"The Wonderful Years": Mundane Archives of Soviet Sexuality

Galina Yarmanova will present the short film "Щасливі роки" ("The Wonderful Years," 9 min.) alongside their research project on sexuality in late Soviet Ukraine. The film, created in collaboration with film director Svitlana Shymko, explores how the generation of their mothers coped with the mundane societal pressures to get married and raise children. "The Wonderful Years" draws on data from several research projects on sexuality and uses official Soviet reels alongside home videos from the Lviv Center for Urban History collection. After the screening, Yarmanova and Masha Shpolberg invite you to a discussion about film as a tool for activism and research, and how the feminist decolonial lens brings challenges to archival work.