The Bright Way

2017

The video is my attempt to deconstruct a myth, a dream projected with a Soviet film ‘The Bright Way’ (Alexandrov, 1940). Lyubov Orlova starred in it as a weaver, who made her successful journey from a peasant to a stakhanovite. The protagonist inspired one of the weavers of a closed textile mill in Estonia, who I interviewed, which in her turn inspired me on this video work. It is done in collaboration with Estonian dancer Maarja Tõnisson in the spaces of the mill, which closed down in 2009 after 150 years of its existence. Leaving audible my instructions from behind the camera, I strengthen viewer’s attention on the manipulative mechanisms behind propaganda films and constructed images.