The American Documentary Showcase Comes Back to Belarus

Betsy McLane, Sally Rubin and Jen Gilomen introduce DEEP DOWN to a group of US Government alumni at the Embassy

The American Documentary Showcase 2011 program, co-sponsored for the second time by Embassy Minsk and POBEDA Movie Theater, brought six award-winning contemporary U.S. documentaries to Belarusian film fans.  The October 24-29 festival offered a view of American society and culture as seen by independent documentary filmmakers and highlighted the value of documentaries in fostering understanding, dialogue and public debate.

A delegation of American filmmakers and a film expert, including Jen Gilomen, Sally Rubin and Betsy McLane, introduced each of the six festival films as well as handled stimulating Q&A sessions following each screening at the hospitable POBEDA theater. Over 2,000 lovers of the documentary film genre in Minsk enjoyed a diverse thematic and stylistic selection of  films included in the program.  The stories of community involvement in addressing an environmental issue in the state of Kentucky (Deep Down), art cars and their unusual owners (Automorphosis), Chicago high school poetry slam teams (Louder than a Bomb), 1960s civil rights activists (Freedom Riders), a film camp for autistic kids (Kids with Cameras) and rock star John Mellencamp’s 2009 summer tour (It’s About You: John Mellencamp) loudly resonated with the Belarusian film community.

Along with the theater screenings, the American Documentary Showcase 2011 program included a workshop on documentary filmmaking in the U.S. that Jen Gilomen and Sally Rubin enthusiastically ran for their Belarusian counterparts; live streaming online interview given by American filmmakers to popular Belarusian web portal http://www.tut.by/ ; meeting with a group of environmental activists and Deep Down impact discussion; special screenings followed by film discussions hosted by InfoUSA centers at Borisov Central District Library and Minsk Regional Library named after Pushkin; presentation of Deep Down documentary and discussion with students and faculty at the Belarusian State University of Culture and Arts; visit to the Belarusfilm Film Studios; and meeting with USG alumni and discussion of the latest trends in documentary filmmaking. 

The American Documentary Showcase 2011 program in Minsk succeeded in offering a broad diversified look at life in the United States and the values of a democratic society as seen by American documentary filmmakers.