Michael Jackson - The Moscow Case - Documentary on Youtube now.

Joined
Jan 17, 2004
Messages
5,603
Points
113
Great and very positive documentary of Michael in Moscow.




Michael Jackson's concert at Moscow's Luzhniki Open Arena made him the first international pop star to play in the post-Soviet Russian Federation. Only two years earlier, his music would have been banned. The Moscow Case tells two stories. The first is that of a city and culture adjusting itself to post-Communist liberalisation; the second is of a vulnerable man, childlike and introverted.


It's 1993, and Yeltsin's Russia has an unlikely visitor. 'Mud and dirt... permanent bandit clashes, several contract killings a day... This background did not go well with the image of an extra-terrestrial, of a man from a completely different dimension who was to come with the best show in the world.'


In a series of highly confessional interviews, those involved in the concert -- both the businessmen who organised it and the fans who attended -- lay bare the sheer chaos that surrounded the King of Pop's visit. They were so ill-equipped that paratroopers were drafted in as members of the technical team, paid only in food and cigarettes; Jackson's own tour managers were reduced to wiping a flooded stage. And that's even before we get to the ticketing process. 'A star was coming: something had to be done, but what exactly nobody knew.

The film is revealing not only of the fledgling Russian state but also of Jackson himself. Jackson's Russian foray came at the height of the debilitating child abuse accusations that took such a toll on him; it was the experience of being in the Russian capital at the time of the controversy that inspired his single 'Stranger in Moscow'. In the light of this, Jackson's visit to a facility for mentally challenged children -- shown here in never-before-seen footage by cinematographer Yuri Burak -- takes on a charged significance. Speaking of the connection the singer forms with the vulnerable children, TV producer Vasily Kuybar describes Jackson as a man with a 'child's soul'; music critic Art Troitsky describes him as a tragic figure with a lost childhood. Michael Jackson did not just leave an impression on Moscow, but Moscow also left an impression on Michael Jackson.



[youtube]JpLZ7B-U_QY[/youtube]
 
Back
Top