ROMAN KARMEN:
FILMMAKER IN THE SERVICE OF THE REVOLUTION
ROMAN KARMEN, UN CINEASTE AU SERVICE DE LA REVOLUTION

Country of production: France, Viet Nam
Year: 2002
Language: English, French, Russian
Mins: 90

Director: Patrick Barberis and Dominique Chapuis
Script: Patrick Barberis and Dominique Chapuis
Music: J.P. Drouet
Editing: Francoise Bernard
Producer: Michel Rotman
Production Company: Kuiv Productions
Source:
Catherine Deotto
ARTE France
8, rue Marceau
F-92785 Issy-les-Moulineaux Cedex 9
c-deotto@artefrance.fr

Soviet filmmaker Roman Karmen documented - or, perhaps, created - the 20th century as few others did. A true Communist believer, Karmen photographed the Spanish Civil War, the Soviet resistance to the Nazis, early images of the Nazi death camps, the Nuremberg trials, the emergences of Mao Tse-Tung, Ho Chi Minh, Fidel Castro, Salvador Allende, and on and on. However, Karmen and his camera never seemed to be around for such events as Stalin's purges, the Soviet invasions of Hungary and Czechoslovakia, and the atrocities of the Chinese Cultural Revolution. A sort of party-line gonzo war correspondent, Karmen both captured the reality around him and profoundly shaped it, even reconstructing famous battles for his camera. ROMAN KARMEN: A FILMMAKER IN THE SERVICE OF THE REVOLUTION is a powerful and contentious essay in film criticism about the films Karmen directed, including the theoretical issues relating to the nature of documentary and the history of Communism that those films engaged.

Dominique Chapuis was one of the most celebrated French cinematographers/ videographers of the last 25 years. He shot his first images during the May 1968 uprisings, and went on to collaborate with such filmmakers as Jean-Luc Godard, Claude Lanzmann, Claude Miller, Joao Cesar Monteiro, Euzhan Palcy, and Brigitte Rouan. He was also the author of INDOCHINE: CAMP 107, a historical novel partially concerning Roman Karmen. Dominique Chapuis died in November, 2001.

Patrick Barberis is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker who has made many works dealing with the history of Communism and utopian movements.

Sunday 18-Apr-2004 7:00 PM Gallery Theatre
Monday 19-Apr-2004 7:00 PM Gallery Theatre