After 32 hours of circuitous travelling, I’m happy to say that I have arrived home safe and sound (albeit under-slept and with a bad neck cramp) from Sochi Russia, where I had the pleasure of networking with like-minded thinkers and artists from around the world.
After a few days, I found myself exploring the beaches of the Black Sea where I decided to do a short video report featuring my observations about the Russian people, their desires, mindset, and their perceptions of the west.
Later that evening, I was overjoyed to experience the Russian (captioned) version of my film ‘Arctic: Theater of War or Global Cooperation to a group of scholars, diplomats, conference attendees and artists at the Lumumba Friendship University.
The presentations and dialogue after the screening featured a number of excellent speeches by Svetlana Smirnova (Chair of the General Council of the Assembly of the Peoples of the World), Salem Hamid (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Equity International), Valery Ruzin, Dimitry Daltov (Dep. Director for International Affairs at the Sochi Institute of RUDN University), Walid Shiltag (Ambassador of the League of Arab States), Helene Perroux (historian and former advisor to President Chirac), Andrey Bass (First Dep. Gen Director of Minsk-News Agency of Belarus), Grigory Pelman (Founder of Silk Road Films and One Future Movement), Priyanka Yadav (Ambassador of One Future Foundation), and Yuri Polyakov (Dep. Chair of the Union of Writers of Russia).
Finally, after the closing ceremonies of November 17, I recorded a short report featuring my observations of the event, and the essential message during my speech.
