PRESS REVIEWS
“Tapes of
Dimitri Devyatkin. Finally an interesting and intelligent sensibility in video.
I really liked Devyatkin’s tapes…. There is an intelligence and sensitivity
reflected in everything he does. The first video artist whose work I want to
see again.”
Jones Mekas, The Village Voice “Movie Journal” - 1972
“Devyatkin’s
work… is situated on the frontiers of video art and video documentary. As the
separation between these directions deepens, Devyatkin’s work integrates the
two domains in a totally personal manner.”
Genvieve Van Cauwenberge, Liege, Belgium – 1978
“Devyatkin’s
access to Soviet life was through friends who would fetch him from his room and
push him in a taxi, telling him there was something he just had to tape. The
result is an unusual and revealing look at how ordinary Soviet citizens live.”
David Dupot, The Sunday Rutland Herald, Vermont - 1980
“Devyatkin’s documentary style moves lyrically
rather than narratively. No political points are made… Their perspectives are
real and human. They are successful and exceptional. ...
Regardless
of your interest or lack thereof in video art, The Sordid Affair is a loaded
color warhead of a tape taken straight from former President Richard Nixon's
infamous first Watergate speech. Remember the day that Dean, Ehrlichman and
Haldeman were ushered out of the Administration, as Nixon assured Americans
that "There can be no whitewash in the White House."? Devyatkin
explains, "My TV did something strange to Nixon's image. When he lied, the
TV wobbled his face and the more dense his lies became, the more abstract
became the image of his face until it was hardly a face anymore.".... The
Sordid Affair is an historical grotesque tragi-comedy that sticks voodoo pins
into the American memory. Remember to laugh when you hear line after line of
incredibly sick rhetoric."
David Skarjune, The Minnesota Daily, Minneapolis - 1980
“KABC’s special tonight is the one to watch.
It’s as intriguing as its title suggests, “Video From Russia: The People Speak”
… a rare opportunity to hear spontaneous comments from people who are lumped
together in political rhetoric as our enemy. It is fascinating, but more than
that it is humanizing. There are recognizable scenes of people shopping in the
open market, of citizens paying their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier in Volgograd, of people dancing to American rock music at a disco, of a
young woman with safety pins in her ears who says she is part of the punk
movement.”
Lee Margulies, The Los Angeles Times – July 26, 1984
“By keeping
this special simple and small, producer-director Dimitri Devyatkin has come up
with a winner. All he tried to do was give an honest, human look at an
unscientific sampling of Russians, and that’s just what he’s done. … Americans
see themselves and their countrymen in these Russians. … The show gives us
clear portraits of people recognizable from everyone’s lives – the
cigarette-puffing antiestablishment juvenile; the proud, ornery older folks,
lecturing about the past and warning about the future; the unsophisticated
laborer, whose common-sense appraisal of world affairs shows more insight than
an embassyful of diplomats… a clear look at another nation.”
Thomas B. Bierbaum, “VARIETY” – July 30, 1984
Arts
'VIDEO FROM RUSSIA'
June 12, 1985 By WALTER GOODMAN
http://www.nytimes.com/1985/06/12/arts/video-from-russia.html
LAST year, an American film maker, Dimitri Devyatkin, took his cameras to the Soviet Union and talked to people in the streets of six cities - Moscow, Kiev, Kazan, Ulyanovsk, Leningrad and Volgograd. The result, ''Video From Russia: The People Speak,'' can be seen tonight at 8 on cable television's Arts and Entertainment network.
The interviews are done in Russian and translated. We are told by the narrator, Margot Kidder, they were conducted spontaneously; no official permission was sought or obtained, and there were no obstacles to taking the film out of the country. As it turned out, the authorities had nothing to worry about.
Wherever the camera crew goes -a farmers' market, an exhibition of arms, a disco, an amusement park, a children's playground, a church service - the people interviewed call for peace and friendship, usually in that order. Most express admiration for America and displeasure with the Reagan Administration, which, they say, is promoting war between the two countries. Several recall the hardships of World War II and speak of the horrors of nuclear war. The people are generally attractive, even the plain-looking bride who wants the wedding photographer to do something about her double chin, and there is no reason to doubt their sincerity, but they do have a way of saying identical things in nearly identical language.
The few exceptions to the peace-and-friendship refrain are a group of self-identified ''punks,'' who declare, in unexpectedly philosophical jargon, that they are alienated because no society in the world offers them the freedom to be themselves, and a couple of young men who would like to go to America because in Russia they have to stand in line to buy things, but in America ''you just take it.''
The most revealing moments are the awkward ones: a man is stopped by the police after being interviewed, and Mr. Devyatkin intercedes for him. A woman demands what right the crew has to be interviewing children, and a mother pulls her 10-year-old daughter away as she begins to respond to questions. Some people decline to say anything; ''I don't know, I'm afraid,'' one woman mumbles, and hurries away.
