1991. Glasnost. Perestroika. The Soviet Union opens its doors to the West. A troupe of young American actors from La Mama Theater in NY travels to the former USSR to participate in the first American/Ukrainian cultural exchange theater project in Soviet history. The play they are to perform is based on the life of Les Kurbas, a revolutionary theatre director who was murdered in one of Stalin's purges. Two weeks into their trip, Gorbachev is kidnapped, the Kremlin is overthrown by a military coup, and the entire USSR is plunged into volatile uncertainty. As rehearsals progress, the play ironically begins to mirror action in the streets. Kurbas and his company struggled to make art during the revolution that ushered in Communism; the international troupe performs the life of Kurbas as the walls of Communism come tumbling down. During the massive political changes of 1991, including the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism, the film takes the viewer on a personal journey behind the iron curtain. Spanning a decade, LIGHT also offers a timely philosophical inquiry into the meaning of freedom. DVD extras include recent follow-up interviews shot in Ukraine with central characters regarding the transition from Communism to Democracy.
Amy Grappell’s documentary QUADRANGLE premiered at Sundance (2010) winning a Jury Prize and went on to win Best Short Film at SXSW, AFI, and Dallas International Film Festival and have it’s NY premiere at New Directors / New Films before being broadcast on HBO. She retuned to Sundance (2011) with a short documentary titled “Kids Green The World.” Her feature documentary LIGHT FROM THE EAST premiered at SXSW and aired on PBS and she was one of the select writer/directors of Richard Linklater’s SLACKER remake. Grappell is currently developing the QUADRANGLE story for a one- hour scripted television series, working on a half-hour coming of MIDDLE age comedy and writing a screenplay on another stranger-than-fiction true story about two feuding Jewish summer camps -- one Communist and the other Socialist -- on opposite sides of Sylvan Lake in upstate New York in 1947. She holds a BA in film and literature from New York University, is a graduate of the MFA acting program at The North Carolina School of the Arts and the recipient of grants from Austin Film Society, National Endowment for the Arts, Texas Council for the Humanities, and the Trull Foundation.
