Virtual Friday Night Films at the Wende: Red Wave

Red Wave is a selection of documentary footage shot by Cold War Spaces guest Joanna Stingray. Screened during her 1988 Red Wave exhibit in Los Angeles, it includes footage from the “New Artists” underground studio in Leningrad, and features interviews with Soviet artists, including Timur Novikov, Afrika Bugaev, and Viktor Tsoi (of the band Kino).

The film features four music videos for the United States-released double album, “Red Wave: 4 Underground Bands from the USSR” including the song “Ashes” by Aquarium, “Saw a Night” by Kino, “Experimentor” by Alisa, and “Metamorphosis” by Strange Games. Stingray wanted to “open Americans eyes to the fact that there were rock n’ rollers in Russia that looked like cool rockers anywhere.” It was extremely difficult to screen the film in the Soviet Union in 1985, as “it was almost unheard of to have a video camera and we were always nervous filming on the street that we would get arrested” (Stingray). The music videos would go on to premiere on MTV in the United States.

Free to watch via Vimeo.

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Virtual Film Picks are inspired by the in-person Friday Night Films at the Wende program series. This selection is part of a curated list of weekly movie suggestions that can be watched at home, in conjunction with #WendeOnline.