KINO-Film

OV with English subtitles
RU/USA 2025, 61 min, directors: Andrei Airapetov, Joanna Stingray

In the mid-1980s, American music producer, photographer, and filmmaker Joanna Stingray embarked on a bold mission to document the vibrant rock underground scene in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) in sound, images, and video. Among the leading bands were Akvarium, led by rock poet Boris Grebenshikov (a vocal critic of the Putin regime to this day), and the post-punk group KINO, with its charismatic frontman Viktor Tsoi, who died young in 1990.

Stingray smuggled audio tapes out of the USSR and released selected tracks by KINO, Akvarium, and two other bands in the US on the LP Red Waves in 1986. For several years now, Stingray has been working regularly with the younger filmmaker, designer, and music expert Andrei Airapetov (Critic, Soundwatch 2018). Their latest work, KINO-Film, weaves material from Stingray’s extensive archive with Airapetov’s imaginative animations to create a portrait of a band whose nonconformity and cohesion are still inspiring today.

Guests: directors Andrei Airapetov and Joanna Stingray