“AREN’T YOU AFRAID TO SWING ON RUSSIAN SWINGS?”
2021 (ongoing)
documentary film (60min)
A film about the the unlearning of the socialist way of living by
meeting new capitalist constraints. Using video footage of my
grandfather‘s home- and travel video archive from the 1990s.
The ambiguous title goes back to my grandfather‘s question
at a Russian playground in 1996. As he pushes the swing,
the Panasonic camcorder captures the bent metal bars of
the swing. His words, ‚Aren‘t you afraid to swing on Russian
swings? – Swing a little, feel the joy of life!‘ echo ambiguously
as I reflect on their meaning 28 years later, during the making
of the film and in the face of the current war.
Based on my grandfather’s home movie archive, containing
over 400 hours of video material, this film is a personal
examination of family memory in times of political crisis and
uncertainty. It takes place right after the dissolution of the
Soviet Union and illustrates a sort of recalibration process
unfolding in the 1990s. A period marked by a grotesque back
and forth of political and social forces, transmuting people‘s
daily lives, cravings, homes, and wardrobes under the sound of
rhythmic techno beats, bright colors, and foreign lettering.
In order to pave the way for democracy, communism has to be
replaced by capitalism and thus consumerism?
“New people” sprang from the debris of the Soviet Union, as did new ways of life, new business opportunities, new social rules of the game. Originating in perestroika (‘restructuring’), the shuttle trade became the new booming survival concept throughout the post-Soviet territory. A mass phenomenon initiated by ordinary people as a reaction to the prevailing deficiencies and inefficiency of the collapsing state apparatus. A process of traveling in and out of the gradually opening borders providing loopholes to acquire goods to be sold at home for profit. People of all imaginable professions set out to foreign countries in search of potential top sellers.
My family belonged to the third wave of shuttle traders. Despite academic titles, my grandparents spent 13 years on the streets selling stuffed animals, and counterfeit brandname clothing from China.
