ABSTRACT
When Mark Lewis and I embarked on the project that was eventually to become the documentary film Disgraced Monuments, we did not intend it to be only about the disgrace of public monuments in the former Soviet Union. During the winter of 1989, indeed, Mark had been first impressed by this symptom of the collapse of communism when he saw, on the Canadian television news, a gigantic Lenin being removed from the centre of Bucharest. The removal was rendered particularly ritualistic by the presence of young priest who, representing the return of religion while exorcising the spirit of communism, held up a crucifix to the twelve-ton bronze statue as it swayed on a crane.
