Doc/Fest Blog
Perestroika
By Charlie Phillips 13 January, 2010
One of the big premiere docs of this year's Sundance - in fact probably the big highlight is My Perestroika, directed by Robin Hessman.
It was pitched back long ago in MeetMarket 2007, and has intrigued me since. Now it's here...though I'll have to wait to see it til it plays elsewhere seeing as I won't be in snowy Redford land. So for now, I and maybe you can read this extensive interview, in which Hessman reveals her fascination with the generation who lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Hessman is American but became a Russophile in college, and lived there for many years. So she can give an insider's perspective that's not sentimental but not is it sensational. In putting together our Russian strand of the 2009 programme, I know that Hussain found some amazing insider looks at Russia. But often perspectives on the place tend to be lost in the contradictions and myths of it. Hessman has set out to make something as honest as possible, and the use of home movies and oral testimonies is a great unprejudiced way to do that.
Almost as in need of some perestroika action has been the recent Shooting People bulletins, which have been awash for weeks with a debate about whether to pay minimum wage for those working as runners, production assistants and other first-rung positions on low- or no-budget productions. And now they're holding a member poll, which is exploding with contributions. It's an argument that isn't new, but it's always important. I've been an unpaid runner and had the usual mix of rewarding exhaustion and abusive pointlessness. There's no easy answer - we live in an economy which rewards financial services workers and the public sector far greater than private sector arts employees, and that being the case, you make your own personal choice as to whether you can hack it. Good thing is that people are having their say in great numbers about it now. When I was feeling miserable as an unpaid runner, it felt like no-one really cared and you were paying your dues, alone, for the same of a shot at the big time. Now at least, film workers are recognising the need to pool experiences and get a combined opinion together...or something resembling a loose collective reaction anyway. Part of the reason for the establishment of this non-payment state is that film workers have been to fearful of a bad name to speak out. It's another empowering triumph of online social networks that this debate is raging.
You need to be a member to see the debate there, but you should be a Shooting People member anyway. In many ways, they're the perfect neo-trade union for the post-industrial creative economy.