19.10.2026 at 18:10. Proyavka. Leningrad Documentary School: Tamara Chistyakova, A Tram Runs Through the City, Our Mother Is a Hero, Dom Kino, Lilac Hall

Time and place

Monday, 19 October 2026 at 18:10

Dom Kino Cinema Center – Lilac Hall: Караванная улица, 12

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Description

TAMARA CHISTYAKOVA

1977, 20 min., USSR, language - Russian; short-length documentary

Director: Mikhail Litvyakov

A TRAM RUNS THROUGH THE CITY

1973, 27 min., USSR, language - Russian; short-length documentary

Director: Lyudmila Stanukinas

OUR MOTHER IS A HERO

1979, 45 min., USSR, language - Russian; short-length documentary

Director: Nikolai Obukhovich

Tamara Chistyakova

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Mikhail Litvyakov

Producer company : Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film (LSDF)

Year: 1977

Country: USSR

Duration: 20 min.

Description

Tamara Chistyakova is a well-known Leningrad seamstress and a State Prize laureate. Behind the status of an accomplished worker the film tries to see a living person: her character and her place in a system accustomed to speaking of labour heroes in ready-made formulae. Tamara Chistyakova belongs to the documentary cinema of the 1970s, when Leningrad directors turned ever more often to the contradiction between a person’s public image and their real life.

About the director:

Mikhail Litvyakov

Documentary director and one of the central figures of the LSDF. Born in 1938 in Pushkin. After VGIK he worked from 1965 as a director at the Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film. In 1989 he founded the Message to Man Film Festival; he is now its Honorary President.

A Tram Runs Through the City

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Lyudmila Stanukinas

Operator: Yuri Zanin

Screenwriter: Maia Merkel

Producer company : Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film (LSDF)

Year: 1973

Country: USSR

Duration: 27 min.

Description

“You have to love people, really. If you don’t, you’ll get them trapped in the tram doors,” says the central figure Lyudmila. She takes the viewer on three of her shifts as a tram driver; she speaks frankly and tenderly about her profession and introduces her passengers. People, streets, light and mood change, and with them an image of Leningrad takes shape.

About the director:

Lyudmila Stanukinas

Documentary director, Honoured Artist of Russia. She joined the Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film in 1958. She had previously worked at Lenfilm and trained at the Leningrad Institute of Foreign Languages. Viktor Kossakovsky was among her pupils.

Our Mother Is a Hero

Genres: Documentary, Short-length

Director: Nikolai Obukhovich

Screenwriter: Nikolai Obukhovich

Producer company : Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film (LSDF)

Year: 1979

Country: USSR

Duration: 45 min.

Description

Valentina Golubeva is a celebrated weaver and twice Hero of Socialist Labour. Before the viewer stands the familiar image of the Soviet hero: the shop floor, the platforms, the awards, the official speeches. Beyond that public image, however, there is a family. While Golubeva appears in photographs, on screens and at ceremonial events, her husband and son live in her absence. Shot in 1979, the film was banned and released only ten years later, in 1989.

About the director:

Nikolai Obukhovich

Documentary director, cinematographer and screenwriter, Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation. Born in Leningrad in 1936. He graduated from the production faculty of the Leningrad State Institute of Theatre, Music, and Cinema (LGITMiK) in 1959 and from the directing department of the Higher Courses for Scriptwriters and Directors (VKSR) in 1970. From 1970 he worked as a director at the Leningrad Studio of Documentary Film (LSDF). He made more than thirty documentaries and taught at the St. Petersburg State University of Film and Television (SPbGIKiT).