Brest authorities ban “Tuzin.Nemaulia” concert
After weeks of negotiations, the deputy head of the Brest City Executive Committee Henadz Barysiuk and the head of its ideological department, Ala Starykevich, banned ta concert of the project “Tuzin.Nemaulia” ("Dozen.Baby").
The event is scheduled for December 15 at the local House of Culture. The organizers intended to screen a classical film of the Belarusian silent sinema, produced by Uladzimir Korsh-Sablin, with the musical accompaniment by the Belarusian rock band “Re1ikt”. The head of the cultural department of the Brest Regional Executive Committee permitted to hold the concert and expressed his readiness to provide a site for it.
However, at the beginning of the week the ideological department of the Brest CEC expressed their strong opposition. At first, the head of the department Ala Starykevich stated that there may be problems with the copyright for the movie. The organizers of the concert asked representatives of the Russian State Film Fund, where the original tape is stored, to write a letter to Brest that they supported the project and had no pretensions concerning the copyright. After this, Ala Starykevich posed pretensions to the ideological side of the film. She was worried that a participant of the Belarusian anti-Bolshevik resistance Bulak-Balakhovich and members of the Council of the Belarusian People's Republic were shown in the film. In a private talk the ideologists confessed that they were trying to keep away from politics and therefore were reluctant to give permission for the concert. The deputy head of the Brest City Executive Committee Henadz Barysiuk also asked the head of the project Siarhei Budkin whether the event would be attended by members of the party “Belarusian Popular Front”.
The city authorities fought until the end. Even a telephone call, made to them by a representative of the Ministry of Culture, Uladzimir Lisouski, had no effect. By the way, the project “Tuzin.Nemaulia” was presented within the frames of the last festival “Listapad”, held with the support of the Ministry of Culture.
As a result, the concert was prohibited just two days before the scheduled date.
" I have the impression that the officials who are responsible for culture in Brest, sincerely and faithfully hate this very Belarusian culture. Perhaps this is the case, since our project was approved by the Ministry of Culture and shown at the festival "Listapad" . Maybe these people (I mean the head of the ideological department Ala Starykevich and Vice- Chairman of the Brest City Executive Committee Henadz Barysiuk first of all) occupy wrong positions, since they create various obstacles instead of contributing to the realization of creative initiatives in the city,” commented Siarhei Budkin.
