PBS POV - My Perestroika (2010)

The Bolshevik revolution, the cold war, and the collapse of the Soviet Union defined the history of the twentieth century. With such a past, what does it mean to be Russian today? Robin Hessman's lovingly crafted documentary, MY PERESTROIKA, adopts the idea of the “everyman story,” suggesting that the unheralded lives of the last generation of Soviets to grow up behind the iron curtain hold the key to understanding the contradictions of modern Russia from the inside out. Crafted during five years of researching and shooting, and based on almost a decade of living in Russia in the 1990s, Hessman's film poetically interweaves an extraordinary trove of home movies, Soviet propaganda films, and intimate access to five schoolmates whose linked, but very different, histories offer a moving portrait of newly middle-class Russians living lives they could never have imagined when they were growing up. Engaging, funny and positively inspiring, MY PERESTROIKA shows that politics are personal, honesty overshadows ideology and history progresses one day, one life at a time.

This New York Times Critics Pick premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2010, and went on to win the Filmmaker Award at Full Frame Film Festival and the Special Jury Award at Silverdocs.

A co-production of Red Square Productions/Bungalow Town Productions and ITVS International in association with American Documentary.

Full Version Available Upon Request