June 2008

04/06/2008 Wednesday

Spending time sorting out final details with the gallery in Berlin for showing the Rodchenko film. At least they have the disc to show at the exhibition. The other discs should arrive soon to go on sale as part of the exhibition as well.

Have been working on the Japanese film and making some progress. Some ideas for the second Japanese film have emerged as well. Also I started to prepare some written material about Kandinsky and the Russian Avant-garde which will be posted later.

21/06/2008 Saturday.

Just returned from Malta after a short break. Good to be back in Moscow as always. Exhibition in Berlin at the Martin-Gropius-Bau has opened and the Rodchenko film is now on sale there and will be shown as part of the exhibition.

Gradually getting back into things – lot of work to catch up. PBS decided not to take the series so have to press on with other other possibilities. Summer is always a slow time so I’m still waiting for things to pick up.

22/06/2008 Sunday

Started working on the Japanese film again both yesterday and today. Reading about Caravaggio after seeing some of his paintings on Malta. Heard a piece of information that Hannibal was born on Malta which was a Phoenician Island at that time. We visited some old Phoenician temples from the 4the and 5th Millennium BC.

I phoned Genia today to tell him the film F is for Fake will be shown on the Kultura channel. He spoke about some project which he is engaged on which might have some filming possibilities. I will meet with him on Tuesday to discuss it further.

28/06/2008 Saturday

Met with Genia a couple of days ago for one of our periodical reunions at his studio. He was able to show me the book which has been published of a Russian diamond mine using his photographs. Very professional, just a shame they didn’t use more of his photographs. They showed “F is for Fake” on the Kutura Channel here in Moscow. I watched it with Natasha and Genia watched it as well. He is especially interested in French impressionism so it was something which struck a chord with him.

In between sorting out visas etc I have been working on the Japanese film relatively steadily. Genia wanted to know more about the film but even in these pages I am loathe to talk about it until I can get to a more concrete point in the editing process.

Want to start on writing about Japanese ways of thinking and the infleunce of Japanese culture on the Russian avant-garde. I should find a specific place to start writing this. Once again with Natasha’s encouragement had some thoughts about the Hannibal project. I still have the script and I had another look at it about how it could be developed further.

Moscow is getting ready for the summer. I love Moscow in the summer. Its much more relaxed and Moscow seems to empty out for a month or two. There are occasions when you feel like you have the whole city to yourself and the frenetic activity dissipates for a short period. Probably not many people would imagine what a thriving cafe life there is in Moscow and how it spills out onto the streets in the warmer months of the year.