Join the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art and Film Studies Center for an exclusive look at the exhibition Revolution Every Day and the North American premiere of the 1938 Dziga Vertov film The Three Heroines (Tri Geroini).

FREE for ASEEES convention attendees. Transportation included. Space is limited, please register in advance.

Schedule

5:30 pm
Shuttle to the Smart Museum of Art
Departs Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile, 541 N. Rush Street

6–7:45 pm
Reception and tour
Smart Museum of Art, 5550 S. Greenwood Avenue

Enjoy after-hours access to the Smart Museum of Art and Revolution Every Day. Presented on the centenary of the 1917 Russian Revolution, the exhibition immerses visitors in the distinct textures and speeds of everyday life that arose—and have lingered stubbornly—in the wake of revolutionary upheaval. It juxtaposes nearly 60 Soviet posters from the 1920s and 1930s with a half dozen works on video and film with a focus on the experiences of women under (and after) communism.

At 6:30 pm, join co-curator Robert Bird for a tour of the exhibition. Bird is Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Literatures and Cinema and Media Studies at the University of Chicago.

Reception includes light buffet and drinks.

7:45 pm
Shuttle to the Logan Center
Departs from the Smart Museum of Art

8 pm
Screening: The Three Heroines (Tri Geroini)
Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, screening room

The film series “Revolution Every Day: Dziga Vertov in the 1930s” concludes with a rare screening of Vertov’s The Three Heroines (1938), which was never released in the USSR.

On 24 September 1938 three female aviators set off from a Moscow airfield for Khabarovsk in the Soviet Far East with the intention of setting a women’s long-distance record. Having lost radio contact, the plane put down in an isolated swamp. A massive search operation located the airplane (called “The Motherland”) after ten days and brought the women back to Moscow, where they arrived to a heroines’ welcome. Having failed to secure permission to film the flight, Vertov and Svilova reconstructed it using models, animation, and documentary footage shot entirely in Moscow. Of particular interest are the long takes with synchronous sound that convey the suspense of the search and rescue. To be followed by never-before-seen outtakes from the film.

(Dziga Vertov and Elizaveta Svilova, USSR, 1938, 54 min., 35mm print courtesy of the Austrian Film Museum)

9:30 pm
Shuttle to the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile
Departs from the Logan Center for the Arts

Transportation

A complementary shuttle will run from the convention hotel to the Smart Museum; from the Smart Museum to the Logan Center; and from the Logan Center back to the Chicago Marriott Downtown Magnificent Mile. Space is limited, please register in advance.

Guests are welcome to make their own way to the University of Chicago as well, and attend only the reception or only the screening. The Smart Museum is located 7.5 miles south of the Loop (approximately 20 minutes by car) and is accessible by public transit (expect 45 minutes to an hour from the convention hotel). The Logan Center is approximately a 15 minute walk across the campus from the Smart.

About

This event is presented by the University of Chicago’s Smart Museum of Art, the Film Studies Center, and Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures in collaboration with the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Image: Dziga Vertov and Ekaterina Svilova, still from The Three Heroines, 1938, 54 min. From the Vertov Collection of the Austrian Film Museum.

Revolution Every Day: Reception, Tour, and Screening