The Desert of Forbidden Art, featuring Igor Savitsky
November 11, 2026 | Doors 6pm, Screening 6:30pm
Live at Contois Auditorium, Burlington & 118 Elliot, Brattleboro 
Screen from Home, Same Day Only
Directed by Tchavdar Georgiev & Amanda Pope
2011, Russia, 80 Minutes

PREVIEW

During Stalin’s Soviet era, Igor Savitsky collected more than 40,000 beautiful, colorful, powerful and rarely seen works by artists experimenting in a brash, avant-garde style. These works, at odds with the drab realism favored by the government, put the artists at great risk. Savitsky searched out the artists and their works and created a museum in Uzbekistan, remote enough that he evaded the worst of Soviet censorship. He collected and preserved cultural artifacts of Uzbeks as the government attempted to erase the culture. This film follows his story, taking us on a dramatic journey of sacrifice for the sake of creative freedom, while revealing the glorious works of art and the stories of the people involved.