''The People Speak'' makes a colorful travelogue, capturing scenes and faces of daily life in cities that still hold considerable fascination for Americans. The bits of narration tend toward the ingenuous: Miss Kidder reports, for example, that after the Revolution, the Communists discouraged religion, but now worshipers are permitted to attend Russian Orthodox services without official interference, a summary that does not quite do justice to the complicated relations between the Soviet Government and the Orthodox Church.
In general, the pictures offer more than the words. As person after person uses the same few words to describe relations between the United States and the Soviet Union, viewers may conclude that they are hearing echoes, not voices. ''The Soviet Union and America are not friends,'' says a 12-year-old, ''because the Soviet Union does not want a war and America does.'' Where can he have gotten that idea? In the interests of peace and friendship perhaps, Mr. Devyatkin does not press very hard, but in one case he asks a young woman who has stated her displeasure with Mr. Reagan why she feels that way. She pauses, seemingly perplexed, then replies, ''It's what I see so much on TV.''
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
International Herald Tribune -- September 28, 1984 Vox Populi, Filmed in Soviet Streets By Vicky Elliott
http://eai.org/user_files/supporting_documents/NYT_apr11_1973.jpg
January 2012 19:00 — 21:15
The Future of Film (in Dutch) -- The Club of Amsterdam
Een avond over de toekomst van film en verantwoordelijkheid van de media. Met o.a. Eline Flipse, George Hulshof en Paul Breuls.
De Club of Amsterdam organiseert in samenwerking met de Freelance Factory een avond over de toekomst van de film en de actuele verantwoordelijkheid van de media. Inspiratie voor de discussie is te vinden in de opmerkingen van Dimitri Devyatkin - Amerikaans filmmaker, gespecialiseerd is in sociale documentaires en historische speelfilms.
“Het geestelijke snoepgoed dat Hollywood biedt is als een suikerspin die smelt in je mond. Wat ontbreekt is substantie, iets dat je mee naar huis kan nemen. Het heeft geen voedingswaarde. Als de film is afgelopen, blijft er niets over.”
“We moeten de kracht van film en andere media heroveren om ons te leren hoe we moeten overleven, de aarde schoon en gezond te houden. Er zijn zo veel belangrijke discussies, nieuwe filosofieën, concepten, manieren om te leven, zo veel waardevolle manieren waarop de media zou kunnen functioneren, in plaats van zich uitsluitend te richten op de bloedbaden, de rijkdom en de overdaad. Wie gaat ons leren hoe we de komende ecologische en economische stormen moeten overleven?”
Meer informatie en kaarten op de website van de Club of Amsterdam.
______________________________________________
English translation -
An
evening on the future of film and media
responsibility. With Eline
Flipse, George Hulshof and Paul Breuls.
The Club of Amsterdam, in cooperation with the Freelance Factory, an evening on the future of film and the current responsibility of the media. Inspiration for the discussion can be found in the comments of Dimitri Devyatkin - American filmmaker
specializing in social documentary
and historical films.
"The spiritual candy that Hollywood offers is like a candy that melts in your mouth. What’s missing is
substance, something that you can
take home. It has no nutritional value. When the movie is over, nothing is left. "
"We need the power of film and other media to teach us how to survive, to keep the earth clean and healthy.
There are so many important discussions, new philosophies,
concepts, ways of life, so many valuable
ways the media could
function, instead of focusing exclusively on the massacres, the
richness and abundance. Who will
teach us how to survive the coming
ecological and economic storms? "
More information and maps on the Club of
Amsterdam website.
http://www.ambriente.com/russia/russia_brochure.pdf
The State Center for Contemporary Art
Anna Akhmatova Museum at the Fontanniy Dom present
Russia: Significant Other (Russia as inspiration for the West)
Curated by Olga Kopenkina
February 8th - March 3rd, 2006.
In the 1978 film Media-Shuttle: New York-Moscow, by Dimitri Devyatkin
and Nam June Paik introduced an alternative way to reduce the distance
imposed by the Cold War and connect two ideologically opposite cultures
with the help of media technology and an exchange of artists' works, freed
from ideology, while maintaining the physical distance from each other.
______________________________________________
http://www.seacoastnh.com/Maritime_History/John_Paul_Jones/Catherine_the_Great_Meets_John_Paul_Jones/
Catherine the Great Meets John Paul Jones
Written by Dimitri Devyatkin
MARITIME HERITAGE
New York filmmaker Dimitri Devyatkin thinks it is time to bring John Paul Jones back to the silver screen. It has been half a century since his portrayal by Robert Stack. But one chapter of Jones’ life has never been dramatized – his dramatic and devastating exploits as an admiral for the czar of Russia.
"I would lay down my life for America, but don’t trifle with my honor."
