Sunday, May 18, 7:30–10:00 pm
James Bridges Theater

235 Charles E Young Dr E
Los Angeles, CA 90095 + Google Map

Admission is free

The UCLA Department of Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Languages and Cultures (SEEELC), in collaboration with the UCLA School of Theater, Film, and Television (TFT), the UCLA Department of Spanish & Portuguese, and the UCLA Center for European and Russian Studies (CERS), invites you to a screening of the documentary film “Donna Tanya” directed by Tatiana Sorokina. After the film, SEEELC and TFT Professor Lilya Kaganovsky will lead a Q&A session with its creator—UCLA alumna, writer and scholar Maya Kucherskaya.

About the Film

What eras and cultural layers can fit into a single human life? What shapes a person’s cultural identity—whose heirs are we, and whose descendants? “Donna Tanya. One Hundred Years of Happiness” is a documentary about Tatiana Leskova, a 102-year-old ballerina in Brazil. Born in 1922 in Paris and now living in Rio de Janeiro, she is also the great-granddaughter of Nikolai Leskov, one of Russia’s best 19th-century novelists. As a ballet dancer, she is an heir to Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes and the founder of Brazilian ballet, which she built upon the teachings of Marius Petipa’s and Diaghilev’s disciples. The film is in Russian with English subtitles.

About the Creator

Maya Kucherskaya is a prominent writer and scholar of contemporary and 19th-century Russian and Russophone literature, in particular, the life and oeuvre of Nikolai Leskov. Her biography book, Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich Romanov (2005), grew out of her PhD dissertation defended at UCLA in 1999. Founder and head of Russia’s first Master’s program in creative writing, Maya is the author of fiction and non-fiction, including the award-winning novels The Rain God (2005), Aunt Motya (2012), and Leskov, a Missed Genius (2021).  She was the creative mind and producer behind the documentary Donna Tanya, which explores Leskov’s heirs. The film received multiple film awards.

Parking

Parking at UCLA requires a valid permit at all times. Campus parking is available 24 hours a day at varying prices. Parking Structure 3 (P3) is closest to the event venue and offers hourly Pay-By-Space parking. Visit UCLA Visitor Parking for information about where to park and parking rates.