Igor Savitsky – collector and museum founder, photograph by Militza Zemskaya

Written, Produced and Directed by

Amanda Pope and Tchavdar Georgiev

A visually stunning record of a trove of 40,000 pieces of artwork long held underground and secretly rescued by a lone museum curator. Most anyone who appreciates art has an opinion about the avant-garde, even if most of us don’t understand it. Misunderstanding was the least of the worries facing avant-garde artists stuck in the former Soviet Union after the rise of Communism. Ignored and at worse persecuted, most artists emigrated or went underground. This documentary tells the story of a museum located in Uzbekistan, far from Moscow’s censors, that because of one man’s courageous efforts, since 1966 has attempted to preserve art that was outside the realm of the officially acceptable. (No violence or sexual content, no coarse language.)

Director Amanda Pope is scheduled to attend.

Official site of The Desert of Forbidden Art »

Screenings of The Desert of Forbidden Art:

• Saturday, February 5, 3:30 p.m., Magic Lantern Theatre
• Sunday, February 6, 4:00 p.m., Magic Lantern Theatre
• (Within 24 hours of showtime, tickets for Magic Lantern screenings
  must be purchased at the Box Office)

« Schedule