– John Paul Jones
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: An American filmmaker and a New York native of Russian ancestry, Dimitri Devyatkin has written a screenplay for a feature film titled: "FEROCIOUS: John Paul Jones and Catherine the Great." He is currently seeking funding for the film. Please contact the author via this web site at dimitri@devyatkin.org
John Paul Jones and Catherine the Great
America’s legendary naval hero, John Paul Jones served in the Russian Navy in 1788. After the American Revolution, idle in Paris, he attracted the attention of Russia’s Empress Catherine the Great. She needed "another bulldog" for her war against the Ottoman Turks, and wanted Jones "to make the Seraglio tremble."
The film will show Jones as a great hero, a brilliant naval commander. He was only 5’5" in height, a lonely bachelor with a "prickly" personality. There’s a myth that he secretly married a Russian Princess. She comes to life in the screenplay.*
In the style of a tough street fighter, Jones raises the level of violence dramatically, a tactic that scares off all but the most formidable adversaries. A US admiral once commented to me that the trait most desirable in any naval commander, which Jones has in abundance, is Audacity, the willingness to take great risks. No one can contest his mastery of the waves, but Jones is outmaneuvered by his rivals on the "parquet floors" of the palaces.
When Jones accepts Catherine’s invitation, he makes a passionate rush across the frozen Baltic and arrives in early spring 1788. After an overwhelming reception, with grand festivities in Catherine’s court, that lasts over two weeks non-stop, he is dispatched to the Black Sea to serve as a Rear Admiral under Prince General Grigori Potemkin.
Potemkin and Jones do not get along well. Potemkin favors his fellow Prince, a 6th cousin of Catherine’s, German Prince Nassau Siegen. Jones and Nassau also do not get along at all. The Russians are highly inept, but the Turks are even more so. Jones’s clever strategy of forcing the Turks into shallow water shoals, where they can be forced into the mud and disabled, is highly successful but results in several massacres, when Nassau Siegen takes the opportunity to set afire the Turkish ships, lest Jones claim them as prizes and get credit from the Empress for capturing them.
Though he wins several victories, Jones gets only ill will and spite from Potemkin, Nassau Siegen and others. When he returns to actual hands-on fighting, the astonished Turks surrender immediately to the sea-borne Cossacks and their ferocious American commander. The Cossacks name Jones an Honorary Cossack, member of their Host. But when Jones engages in a fatal exchange of angry messages with Potemkin, he ruins his relationship with the General and is out of the Russian Navy forthwith.
There is no happy ending to this story. It gets worse until the end. Jones is forced to return to the capi-tal, St. Petersburg, where he waits for a new command. Followed everywhere by 4 sets of spies, Catherine’s, Potemkin’s, the British Ambassador’s and a fourth unknown group, Jones is a combustible liability. He is victim of an ugly sex scandal, probably a "honey pot" trap set by his rivals. Near suicide, with pistols before him, Jones writes a letter of confession to raping a 12-year-old girl. He is forced to leave the country, but cannot get Russia out of his mind. Granted a two-year sabbatical with full pay, he travels through Europe, where he entertains proposals from Polish Prince Tadeusz Kosciuscko to perhaps command the Swedish fleet against Russia in the Baltic. He writes frequently to Catherine begging to be forgiven and allowed to command another Russian venture – whether against Constantinople or against the British in India.
Jones ends up in Paris, alone and a pauper. The US Ambassador tries to avoid him, and he is no longer the toast of the court, as France goes through Revolution. He dies, it is reputed, dressed in the faded white satin uniform of a Russian Admiral, with the modest medal of St, Anne he was awarded by Catherine on his chest. Buried in a Protestant cemetery that is later paved over, Jones’s remains are re-interred over 100 years later, in 1905, and moved to Annapolis, where he is revered as the Father of the US Navy. However, it was only Russia that made Jones an Admiral, not the US.
This part of Jones’ life is nowhere as heroic as his exploits in the Revolution. However, the story is deeply emotional and tragic. As a filmmaker, I am drawn more to the cathartic aspects of the great hero in his less glittering days. The conjunction of the two great personalities, Jones and Catherine, as well as the other leading roles in the film, Jefferson, Potemkin, Nassau Siegen and the Princess, should be a source of great on-screen fireworks.
I’ve spoken with editors of the US Naval Institute, and they confirm that American readers of naval journals, who have read plenty about Jones as a hero, are ready to learn more about his actual experi-ences in Russia. What happened to Jones will be seen in the larger context of the immense historical groundswell described brilliantly in the book "The Great Upheaval" by Jay Winik, in which the new USA enters the fray with other powers, the French Revolution, the Enlightenment in Russia.
Jones has been the subject of dozens of serious biographies. His explosive personality, incredible achievements and brilliant career are balanced by his personality flaws, his vanity, his bitterness, his arrogance.
HERMAN MELVILLE wrote of Jones:
"Intrepid, unprincipled, reckless, predatory, with boundless ambition, civilized in externals but a savage at heart, America is, or may yet be, the Paul Jones of nations."
FOR MORE INFORMATION
on the proposed film, please see on this WEB SITE www.devyatkin.org/