Blog
![dark_theater_screening-away-600x450](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/dark_theater_screening-away-600x450-1.jpg)
RDFF 2023
Summing up the results of the 15th Annual Independent East European Documentary Film Festival
While putting together the program for this year’s festival we wanted to pursue two specific goals. Firstly, we wanted to show our audience that during a time when the humanitarian values of our civilization are experiencing a crisis, during a time of war and a time when totalitarian and chauvinistic powers are growing stronger, there still exist independent arts and culture, built on the principles of personal and creative freedom, the value of human life, the right to free speech, – a culture of humanism and pacifism.
![a-house-blog](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/a-house-blog.jpg)
RDFF 2023
“A House Made of Splinters” joins the list of offerings of this year’s Festival
Directed by Simon Lereng Wilmont and produced by Monica Hillström, this documentary had its world premiere at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and was the Academy Award nominee for Best documentary film in 2023. The film is about children from a special orphanage in Eastern Ukraine. A small group of social workers is taking care of children who lost their parents in the war.
![away2](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/away2.jpg)
RDFF 2023
Join Us for the 15th Annual RusDocFilmFest
In 2022, The New Review Inc, the organizer of the festival project, canceled the festival due to the Russian invasion of independent Ukraine. In the Spring of 2023, we are back with the festival event supporting Ukrainian filmmakers and the democratic opposition activists in Belarus and Russia.
![Tairov_film_still-blog-600x450](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Tairov_film_still-blog-600x450-1.jpg)
RDFF 2023
«There comes a time when the sun is a mortal sin…”
This line, from a poem by Marina Tsvetaeva, written in 1918, a bloody year for Russia, is oddly reminiscent of 2022, and the events that continued on into 2023. “How long?” wrote teenage Ukrainian refugees in chalk on the sidewalk in the film “Away”. “A song from gunpowder does not a singer make” – and we agree with the poet, for the muse must keep silent during the gunfire.
![Letter-from-mayor-deblasio](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Letter-from-mayor-deblasio.jpg)
RDFF 2021
Mayor of New York City welcomes RUSDOCFILMFEST
Dear Friends! We’re thrilled to welcome you to the 14th annual RUSDOCFILMFEST! Our festival is now officially open, and the Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio sends his greeting, which is attached. The festival runs online from October 18 to 24, but there’ll also be one day of screenings in a good old-fashioned physical theater on October 23rd. Happy viewing!
![negatives-2021-600x450-4](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/negatives-2021-600x450-4.jpg)
RDFF 2021
Information on the upcoming 14th RUSDOCFILMFEST
ONLINE THEATER screenings will be held at the RUSDOCFILMFEST online platform during the festival week. The online program will be organized according to Eastern Daylight Time. Tickets for the ONLINE THEATER are available through the website. All films will be in their original language with English subtitles.
![hollerbach](https://rusdocfilmfest.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/hollerbach.jpg)
RDFF 2021
The Vision & Art Project: Serge Hollerbach: A Russian Painter in New York
In December 2019, the Vision & Art Project’s Brian Schumacher and a small film crew spent three days filming Russian émigré artist Serge Hollerbach in New York City. We were making a short documentary about Hollerbach’s life and work and had also filmed him in 2015.