[virgulino]

Thank you. What Herzog did was re-edit and put his own narration on the original Russian Happy People, a 4-part documentary. I like the original much better, I think of it as the authentic view, while Herzog's version is the typical old German hippie looking at an alien world (and I love Herzog!). Still, I found it very interesting to see both versions.

The original 4-part documentary, with English narration, is available on the original Russian director's YouTube channel:

https://youtu.be/fbhPIK-oBvA

https://youtu.be/dIdHG9zyrtE

https://youtu.be/MnAF_amhups

https://youtu.be/wjCs8qi3R0U

[3d3456]

> a 4-part documentary. I like the original much better, I think of it as the authentic view,

It may be better than herzog's version, but it's still inauthentic propaganda. A better view would be a youtube/tiktok/etc of an ordinary person living in the area. It still is limited, but far more authentic and real than any documentary. There are lots to hate about social media is one of the positive aspects is the ability to follow people's authentic lives across the world in their vlogs, etc. One of my favorite documentaries was the 7-up series. But with social media, it killed any and all enthusiasm I had for the series because social media exposed it as manufactured and inauthentic view of one man. Better to follow brits on social media to get a better understanding of british life.

[4gotunameagain]

So every single thing produced by Russians now is considered propaganda ? The original film was co-created by the nephew of Andrei Tarkovsky.

With this point of view. Every single motion piece is propaganda. Every single social media post.

It is impossible to not impregnate your creation with elements of what you dream to create. There is no such thing as following people's authentic lives, unless you stalk someone 24/7 with a camera, and post the complete footage, unadulterated, without cuts or edits.

[jvican]

+1. Btw I’m excited that the nephew of Tarkovsky made this documentary - I’ll definitely watch it!

[holografix]

This is one of my fav documentaries and I had no idea there was an “extended version”.

Thanks for sharing!