May 2010 
by Bruce Allan
The Bristol Tbilisi Association completed a successful partnership with the Paradjanov Festival 2010, the Arnolfini and the Bristol Gallery bringing the works of the great film director Sergei Paradjanov to the people of Bristol. Following a successful festival of his work at the BFI and National Theatre, London, Arnolfini showed his four most significant films during the first two weeks of April. Complementing these the Bristol Gallery showed photographs of Paradjanov taken by his friend, the photographer Yuri Mechitov in the exhibition Paradjanov through the lens of Yuri Mechitov.
Paradjanov was a Georgian of Armenian descent persecuted by the Soviet State for refusing to produce state supported propaganda films. Instead he drew on his love of the region, its myths and legends, to create another way of viewing the world through films and tableaux.
The BTA was privileged to host Levon Grigoryan, filmmaker and author and Paradjanov's assistant on the film The Colour of Pomegranates and Cora Tsereteli, film historian, author and Paradjanov's friend. They gave presentations at two of his films, giving us an insight into how truly radical Paradjanov's work was when it first came out in the 1960s and what it was like to work with a man of such genius.
Yuri Mechitov returned to the UK in May when the Paradjanov Festival including his photographs were shown at the gallery upstairs at the George at Newnham on Severn in the Forest of Dean. http://upstairsatthegeorge.co.uk/2010/04/03/21-5-10/
Paradjanov Festival 2010
http://www.paradjanov-festival.co.uk/
London: BFI film screenings, National Theatre exhibition Paradjanov through the lens of Yuri Mechitov 22 February – 28 March 2010
Bristol: Arnolfini film screenings, Bristol Gallery exhibition 31 March - 11 April 2010
Forest of Dean: upstairs at the GEORGE screenings and exhibition 21 May - 3 July 2010
"In the temple of cinema, there are images, light and reality. Sergei Paradjanov was the master of that temple."
Jean-Luc Godard
Links:
Ian Christie's article on Paradjanov, March 2010 edition Sight & Sound:http://www.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/feature/49604/
Guardian feature 13.3.2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2010/mar/13/sergei-paradjanov-films-gulag
see also
http://giuvivrussianfilm.blogspot.com/2010/03/sergei-paradjanov.html
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