In 2022, a group of independent film clubs from different Russian cities got inspired by pioneers of the late Soviet and Post-Soviet avant-garde cinema and launched their own film festival The INSIDE (VNUTRI/ВНУТРИ).
Our focus was on amateur independent films made across Russia in recent years.
The
INSIDE festival was interested in all kinds and forms of the moving image, so we were open to any experiments and visual experiences. Radical transformations, narrative reassembly, visionary interventions or works at the intersection of artistic media are especially welcome.
We received 386 applications and compiled 7 regional programs: URAL, SIBERIA, SOUTH, FAR EAST, VOLGA, UDMURTIA, MOSCOW–ST. PETERSBURG.
About a hundred selected films were screened in dozens of cities throughout Russia and neighbouring countries. Screenings extended for several months!
The cultural development of the last two decades in Russia is centripetal and echoes the economic and political vector of the government. There is a situation where the main part of cultural activities of this huge and diverse country is concentrated in just two main cities. The culture of the regions is mainly secluded: it is somewhere on the margins, it is rarely addressed, and is little invested. Our Festival was a little contribution towards changing this cultural disproportion within Russia.
The INSIDE festival aimed to highlight diversity and build bridges between regions. It gives invisible authors who work with film, video and animation a new distribution platform and the freedom to translate and develop their visual art as their intuition and passion prompts them to.
The Festival does not aim to make a profit. We are trying to erase the hierarchical festival ties. We do not choose favourites and compile flexible programs.