibition can be reserved for dates throughout 2018.

PARAMETERS

• This is to be a traveling, educational exhibit intended to be shown at multiple partner venues in the US throughout 2018.
• Artistic design and curation of the exhibit is not yet defined, as the project is currently in the research and interview-gathering stages. This will be an engaging multi-media exhibit that can be adapted to a variety of public exhibition spaces in an cost-effective manner.