De/colonization: the myth of “russian culture”

SPEAKERS: Vladlena Sandu, Julia Shaginurova
MODERATOR: Barbara Wurm

Vladlena Sandu, director of No Nation Without Culture, and Uzbek-German producer Julia Shaginurova speak about the influence of Russian culture and cultural institutions within the post-Soviet space in this panel moderated by Barbara Wurm.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

Vladlena Sandu was born in Crimea, grew up in Chechnya and studied at the Alexander Rodchenko School for Photography and Multimedia in Moscow, as well as at the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography starting in 2011. Among other honours, her debut short film Kira received awards for directing and cinematography at the Moscow VGIK International Student Film Festival in 2015. Her short documentary film Holy God (2016) was recognised at several film festivals. Eight Images from the Life of Nastya Sokolova (2018) is her first co-directorial work, made with Alina Kotova.

Julia Shaginurova is a film producer and screenwriter from Uzbekistan. She began her career as a journalist and critic in Moscow. For ten years, she was active as an author and organiser of cultural events, before joining TVINDIE Film Production as a creative producer. Today, Julia lives in Berlin, where she founded the production company Einbahnstraße Productions, specialising in creative documentary films about human rights. In 2022, together with director Mikhail Borodin, she founded the Tashkent Film School and the Uzbekistan-based production company SESTRA Films.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR:

Barbara Wurm is a cultural researcher, author, curator, and film critic, originally from Vienna. Since 2011, she has been a research associate in the section for East Slavic Literatures and Cultures at Berlin’s Humboldt University. In addition, she programmes for a variety of film festivals, including the Berlinale, where she has been chosen to take over direction of the Forum section starting in August 2023. She has published widely on the topic of post-Soviet film, as well as on the work of filmmaker Dziga Vertov.