Sergei Loznitsa on State Funeral, the Death of Stalin, and Archival Footage | NYFF57

Sergei Loznitsa’s State Funeral is a Spotlight on Documentary selection at the 57th New York Film Festival, presented by Film at Lincoln Center from Friday, September 27 – Sunday, October 13. See ticket info, the schedule, and more: As proven in his recent documentaries Maidan, The Event, and The Trial, versatile Ukrainian filmmaker Sergei Loznitsa has become one of the contemporary masters of the found-footage documentary, using the form to study the nature of the Soviet regime and uncover its darkest legacies for contemporary and future generations. In State Funeral, he has uncovered a wealth of astonishing, mostly unseen archival footage of the “Great Farewell” in the days following the death of Joseph Stalin in March 1953: the teeming mass of mourners clogging Moscow’s Red Square, the speech announcing the hasty appointment of Malenkov, and finally Stalin’s burial in Lenin’s Tomb. While speeches about the Soviet Union’s unyielding fortitude and unity in the face of tra