#778 - Masha Vasyukova

The Masha Vasyukova Interview is featured on The Paul Leslie Hour.

Are you here? That’s one prerequisite question we always want to know the answer to. If you’re not here, well… it’s just not the same.

Good morning, good afternoon and good evening to you. Welcome to The Paul Leslie Hour, an interview program now in our 18th year. You can help support independent media and be a patron of the spoken word by going to thepaulleslie.com/support And we thank you.

A question for you. “What’s in a name?” 

It was the name “Konigsberg” that lead filmmaker Masha Vasyukova to make the documentary short “Woody Before Allen,” an adventurous meditation on past and present, on two former Konigsbergs. One is a Russian city formerly named “Konigsberg” which was changed to “Kaliningrad.”

The other a famous film director named Allan Konigsberg who changed his name to Woody Allen.   So the interview on this episode of The Paul Leslie Hour is with documentary filmmaker Masha Vasyukova, and she is a native of the city of Kaliningrad. 

She made it her mission to commemorate the bizarre connection between those two former Konigsbergs (the city and the director) by helping put up a statue in Kaliningrad in honor of Woody Allen. You’ll be hearing her tell us more about the story that is told in her documentary film “Woody Before Allen.”

Now, ladies and gentlemen before we play this interview from the archives, we’d like to report some news about Woody Allen, and some celebration is in order. It was reported in the news that Woody Allen, the great American filmmaker was retiring.

Now, Woody is currently in Paris, France filming his 50th film “Wasp 22.” And we want to let everyone know — hey guys. Woody Allen has clarified…. He’s NOT retiring. Woody remains one of his favorite guests on this show. So Woody Allen fans, rejoice! Go ahead order that piece of cake.

And now let’s take you to Paul E. Leslie’s interview with a very talented artist and a creative thinker, Miss Masha Vasyukova. Enjoy the interview!