AIFF 2009 - HIPSTERS, Dance, Don't Walk, To Go See It!!

I read some reviews of Hipster online that sounded promising.  But people have different tastes. One guy said after he saw it, he ordered the Russian only, no subtitles version, because that was all he could get, but he had to have it.  I just got a sneak preview of Hipsters, the opening night movie for the Anchorage International Film Festival. I now understand how he felt. I've only seen a couple of the features, but if there's another feature as fun and interesting as this one, then this is going to be one hell of a festival.

OK, it's not perfect.  For one thing it's too long for American attention spans.

But anyone seriously interested in film, and in the 20th Century, not to mention jazz, is going to be fascinated by this film.  It's a Russian film about the Russian hipsters in the 1950s who flouted the Soviet system by wearing wild hipster fashion and playing and dancing to American jazz.

This is a movie about being free to be yourself, free to be different.  And taking risks to be free.

                                                                 

These three pictures in the lecture hall were like a scene out of Pink Floyd's The Wall.  The Hipster Mel is expelled from the Communist Party organization at his school.

The contrast between his grey uniformed, chanting classmates and the hipster styled Mel says it all as the party head rails in song against all the evil that Mel represents.

Look at the power of those shots, especially the middle one.



I wish I had time to show this film to some Russian friends and have them fill in so many missing details of this period.  I'm dying to know what they'll think of this film, especially those who were in Moscow in the time of the movie.  Until then, I have no clue what this movie means to Russians, whether it has any serious meaning to them or whether they think this is the equivalent of High School Musical.

Did I say this was a musical?  It's an American musical in the same way the the Russian hipsters were American hipsters.  It's a completely Russian version of an American genre.

Opening night tickets at the Bear Tooth are $25 Friday, December 4, 7pm, but they include the opening Gala party.  A reason to get an "All Films and Events" pass. If that's too steep - the money helps pay for the festival - it plays again Saturday, Dec. 12 at the Bear Tooth, at 7:30pm for the regular $7 price.

Work out your schedule to be at one of the showings.

Some people have asked me what my relationship to the festival is. Are they paying me to promote it?  I'm blogging independently on my own blog, not theirs.  I like the kinds of films a festival brings to Anchorage and I want to see the Festival succeed.  They do give me a media pass,  and they treat me well, but I'm not a promoter.  I'm blogging for my readers, not for the Festival.  To let you readers know what's available, and when I get to see something I really like, to let you know.  And if I think something is pretty bad, I'll warn you of that too. 

 
Hipsters defies standard categories.  I'm currently creating new braincells in an attempt to grasp what it's very existence means about the Soviet Union, about Russia, what I thought I knew, and what I'm going to have to study to fill in lots of gaps.  But, be warned, it is long.  But the final number (clip above) is absolutely worth staying for.  The subtitle - hipster style conquers all fear -  is clearly an important theme of the movie; unfortunately you can't hear the music now.  You'll have to go to see the movie.  And bring you sweetie to this one.

[Update Dec. 22:  This is old news (October 22), but I just ran across it from ScreenDaily: 

Valery Todorovsky’s Russian entry Hipsters (Stilyagi) won the $100,000 narrative feature Black Pearl award as the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF) came to a close at the weekend.]

[UPDATE:  To get a link for the DVD with English subtitles, go down to Chris Churchill's January 2013 comment below.]