"Russia lost in this war"

In Russia, there will no longer be "artdoxfest"

The International Festival of Author's Documentary Cinema "Artdokfest" will not be held in Russia. This was reported by his organizers on social networks. On the eve of Moscow, the authorities canceled the opening of the festival on a far -fetched excuse, and its founder directed by Vitaly Mansky was doused with paint, presumably, activists of the Prochrevsky NOD movement.

The official statement of the Directorate of the festival says that all 15 years of his existence, he defended the honesty of documentary cinema as art. The organizers of Artdokfest, contrary to various forms of censorship related to the current political situation and the requirements of various representatives of the authorities, decided to continue to hold the festival.

This year, almost all films associated with the current agenda were removed from the program. Even festival videos and printed products were censored. Thus, the destruction of the festival occurred before its opening. "The cultural event, which has the main principle of fidelity of reality, cannot and should not exist in the circumstances of the triumph of false mythology and the ban on the truth. We will return to free and democratic Russia. We believe in this," the organizers of Artdokfest said .

On Thursday, the October cinema, where the opening of the festival should take place, received a bell about mining. The audience had to leave the building. Then the police called on all visitors to the festival to disperse. The founder of the "Artdokfest" director-documental of Vitaly Mansky was doused with red paint at the entrance to the cinema.

Mansky later recorded an appeal on Facebook, in which he said that the festival "opened and closed."

Vitaly Mansky, in an interview with Radio Liberty, told about the present and the future of the Artdokfest festival:

Attempts to hold a festival - more important than risks and negative consequences

-The decision to close in Russia was made collegial, because we weighed all the pros and cons, including in the context of the fact that for some reason the "special military operation" is called in Russia. We realized: the fact that we will try to hold a festival is more important than the risks and negative consequences that may result in. Yes, we did not assume that the festival would not reach its middle or last days at all. Yes, we were preparing for these risks, because we informed the audience that if there were any breakdowns suddenly, they would get access to the films that they bought tickets for, and so on. Therefore, this was not our ill -conceived, unexplored and irresponsible decision.

- Who can stand behind the breakdown of the festival and an attack on you personally?

Modern Russia cannot exist with the truth, honor and dignity

-We understand that the festival closed in Russia not because someone doused me with red, green or purple paint. The festival in Russia closed, because this is such a reality of modern Russia. It cannot exist with the truth, with honor, with dignity, with some kind of natural course of life. What is happening in Russia is absolutely unnatural. And in this unnaturalness, "Artokodfest" is an alien phenomenon. We wanted to save it. We wanted to give a space where if you can’t speak, then at least you can be silent in one place. We thought about it when we were counting on the fact that the festival would pass. But reality has changed a lot. It changes daily, even when the pseudo-overturners in Ukraine somehow do not harshly pronounce their rhetoric, already boiled by propaganda, the mass shouts: "How so! Pre-traitors! And where is the Victory Parade in the Khreshchatyk?!" " In this situation, which festival "Artdokfest" can we talk about?! There is a total tragedy, a humanitarian tragedy in the state of the Russian Federation.

- You are a longtime opponent and critic of the Putin regime and the war of Russia against Ukraine. How do you think this war will end? What will be its consequences?

Russia has already lost this war

- How the war will end is difficult for me to say. I have a very vivid desire for how I wanted it to end, but then vanging begins. But the consequences are already obvious. Even if the war ends with some peace agreements and so on, so on, so on, Russia in any case lost in this war, even if it ends with a Victory Parade in Khreshchatyk. Russia lost! And this losing every Russian will endure his hump for decades, his personal fate, his family, his loved ones, his future. Even if these Russians do not wake up a conscience, they will endure this tragedy with their comfort, damn it.

- Does the Artdokfest festival have a future and Russian documentary in principle?

