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25 June - 20 July 2017: Leningrad Cowboys Go America

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39/81 Which Way to CA?
Kurt Kren
1981 | 3'18 min | B/W | 16mm

“Kren on the way from Vermont to California. Kren said that his different cars are the red line that runs through the story. The beginning of the film is missing as Kren needed money and wanted to leave the camera with a pawnbroker in San Francisco; as he demonstrated that the camera was working, the film was exposed. Kren called the film a "bad home movie", because amateurs play around with their films a lot more, but he, on the contrary, took everything as it was, without cutting out anything afterward.” – Sixpackfilm

Leningrad Cowboys Go America
Aki Kaurismäki
1989 | 78 min | Colour | DCP

"A struggling Siberian rock band leaves the lonely tundra to tour the United States because, as they’re told, "they’ll buy anything there." Aki Kaurismäki’s winningly aloof farce follows the musicians as they bravely make their way across the New World, carrying a bandmate (and some beer) in a coffin and sporting hairdos that resemble unicorn horns. Leningrad Cowboys Go America was such a sensation that it brought the fictional band a major real-life following.” – Criterion Collection


Part of our On the Road season