Date:
Monday, April 23, 2018, 7:15pm
Location:
Tsai Auditorium (CGIS South)
On This Rock (На сем камне) is a documentary film that explores the monastery island of Valaam, and the uncertain future of the isolated community that calls this place their home. Valaam had been a site of sacred significance since long before the arrival of Christianity and the founding of a Russian Orthodox monastery on the island in the medieval period. At the beginning of the Soviet era, the monastery was closed and a community of lay people created a life for themselves on what were once monastic lands. Since efforts to re-establish the monastery began in the 1990s, a resurgent monastic community has slowly grown on the island. These two communities, secular and religious, have been trying to strike a balance in their cohabitation of this space ever since. This has not been an easy process. Religious, economic, emotional and pragmatic motives all intersect in an ongoing process of redefinition as the monastery continues to expand. In On This Rock, we are hoping to raise questions rather than impose answers as we examine a unique place during a pivotal moment where two communities seek to navigate problems of tradition, belonging, and modernity in contemporary Russia.
Running time: 53 mins.
Language: Russian with English subtitles
Directors: Giulia Dossi, Dan Frye, Ashley Morse
