Resistance on Film: NAVALNY
Join us for a screening of the documentary NAVALNY about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, whose portrait is included in the exhibition Peter Sacks: Resistance.
Navalny’s years-long campaign against corruption among Russia’s elites and his calls for democratic reforms enrage President Vladimir Putin. In August 2020, Navalny was secretly poisoned with a military-grade chemical nerve agent in an elaborate attempt on his life. Despite denials from the Russian government, the poison was later linked to the Kremlin through investigations by international news organizations, including Bellingcat and CNN. The film, produced by CNN and HBO Max, documents these shocking events, including Navalny's brave return to Russia, where he is currently imprisoned.
WATCH THE TRAILER
NAVALNY, 2022. Digital film, 1h 38m. Warner Bros/CNN and HBO Max.
A conversation with Dr. Irina Dubinina, Associate Professor of Russian and Director of the Russian Language Program, and Dmitry Troyanovsky, Barbara Sherman '54 and Malcolm L. Sherman Associate Professor of Theater Arts, will follow the screening.
ABOUT THE PARTICPANTS
Irina Dubinina is an Associate Professor of Russian and Director of the Russian Language Program at Brandeis University. She holds a PhD in Russian (with a specialization in Second Language Acquisition) from Bryn Mawr College. Dr. Dubinina has 17 years of experience teaching Russian as a foreign language and an extensive background in teaching heritage speakers of Russian. She is the Chair of the Foreign Language Oversight Committee at Brandeis University and a consultant for the National Security Language Initiative for Youth. She has developed and ledseveralf teacher training seminars in Russia for teachers of Russian as a foreign language. She is a regular contributor and reviewer for the Online Resource Center for Teachers of Russian, has authored and co-authored several articles on heritage learners, and has collaborated with the authors of Live From Russia: Stage One (ACTR/Kendall) on publishing the 2nd edition. She is currently working on a textbook for adult heritage speakers of Russian. Dr. Dubinina has been awarded the Doris Sill Carland Award for Excellence in Teaching from Bryn Mawr College (2007) and the Louis Dembitz Brandeis Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2012).
Dmitry Troyanovsky is the Barbara Sherman '54 and Malcolm L Sherman Associate Professor of Theater Arts at Brandeis University. He stages productions, teaches, leads workshops, and develops new theatrical material at national and international institutions such as Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center (China), Opera Idaho, Bard Music Festival, Asolo Repertory Theatre, Baryshnikov Arts Center, American Repertory Theatre Institute, Actors' Shakespeare Project, Boston Playwrights' Theater, Shanghai Theatre Academy, Moscow Art Theatre School, Segal Theatre Center (CUNY), 92 Street Y in New York, Brown University, Brandeis Theatre Company, New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts, American Lyric Theatre, and Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center. Notable projects include a Chinese language production of Sara Kane's play 4:48 Psychosis at the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center and the Russian language premiere of Sam Shepard’s Fool for Love at the Pushkin Theatre in Moscow. Dmitry's production of The Discreet Charm of Monsieur Jourdain (based on Moliere’s work) was invited to the IV Moscow International Theatre Festival "Your Chance."
This program, organized in conjunction with the exhibition Peter Sacks: Resistance, on view through December 30, 2022, is supported by a grant from the Wolf Kahn Foundation, and our partners at Brandeis University: the Department of Theatre Arts, Russian Studies Program, and the Edie and Lew Wasserman Fund.