Imaging Central Asia is a new title in the GARAGE.txt series, exploring the cinema of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan. At the launch, film scholar Gulnara Abikeyeva will speak with the author, Kamil Gimazdthinov, about what prompted him to write this book, why the generalization “Central Asia” is at once simplistic, hopeless, and yet somehow logical, and why he describes the book as a coming-of-age novel.

On the day of the event, the book will also be available for purchase at Tselinny’s shop.

Kamil Gimazdthinov is a researcher of Central Asian cinema, playwright, theatre director, and editor-in-chief of the Tatarstan culture magazines Inde and Inde. Almet. He has curated film screenings from Central Asia at the MOÑ theatre venue in Kazan, the Smena Center of Contemporary Culture in Kazan, and the Moskovsky Cultural Center in Kazan. In 2021, he defended his MA thesis at the Institute of International Relations, History and Oriental Studies of Kazan Federal University. The thesis was titled The Post-Soviet Experience of Constructing Identity in Central Asian Fiction Cinema.

Gulnara Abikeyeva is a film scholar, critic, and president of the Kazakhstan Association of Film Critics. She holds a Doctorate in Art Studies and is the author of books on the cinema of Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Over the years, she has served as editor-in-chief of the journals Asia-Kino, Eurasia-Kino, and Territory of Cinema, and has also worked as a television presenter. From 2005 to 2013, she was the art director of the Eurasia International Film Festival. She is a member of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI) and the Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC). Her work has received the Elephant Award from the Russian Guild of Film Scholars and Critics and the Kulager Award from the Union of Cinematographers of Kazakhstan.

Free admission, no registration required. The event will take place on March 27 at 4:00 pm at Tselinny, ORTA 1 Hall, 59 Masanchi Street, Almaty.