Awards
Boston Society of Film Critics "Best Film Series Award" in 2001, 2002, 2004
"What made Boston filmgoing better this year: The extraordinary Video Balagan series in the Screening Room at the Coolidge Corner, an ongoing anthology of experimental films, many local ones, lovingly programmed by Alla Kovgan and Jeff Silva". - Gerald Peary, Boston Phoenix December 28, 2001
Press Clippings
"So whatever happened to avant-garde films and filmmaking in Boston? Don't give up on it if you haven't experienced Video Balagan, the ongoing series celebrating independent cinema and video at the Coolidge Corner Theatre. Today's theme is "Poetry in Motion," wherein poetic shorts by local talents including Henry Ferrini's "Kerouac Blues" (2000) and Jeanne Liotta's "Muktikara" (1999) are interspersed with unfilmed poetry readings." - Boston Phoenix, October 25, 2001
"Video Balagan, the weekly program of offbeat visual enthrallment at the Coolidge Corner Theatre, resumes with a screening of avant-garde visionary Craig Baldwin's "Specter of the Spectrum" (1999) ..." - Boston Phoenix, September 21, 2001
"In its brief existence Video Balagan, a round-up of local independent and experimental work screening at the Coolidge Video Screening Room, has proven a refreshing stimulus to local film and video artists and fans." -- Boston Phoenix, April 20, 2001
"For most of us, films from Yugoslavia are limited to video of NATO bombing raids during the recent Kosovo action. Video Balagan, a group of local canoeists, will try to rectify that situation with "Eastern European Winds", a program of shorts and experimental cinema from a country that has endured tremendous trauma and change and seems to have prevailed despite the odds. Perhaps these films might provide an insight to why." -- Boston Phoenix, December 8, 2000
Articles and Interviews
Big Red & Shiny: BALAGAN PRESENTS STAN VANDERBEEK by CHRISTIAN HOLLAND
NewEnglandFilm.com: "Visual Surprise, NewEnglandFilm.com checks in with the VIDEO BALAGAN experimental film series to find out what surprises they have in store for their last shows of the fall season" - by Barbara E. Bellesi
"VIDEO BALAGAN returned this fall to the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline for its third season, once again bringing an impressive showcase of experimental film and video created by both local and international filmmakers..."
Newenglandfilm.com: "Creating Space for Experimental Film" As the Balagan Experimental Film & Video Series returns to the Coolidge Corner Theatre for a second season, NewEnglandFilm.com talks with the series founders and curators, Jeff Silva and Alla Kovgan.
Newenglandfilm.com: "Experimental Film and Video Inside Out" Following up on last month's profile on the Balagan series, Alla Kovgan and Jeff Silva return to talk about their own experimental films.