Reflections: The Soviet Union With Hart; Student Life In The Soviet Union

These two videos were shot by Kelly Hart while touring the Soviet Union, with the bulk of the footage coming from Odessa, but also briefly Kiev and Moscow. The first title, "Reflections", consists of shots taken at the circus, the theater, at schools, off the train and the bus, and combines interview footage and voiceover narration. The general tone of both the interviews and the narration is that Americans and Russians want to live together in peace, but are relatively powerless to influence their respective governments. Poor lighting, amateur photography, and choppy editing work against the good intentions of Mr. Hart. The second film, "Student Life", comes as a bit of a surprise, not because it is better, but because it mostly uses the exact same footage from the first film. Since the second title has an avowed purpose, i.e. to show student life, it is difficult to determine why shots of elderly citizens talking in the street are included. Still, a basic knowledge of how the Soviet school system operates is conveyed in the second film, and for this reason some schools may find it useful. (Available from: Hartworks, Box 777, Ashland, OR 97520. For orders under $50, add $2 p & h.).