ABOUT THE SHOW

Guided by folk music, ‘Wild Honey’ presents a rare view of the ethnic communities of five regions of Eurasia: the Muslim Bashkirs of the Southern Ural Mountains, the Christian Molokans of the Caucasus, the Orthodox Cossacks of the Southern Steppe, the Jewish Ashkenazim and Krymchaks of the Black Sea, and the Shamanistic Teleuts and Telenguits of Central Siberia.
Each region comprises a chapter that offers a taste of authentic daily life. While the presented groups differ in location, religion, history, and language, they share a deep connection to music — for all of them, song is an integral part of everyday life, each note a trace of the ancestral past, each beat a conduit to the future. They represent a small cross-section of modern-day Russia, a vast six-million square mile territory inhabited by over 180 different ethnic groups who strive to maintain their ancient languages, religions, and cultural traditions despite environmental, social, and political challenges.

Music is as ancient and universal as speech. A baby’s first exposure to art is the elemental sound of his mother’s heartbeat and, later, her voice as she sings. In ‘Wild Honey’ the seemingly disparate populations that today share a country hold a key, not only to their specific histories or to Russian history, but also to world history. Thus their valuable traditions, as documented in ‘Wild Honey,’ comprise our collective cultural heritage.

The screening will be followed by a post-screening conversation with directors Ava Porter and Farhad Akhmetov.

Viewing instructions will be sent to the provided email just prior to the scheduled start time. The film will be available until midnight, Sunday, November 20.