Ost to Present, Discuss Film at Festival
3 April 2014 Ost to Present, Discuss Film at Festival
David Ost, professor of political science, will discuss the Russian documentary, On the Way Home, following its screening at the Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival (FLEFF) at Ithaca College on Sunday, April 6.
In light of the fact that Russia has been in the news in the last month or so in such an extreme way, this provides a different, personal access to Russia, to people, to some of the issues going on there, says Ost.
The documentary focuses on a terminally ill truck drivers journey home to his wife after 20 years driving throughout Russia. Ost participated in a FLEFF committee that selected the film in collaboration with the International Documentary Film Festival Flahertiana. Ost also helped select a Russian film for last years festival.
A member of the political science faculty at HWS since 1986, and a frequent lecturer in Eastern Europe, Ost holds a bachelors degree from State University of New York at Stony Brook and a doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. His research focuses on labor and politics, democracy and capitalism, questions he has explored through a focus on the political economy of contemporary Europe.
Ost is also the author of two books on Polish politics: Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics and The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe. He has published more than 40 articles in scholarly books and journals, and is on the editorial boards of Politics and Society, East European Politics and Societies, the Polish Sociological Review, and several other European journals. He has been featured on the BBC, PBS, the McNeil-Lehrer Report and on numerous major radio stations.
I always try to bring the lives and experiences of Eastern Europe to American students, American audiences, says Ost. That is something Ive always been committed to doing, and Im happy to be able to do it here at FLEFF as well.