A Tribute to George Gund III
THE COLOR OF POMEGRANATES (SAYAT NOVA)

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USSR | 1969 | Sergei Paradjanov

George Gund III, who died in January, was a philanthropist and film lover who first proposed that there be a cinematheque in Cleveland. In 1984—working with journalist Ron Holloway and then Cuyahoga County treasurer Frank Gaul—he made it happen. Gund, who had a particular fondness for Eastern European movies from behind the Iron Curtain (and even distributed some of them in the 1970s and 1980s), will be remembered tonight with a special screening of one of the great Soviet-era films. Sergei Paradjanov’s The Color of Pomegranates renders episodes from the life of 18th-century Armenian poet and minstrel Sayat Nova as a series of gorgeous color tableaux teeming with religious and regional iconography. This one-of-a-kind visual spectacle was voted one of the 100 best movies ever made in a 1995 Time Out poll. It was banned for years in the USSR, and hastened the director’s subsequent arrest and imprisonment on trumped-up charges. Subtitles. 35mm. 79 min.

Before the movie, at 6:15 pm, a 2004 interview with George Gund conducted by Cinematheque Director John Ewing for WCLV’s “Arts on the Air” will be played in the auditorium. Special thanks to Bob Conrad.