We Speak To Margy Kinmonth About Her New Film Revolution: New Art For A New World
15:01:00Good Afternoon Lovelies,
I know for many of you today is a day of sadness, shock and upset, but I hope that I can bring a little bit of joy to your day today. Believe me I am feeling it too, the world is changing.
Firstly, could you tell readers what the film is about in case they don't know?
My latest film, Revolution - New Art for a New World is a feature documentary that encapsulates a momentous period in the history of Russia and the Russian Avant-Garde. Drawing on the collections of major Russian institutions, contributions from contemporary artists and performers, with personal testimony from the descendants of those involved, my film brings the artists of the Russian Avant-Garde to life. It tells the stories of artists like Chagall, Kandinsky, Malevich and others – pioneers who flourished in response to the Utopian challenge of building a New Art for a New World, only to be broken by implacable authority after 15 short years. The genesis for Revolution – New Art for a New World, came after a period of filming in Russia, and I’ve now directed four major films in Russia.
What was it about Russian art that made you want to tell this story?
Why Russia? As a filmmaker I find rich stories in Russian history and art, which continually resonate with me. There’s a deep well of art and culture, writing, music, film and architecture through which to tell Russia’s stories. But most of all, it’s the peoples’ stories that draw me in.
Is there a moment in the film that you are most proud of? And why?
I like the sequence when the artists decorate the front of the Hermitage Winter Palace, in Palace Square St Petersburg, with Avant Garde designs. I reconstructed this in a digital form by making a composite of many of my favourite colourful abstract Avant Garde paintings and cutting it to the Biomechanics soundtrack.
Is there an art piece in the film that is your favourite? Could you tell us why please?
I love the famous experimental silent black and white documentary film by Dziga Vertov “Man with a Movie Camera” made in 1929, part documentary and part cinematic art, the film follows the life of a city in the 1920s Soviet Union for one day. I used clips from this with sound design. Vertov took his art onto trains across Russia in cinema cars, spreading the message of socialism to the masses. I love the amazing work of Lyubov Popova, the feminist Avant Garde cubist pioneer, who painted just before and after the 1917 Revolution. Her work opens the film. Ilya REPIN is always great, I included “Barge Haulers on the Volga” in the film, because Repin’s vast narrative realist canvasses sum up for me the Russian journey of the pre-Revolutionary nineteenth century most powerfully.For me as director, the most cinematic aspects of the story lie in the extraordinary locations of Russia, its extreme weather, and vastness, along with the city crowds traversing the monumental architecture of the Moscow metro. It’s always great to film in Russia and the contributors were very generous in allowing my cameras into their private homes, bringing a rare and personal insight to the film.
Finally, can you tell us about anything you are currently working on? Or what we can look out for?
I have various stories in the pipeline. Another in Russia, one migrant story, a musical, and a biopic of an enigmatic admiral - so quite a varied range of films which I am developing, all for cinema. Meanwhile I am carrying on painting.
REVOLUTION: NEW ART FOR A NEW WORLD is in cinemas nationwide for One Night only 10 November http://revolution.film/
Blog Soon,
Joey X
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