Film and Audio

Hixon's film centers documents a real-life wedding in the Old Believer settlements of Marion County, Oregon, in the years 1979 and 1980. The film briefly touches on a wealth of traditional arts (embroidery, clothing construction, weaving, vernacular architecture, folk song and foodways) and beautifully presents a whole series of rituals -- the "devichnik" (engagement party), "selling" the bride and her braid, the wedding feast, the bargaining over the dowry, and the ceremony of bestowing gifts and advice on the newlyweds. In English and Russian with subtitles or voice-over translations.

top

Paskievich documents on film a year in the life of an Old Believer family in Alberta, Canada. The scenes of everyday life -- on the farm and in the forest -- do a fine job of conveying the gritty feel of life on the land. Paskievich's excursions into more abstract matters, however, are less successfull. Paskievich has a great deal to say about the boundary zone where Old Believers rub up against the outside world. Much of his commentary is delivered in the form of a sermon decrying the pollution and triviality of Western urban society. The disingenuous use of unrelated images and soundtrack music presents further problems.

top