BC Documentary on Soviet Gulag This Sunday at MFA
A new documentary co-produced by Boston College filmmakers Prof. John Michalczyk, chairman of the Fine Arts Department, and O'Neill Library Circulation Assistant Ronald Marsh
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The Soviet Gulag, considered one of history's worst violations of human rights, is the subject of a new documentary co-produced by Boston College filmmakers Prof. John Michalczyk, chairman of the Fine Arts Department, and O'Neill Library Circulation Assistant Ronald Marsh that will be screened at 6 p.m. this Sunday at the Museum of Fine Arts."Confronting Amnesia: Frozen Memories of the Russian Gulag" recalls the Soviet Union's network of forced labor camps used to imprison millions of citizens. The camps, particularly during the reign of Joseph Stalin, were a tool for repression of political opposition and the setting for millions of executions as well as deaths due to exhaustion, hunger and disease.
Filmed on location in Siberia, Moscow, Perm and St. Petersburg, "Confronting Amnesia" tells several stories involving the Gulag and its legacy. One story involves the search by Jon Utley to learn the fate of his father, who was taken from the family's home in Russia in 1936. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Utley was able to uncover documentation of his father's arrest, indictment and execution order. Utley's father was killed for leading a hunger strike in a Siberian labor camp.
There is also the story of Jesuit priest Walter Ciszek, who was picked up at the outset of World War II as a Vatican spy and spent 20 years in the Gulag until he was exchanged for two KGB spies in the early 1960s.
The documentary also tells the story of the human rights group Memorial Society in Russia, which struggles against the current government's attempt to whitewash the past and resurrect the image of Stalin.
Michalczyk, who directs BC's Film Studies Program, felt that the story of the human rights violations of the Gulag needed to be told visually to combat what has been called "Western blindness to the Soviet Gulag."
"Somehow, the enormity of the evil perpetrated in the Gulag has generally eluded the collective consciousness of Americans and Western societies," he said. "One expects a shared visceral impact akin to that felt in our reaction to the Holocaust testament. Both offer the quintessential demonstration of man's capacity to inflict organized suffering on vulnerable populations."
Michalczyk is an accomplished documentary filmmaker whose work has been seen on public television and in film festivals. His films explore issues of social justice, discrimination, war and conflict resolution. He and Marsh produced "Confronting Amnesia" with Sy Rotter of the Foundation for Moral Courage.
The screening of the film will take place in the Remis Auditorium of the Museum of Fine Arts, located at 465 Huntington Avenue. Tickets are $10, $8 for MFA members, students and seniors. The MFA Box Office can be reached at (617)369-3306 or online at www.mfa.org/calendar/event.asp?eventkey=36960&date=1/18/2009.
Kathleen Sullivan can be reached at kathleen.sullivan.1@bc.edu.