Appeal to the Ministry of Culture

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Download a template for sending an appeal to regional departments of culture

It is becoming obvious to an increasing number of people today that cinema not only entertains, but also forms stereotypes of viewers' behavior, affects the consciousness and subconsciousness of a person and, in fact, is one of the main tools for the unstructured management of society. This is already being talked about directly on central TV channels, although so far only in connection with foreign policy events.

But with the help of cinema you can promote not only political ideas, but also much more: you can promote sobriety ("Poddubny"), or you can make all the main characters drink ("Bitter 2"); you can promote love for the Motherland ("Fortress"), or you can portray your country as dirty and backward ("Leviathan"). And most importantly, you can promote high moral standards, or you can discredit and ridicule the ideas of honesty, decency, hard work, turn criminals into heroes, and make positive characters losers. And so that a person does not once again think about high things, it is possible, under the pretext of freedom of speech, to exclude such concepts as conscience, duty, chastity, Fatherland from the vocabulary altogether and not use them. After all, the technology is absolutely the same as with political propaganda. And today any sane person who even sometimes turns on the TV or goes to the movies will confirm that we are not talking about abstract things, but about modern reality.

The media today is an instrument of ideology, not information. The main thing in their messages is the ideas smuggled into our minds. (S. G. Kara-Murza)

Considering that Russian cinematography is mostly funded by the state, and all films shown on a wide screen, including foreign ones, are subject to mandatory registration with the Ministry of Culture, the Teach Good project together with the Political Practice project, since April 2015, have repeatedly applied to this department with a demand to conduct an examination and remove from the rental pictures in which the previously announced manipulation technologies are implemented most clearly. In our addresses, we relied on the "Fundamentals of the State Cultural Policy of the Russian Federation", the Concept of State Family and Demographic Policy, other strategies and documents approved by the Government and the Security Council, as well as on the President's statements on this issue. As a reminder, back in 2011, the President personally appealed to the government and cinematographers, urging them not to make films that undermine morality.

The Ethics Charter for Filmmakers was adopted in 2014. Which filmmaker observes it?

In response to all our appeals from the Ministry of Culture, we received absolutely frank replies, drawn up in violation of the current legislation. In their official position, the Ministry of Culture, represented by the director of the Cinematography Department Vyacheslav Telnov and his deputies, demonstrated complete lack of initiative and principled sabotage by decrees of the President of Russia and federal legislation. Moreover, as it turned out during our appeal on the 14+ pedophile film, in the filming of which actors under 16 years old were involved in the erotic scene, the Ministry of Culture not only allows such films to be screened, but also finances them from the state budget.

And if, thanks to the hype, in Belarus this film was removed from the box office, then in Russia the Department of Cinematography, represented by the same Telnov, despite numerous appeals from both individual citizens and social movements, not only allowed the film to be shown on a wide screen, but in his stereotyped answers, he recommended that all those who opposed get acquainted with the cut of the positive opinions of individual viewers, published on YouTube.

That is, the Ministry of Culture in Russia approves films for distribution, based not on the psychological and pedagogical examination of the film, but on the basis of a selective cut of the views of YouTube viewers. Mr. Telnov, a direct question for you: has the Department of Cinematography also approved another pedophile film "Metamorphosis", dedicated to the love relationship of an 11-year-old girl and a 25-year-old boy, which will be released on November 19, based on the audience's feedback on YouTube?

We call on the Minister of Culture of the Russian Federation Vladimir Medinsky to put things in order in the Department of Cinematography. Establish a system for all registered paintings to pass mandatory psychological, pedagogical and psycholinguistic expertise with the subsequent publication of its results in the public domain. And also to finance from the state budget only those films that comply with the ethical charter developed by the Union of Cinematographers on the initiative of the President.

We believe that the implementation of these simple steps will create conditions for films to be released on the screens that meet the strategic objectives of the country's development and the needs of society, carry a serious, creative and educational force, promoting the values of a healthy lifestyle, patriotism, spirituality, mercy and responsibility. and films leading to threats to the national and information security of Russia were blocked precisely in terms of admission to wide screens, but were allowed to be distributed by individuals for their own needs and, in accordance with their own film preferences. We also call on all public organizations and all citizens who share the demand expressed in the video for the Ministry of Culture to join this appeal by publishing it on their websites or personal pages on social networks.