Construction of reality: concepts of daily life history in post-Soviet documentary filmmaking

The article examines three cases of the post-Soviet representation of the Soviet everyday life in documentary films based on archival footages. Development of different scientific concepts pertaining historical reality is studied. Production of the visual mode of historical reality involves multiple steps including selection of categorical frameworks of historical description, selection of visual materials, installation of video and audio dubbing, and the authors’ reflection on different versions of representation of the past in documentaries. The films “Private chronicles” and ”the Monologue” define two different types of ideology based on representation of the Soviet past: an official newsreel and ideology-driven home video footages of the Soviet citizens. The projects “Revue” and “Private chronicles” controvert Soviet propaganda. In the case of “Anthology” the Soviet ideology is shown as a phenomenon of cultural history. In all three cases a question on the adequacy of contemporary representation of the past as historical reality is raised. The authors underline the fact that they constructed their own concept of historical reality.