Double Life, a Short History of Sex in the USSR
Icarus Films
•
54m
Directed by Ināra Kolmane • Documentary • 2017 • 52 minutes
The October Revolution ushered in an era of sexual freedom and liberation from bourgeois conventions. Satisfying sexual needs had to be "as simple as drinking a glass of water," according to feminist Alexandra Kollontai who was at the forefront of the fight for the liberation of morals.
Rapidly, the situation spiraled out of control: Syphilis spread throughout the country, and, in 1922, an estimated number of nine million abandoned children—the "bezprizornye"—roamed the streets of Russia in criminal gangs. The number of abandoned women, with no resources, became alarming. In the ensuing social chaos, the regime operated a total U-turn. While official propaganda exalted the virtues of the "new" man whose healthy body had no other purpose than to work and toil for the glory of communism, sexual activity had been relegated to its strict reproductive function at the service of an under-performing Soviet birth rate. Community life and general surveillance would confine sexuality to a quasi clandestine status for the next thirty years.
DOUBLE LIFE, A SHORT HISTORY OF SEX IN THE USSR revisits 70 years of communist power through the prism of sexuality.
Up Next in Icarus Films
-
Chantal Akerman's Down There
Directed by Chantal Akerman • Documentary • 2006 • 78 minutes
According to director Chantal Akerman, she never planned to make a film in Israel. She was convinced that neutrality does not exist and that her subjectivity would get in her way. She was sure she would only be able to reflect on 'the...
-
Downtown Dream
Directed by Aaron Matthews • Documentary • 2013 • 45 minutes
For decades, small town life in the United States has been quietly eroding. But there are overlooked stories amidst the talk of America's economic decline: the stories of individual men and women in the 'Rust Belt' community in Lewisto...
-
Dreaming of a Tree House
Directed by Beate Lendt • Documentary • 2011 • 85 minutes
DREAMING OF A TREE HOUSE is a film about the pioneering community-building project of the world-famous architect Frei Otto in Berlin, called the Okohaus-an experimental, ecological, customized housing project in the city center.
Includi...