Culture Connection: Culture of Film, Culture in Films

Everyone loves a good film – and the many good films of Russia and the Soviet Union are an entertaining way to access  Russian culture and society.  Professor Robert Efird of Virginia Tech will join us to discuss the role of film in the early Soviet period and his use of film in the Russian Studies program at his university. Of special interest to Efird and his students is Tarkovsky, and we will talk about the Russian cultural roots of Tarkovsky’s works. Robert Efird is Associate Professor and Director of the Russian program at Virginia Tech and the director of the Russian study abroad program. He has been the director of the Russian Language Flagship at Virginia Tech and co-director of Project Global Officer. His research focuses on the intersection of philosophy of mind, differential ontology and cinema. Scholarly works include “Isochrony and the Story/Discourse Distinction in Alexander Sokurov’s [id956153|*Russian] Ark*”, “Amorphous Forms: Time and Subjectivity in [club226177734|*Shadows] of Forgotten Ancestors*”, and “Sergei Parajanov’s Differential Cinema”. More recently he is the author of “The Flesh of Time: *Solaris* and the Chiasmic Image” and the book, [id23631|*Andrei] Tarkovsky:* *Ivan’s Childhood*. He received his PhD in Slavic at the University of Virginia.