"Friendship of Peoples: Tashkent, Film, Exchange" (2023)
Film, photography, and document archives, video: 9 min 26 sec
DAVRA research collective is an initiative, driven by a mission to connect and develop the Central Asian art scene through exchanges of experiences and knowledge in the region and beyond. For Survival Kit 14, DAVRA aims to rethink a significant cultural event that unfolded in Uzbekistan in the second part of the 20th century – the Tashkent International Film Festival of Asia, Africa and Latin America (the festival program included entries from Latin America from 1976 onwards) focusing on its first ten editions between 1968 and 1988. Collecting and studying documentation and memories from the festival, the collective has made a new video compiling archival materials, alongside a display of historic photos and documents in aspiration to reshape our understanding of this historic event.
Tashkent International Film Festival became one of the first festivals to include filmmakers from the Global South inviting such iconic figures from the African continent as Ousmane Sembène, Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, and Sarah Maldoror. Proposing direct exchange by (inter)connecting Asia, Africa, and Latin America, the festival allowed for South-to-South encounters that were non-aligned or even critical of Soviet policies. The roundtable discussions and exchange of ideas crucially affected a generation of filmmakers in Central Asia, who would later be known for creating the new cinema of the region.
/ Photo credit: Andrejs Strokins & Kristīne Madjare / Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art