Capital, a documentary film by Maxim Pozdorovkin and Joe Bender, tells the story of Kazakhstan’s new capital as it celebrates its tenth anniversary. Military parades, monumental architecture, song competitions, and human pyramids are only one side of the story; the other tells of thousands of migrants arriving to take part in their nation’s new experiment. They come to Astana to build its golden monuments, to keep its markets open long after dark, and to push the city’s frontiers deeper into the empty plains. Filmed on location in Astana, Kazakhstan, Capital offers a glimpse into the ongoing development of a metropolis and the symbol of a nation.

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ABOUT THE DIRECTORS

Maxim Pozdorovkin is an award-winning filmmaker, writer and media artist based in New York. His film on the band Pussy Riot premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Award. The film has played at film festivals around the world and premiered domestically on HBO. Another feature film of his, CAPITAL, is a modern-day city symphony about the construction of Astana, a utopian city in the center of Kazakhstan. Pozdorovkin’s curatorial work includes Landmarks of Early Soviet Film box-set, which received The 2012 National Society of Film Critics – Film Heritage Award. Pozdorovkin holds a PhD from Harvard University and used to be an artist fellow at Harvard’s Society of Fellows.

Joe Bender is a filmmaker, scholar, and media artist based in Paris, France. His more recent work includes a documentary on the French militant production company Audiopradif; the trans-media platform THE GUN SHOW, a multimedia forum for research and debate on small arms proliferation and gun culture; and a documentary about the dramatic end of a hippie libertarian utopia in southern Michigan.