I think the movie will continue and develop

- Of course, the Artdokfest festival has a future. Several years ago, we established the Artdox Riga festival, where the competitive program takes place without any censorship restrictions, where filmmakers are freely gathering, discussing, developing trends where the jury is free. There is a normal human civilized industrial audience life. The following question is Russian documentary cinema. For example, now Russia, in fact, is engaged in self -isolation, and the world turned away from Russia. Purely practically we cannot bring Russian documentary to the festival to Latvia - and this is a serious problem. But this problem is not ours, it is a problem of the state, which, in fact, returned people to serfdom. They are now attached to their landowners and deprived of passports, at least passports are now largely turned into a souvenir from a past life. But we think about how we can help those authors who deserve it, who, of course, will not receive any state support. We have tools for this. I think that the cinema will be not so bright, but it will continue, develop, especially since technologies allow you to make films quite economically, outside the industry, outside state control. And we will help such films, and such films are already shot. We, as a festival, follow them, and as an institution we will help, sometimes even just direct investments, ” says Vitaly Mansky, the founder of the Artdokfest festival.

The Artdokfest documentary festival, which is held annually, was repeatedly attacked and pressed by the Russian authorities under various pretexts. Director-documentary Marina Razbuzhkina , who was also present at the opening of the festival in Moscow, which never happened, believes that its organizers made the right decision, announcing the departure of Artdokfest from Russia:

It was a sophisticated mockery, because the organizers for a long time agreed on everything in all instances

- I agree with the organizers, because it was impossible to endure for so long. It is clear that the further, the more problems there will be, and the festival will cease to be what it was supposed to be - an independent festival of documentary cinema. After all, the main thing was not even an attack on Vitaly Mansky. It was a fairly sophisticated mockery, because I know how the organizers for a very long time coordinated the program in all instances and removed everything that may not correspond to today's almost military position in which we live. The festival received permission to exist on March 31. And suddenly, somewhere 15 minutes before the start, there was some kind of call, everyone was kicked out of the hall. We talked with the guards who kicked us out, that, apparently, a bomb was laid and so on. It happened often. But now everything, now there was no one to talk to. And the fact that this guy (apparently, nodists) came from the Nod with paint, then it is somehow very usual. This is not the first time Nodovtsy (they, apparently, are very fond of documentary cinema) attend this event, and this is not the first time they come with the police. I suspect that they have some kind of good alliance with each other, because the police appears, caused to remove people from the cinema, and Nodovites appear immediately. There were several people, they guarded this daredevil with a coffee glass in which the paint was.

- Now many people are talking about what awaits Russia after it unleashed the war with Ukraine. What awaits Russian culture, art, and in particular, documentary in this new complex historical context?

While bombs are discarded people, I would not talk about culture

- I am a bad predictor in this sense. I think that the situation is much more dramatic than we imagine. While bombs are discarded people, I would not talk about the culture that should develop. I am constantly interested in what is happening in Ukraine ... I don’t know, it’s even awkward to talk about the development of culture. We must survive this with them. We have our own suffering about this, which is incomparable, of course, with the suffering of people living under the bombs. But we will wait and somehow, firstly, will wish that all this horror ends as soon as possible, and then we will find some kind of common language, we will try to find a common language with people who have suffered, in fact, from us. Although I did not give anyone permission on my behalf to drop bombs, and my friends did not give such permission, and you did not give such permission. It is completely terrible that the cities of Ukraine were destroyed on our behalf, destroyed human lives. Human life is going to such small crumbs. We, documentaryists, know how valuable to people everything is in this life, any trifle, any insignificant trifle. And suddenly this all disappears, and people go on some strange journey, which does not depend on them: after all, they were not going there at all. They should look for a place where they can sleep, a place where they can eat and so on. This is a very terrible story. I did not think that in my century it would happen.

- Now many people are leaving Russia. Have you somehow decided this issue for yourself?

No, dear, I will not leave this land to you

-I resolved the question for myself, although I think that I have no complaints about anyone and everyone decides his fate in his own way. Each has its own level of fear. I will not leave. When yesterday the guard said to me: “You would all leave here faster,” I thought: “No, dear, I will not leave you this land. This is my land. I was born here, I lived here. I have memories of it. I will not leave it to you. I will watch this terrible series to the end,” said the director-documentary Marina Raskhkin.

Three films of the Documentary Project Freedom Documentary Project Documentary Documentary Documentary Documents-“Careted” by Maxim Pakhomov (about protests after the arrest of Alexei Navalny), “Sami Khazov-Kassia (about Bulling in schools),“ Teenagers and Kotiks ”of Yegor Isaev (about the group of mutual support of“ difficult ”children), as well as the film of Berlinsky) were to participate in the programs of the Art. Radio Radio Liberty Yuri Veksler "I lived with five dictatorships" (about musician Helmute Stern).