The subjects include Wayland Rudd Jr., a Moscow-based singer and the son of an African-American actor who moved to the Soviet Union in the 1930s, and Russian TV personality Yelena Khanga, granddaughter of a Mississippi cotton farmer and a Polish-Jewish American woman who relocated to then Soviet Uzbekistan, the cradle of the country’s cotton industry, around the same time. See video below.
See the film's website at www.redpalettepictures.com
Also check the story "US filmmaker on the trail of Soviet Black Americans" of the director of the film, the New York–based filmmaker Yelena Demikovsky. She was captivated by “The Circus,” a 1936 Stalin-era musical about a white American circus performer and her illegitimate black son who find racial harmony and acceptance in the Soviet Union.
Update March 2014
Read also: In Russia, early African American migrants found the good life.
The reality today is that Russia is a completely different environment for black people, check out some of the links below.
The challenges of biracial children in Russia
Video: Black in Russia - harsh life on the streets in Moscow
Portraits of black people in Russia
I've read Afro-Russian journalist, Yelena Khanga's huge autobiography, "Soul to Soul", three times. And those who have also read it can understand my fascination with her story.
ReplyDeleteNow with this new documentary, "Black Russians, we are given even more of a look into the world of Black Russians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specifically Black American expatriates and their descendants, and the fascination starts all over again! :-)
I just hope that other African-Americans (and Black people everywhere) who are following this blog series about the ancient and modern histories of Blacks in Europe are really taking advantage of the mental, psychic and emotional healing that takes place if we really "process" all of this valuable information!
Food for thought:
In the You Tube video posted here it was stated that practically all present day Russians KNOW and RECOGNIZE Alexander Pushkin (sp?) as one of the greatest writers in Russian history-----a BLACK Russian.....
Pushkin...his mother was the grandchild of Abram Petrovich Ganibal….Peter the Great’s adoptive son….and a gift from Africa
ReplyDelete“Pushkin is an extraordinary and, perhaps, unique manifestation of the Russian spirit,” Gogol
In his speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin’s statue in Moscow in 1880….30years after the poets death…
Dostoyevsky used following words to describe Pushkin’s artistic importance to Russia….
He taught us that ……‘to become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps ,means just to become a brother to all people ,a panhuman ,if you like.’....for more see.....Pushkin...his mother was the grandchild of Abram Petrovich Ganibal….Peter the Great’s adoptive son….and a gift from Africa
“Pushkin is an extraordinary and, perhaps, unique manifestation of the Russian spirit,” Gogol
In his speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin’s statue in Moscow in 1880….30years after the poets death…
Dostoyevsky used following words to describe Pushkin’s artistic importance to Russia….
He taught us that ……‘to become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps ,means just to become a brother to all people ,a panhuman ,if you like.’....Pushkin...his mother was the grandchild of Abram Petrovich Ganibal….Peter the Great’s adoptive son….and a gift from Africa
“Pushkin is an extraordinary and, perhaps, unique manifestation of the Russian spirit,” Gogol
In his speech at the unveiling of the Pushkin’s statue in Moscow in 1880….30years after the poets death…
Dostoyevsky used following words to describe Pushkin’s artistic importance to Russia….
He taught us that ……‘to become a real Russian, to become completely Russian, perhaps ,means just to become a brother to all people ,a panhuman ,if you like.’....http://lizjohnson-artur.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.html
THANKS for sharing this! I'll see if I can get a biography of Alexander Pushkin this afternoon.
DeleteI really would like to have access to this material.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed viewing that documentary trailer. Looking to see more of this somewhere soon. Afro-Europe, please update us on its development and distribution. Thanks!
ReplyDelete