Transcript 04 44’ 14”: Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR

Title: Transcript 04 44’ 14”: Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR

Photographer(s): Jonas Mekas

Writer(s): Vytautas Landsbergis / Francesco Urbano Ragazzi

Designer(s): Bizzarri-Rodriguez

Publisher(s): Humboldt, Milano, Italy

Year: 2020

Print run:

Language(s): English, Lithuanian

Pages: 168

Size: 23 x 30 cm

Binding: Softcover with dust jacket

Edition:

Print: Grafiche Veneziane, Venezia, Italy

Nation(s) and year(s) of Protest: Lithuania,1989-1991

ISBN: 9788899385668

On 11 March 1990, Lithuania was the first of the three Baltic republics to declare its independence, triggering the collapse of the Soviet Union. Lithuanian filmmaker and artist Jonas Mekas filmed with his Sony video camera the news and TV highlights that aired in the United States between 1989 and 1991, recording the American perspective on the collapse of the rival USSR. The book Transcript 04 44‘ 14’ Lithuania and the Collapse of the USSR collects the complete transcript of the film, lasting almost 5 hours, which, in a linear and chronological manner, highlights the facts, people and opinions expressed in those crucial days. Mekas described his work as a classic Greek tragedy in which the destinies of nations are changed by the unimaginable. The will of one man, a small nation determined to regain its freedom, supported by the gods in its struggle against power: this is the beginning of the end of the Soviet Empire.