Lecture 'The Era of Great Cinema'

Alla Gerber belongs to those rare people without whom an era would not have been possible. She considers herself a film publicist: cinematographer?— a way to understand life “here and now.”

Not long ago, Alla Efremovna released a new book—“Stagnation. Perestroika. Cinema,” a collection of publications devoted to the cinematography of the Soviet and post-Soviet period. And this event is yet another reason to meet the legendary Gerber—if such a meeting is even possible to arrange.

“Writing about cinema has always been, for me, only a way to talk about life, because the publicist in me was above all,” says Alla Gerber.

In the 1960s, she wrote articles about culture, including for the legendary magazine “Youth.” Then she worked as an editor at the Gorky film studio, traveled across the country giving lectures about cinema. She communicated as a journalist and was friends with famous directors and actors—Andrei Tarkovsky, Otar Iosseliani, Ilya Averbakh, Alexey German, Vasily Livanov, Lidia Shukshina, Inna Churikova.

Her stories about people and events of that era are not just memories. They help us understand the past today and find answers in it to questions of the present—and even the future.

Alla Gerber is a writer, film critic, human rights defender, and public figure. Co-chair of the Scientific and Educational Center “Holocaust.” Author of books “One on One,” “Conversations in the Workshop,” “Inna Churikova. Fate and Theme,” “Vasily Livanov,” “And Life Was Wonderful!” and others.