Red Fish in America 1990 -1991

Excerpt from co-curator Marie Cieri's "Preface" to the 1990 exhibition catalog: 

"While Western audiences have gained access recently to Soviet feature films and documentaries that were previously banned or excluded from export, very little has been known of the existence, not to mention the out­put, of independent media artists from the USSR. A small but growing community has, in fact, existed since the pre-glasnost days of the early 1980s. The touring exhibition, Red Fish in America, represents the first concerted attempt to introduce US audiences to a cross section of the best short films and videotapes produced outside the boundaries of official funding and control.

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"The exhibition features 16 works dating from 1985-1990 by 13 artists working individually or in groups. This will be the first time most of these films and videotapes will be seen outside the USSR. The works vary considerably in style and content, ranging from Boris Yukhananov's ardent exploration of the Jewish emigration question (Game of Ho) to the Aleinikov brothers' ironic recasting of the symbols and language of com­munism (Tractors) to Evgenij Kondratiev's moving, transcendent journey through images of village life in Soviet Central Asia (Dreams). All of the works included were made in Moscow, Leningrad or Riga, where in­dependent media activity is strongest. Dozens of works from other cities were viewed over the last 18 months, but were not nearly as provocative, free-spirited or inventive as the ones included here...."

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The Arts Company first scheduled Red Fish in America for a 12-stop tour, but as word of the exhibition spread, five more sites were added. Co-curator Igor Aleinikov and his brother and filmmaking partner Gleb Aleinikov toured with the films to the first 12, giving them a once-in-a-lifetime, firsthand view of much of the diversity of the US in New York, NY (twice); Dartmouth, MA; Boston, MA; Williamstown, MA; Washington, DC; Chicago, IL; Grand Rapids, MI; New Orleans, LA; Houston, TX; Helena, MT; Los Angeles, CA; and San Francisco, CA. (The five sites that screened the exhibition in 1990-1991 after Igor and Gleb returned to the USSR were in Ridgefield, CT; Berkeley, CA; Milwaukee, WI; Providence, RI; and Baltimore, MD.)  

Red Fish in America was divided into two programs of approximately 75 minutes each. English translations were provided for all soundtracks. In Boston, the exhibition was co-presented by The Arts Company and the Institute of Contemporary Art in the ICA Theater; the two organizations also sponsored a roundtable discussion the same weekend highlighting the dramatically changing status of independent media artists in the Soviet Union and comparing it with the situation of independents in the West. Participants included Igor and Gleb Aleinikov, Marie Cieri and a number of Boston-area film and video artists. The session was moderated by ICA video curator Kathy Rae Huffman.

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Again in the "Preface," Marie Cieri wrote about the Red Fish catalog and the difficulty of pulling it together across the communication barriers existing at that time between the US and the USSR:

"As a companion piece to the exhibi­tion, this catalog is intended as a guide and a source of reflection within unfamiliar territory. The meaning of 'independent media' within Soviet society (or 'parallel cinema,' as it is known there) has been and continues to be quite different from what prevails in Western cultures. Most of the material that follows has been translated from the Russian and has been carefully selected to give some sense of both the insider and outsider views of the rupture of conventional media culture that the independents represent. 

"Unlike the situation in Western societies, where we demand and get instant communication through telephones, fax machines and a plethora of broadcast and printed sources, it is extremely difficult to get the information one needs when one needs it in the Soviet Union. The dif­ficulty is magnified to an extreme when one attempts to maintain communication from the other side of the world. There are, admittedly, some gaps in information in this catalog, especially within the artist biographies, and some artists (espe­cially collaborators) are slighted in favor of those who could be reached before deadline.

"Organizing Red Fish in America was both a fascinating and formidable undertaking...."  Please see the Credits Page for the names of the many who helped make Red Fish a reality.

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