The following video series documents the panel Revolution, Transformation and Identity: Central European Artists Reflect upon Post-Communist Art, Urbanism, and Culture that took place on October 30, 2011, at the Graham Foundation, Chicago. The panel was held in conjunction with the exhibition Voices from the Center on view at threewalls gallery, Chicago, October 28-December 10, 2011. The series includes introductory remarks by Shannon Stratton, Executive and Creative Director of threewalls and Janeil Engelstad, curator of the exhibition, and individual presentations by artists Matej Vakula, Miklos Suranyi, Oto Hudec, Magda Stanova, and Jan Worpus of Grafixipol.

Both have an art deco touch: the chunky gold-plated Oscar and the elegant brass statue of a female figure holding a glass globe. The Chrystal Globe, the Karlovy Vary Film Festival award, in its current shape was created only 11 years ago, but harks back to the decorative style of the first decades of the 20th century.

Along with Andrey Konchalovsky and Otar Iosseliani, Ali Irgashaliyevich Khamraev (in Uzbek, Ali Hamroev; b. 1937) is one of the great survivors of Soviet New Wave Cinema. Since 1964, Khamraev has been active in numerous genres, from the Romantic Comedy to the Political Drama, and from the Western to the Art-cinema Parable, to the TV mini-series. The son of a Tadjik man and a Ukrainian woman, he typified Soviet poly-nationalism, working for studios across Central Asia and Russia, from Tadjikistan to Moscow.