The filmmaker Wes Hurley was born Vasili Naumenko in Vladivostok in the USSR, and affectionately called Little Potato by his mother Elena. His was a childhood of trauma and uncertainty: his father was violent; his emerging sexuality was forbidden; and his country was cracking apart in a convulsive process of change. But a love of early 1990s Hollywood movies led him and his mother on a long and bumpy path to happiness in the US. In Little Potato, co-directed with the US filmmaker Nathan M Miller, Hurley chronicles this journey with gentle humour and moving candour. This standout autobiography was a festival favourite in 2017, taking home honours at the SXSW and Sarasota film festivals, among others.
From Russia, with love for Hollywood – a family’s unusual path to an American dream
Directors: Wes Hurley, Nathan M Miller
Producers: Mel Eslyn, Mischa Jakupcak, Lacey Leavitt
Executive Producer: Robyn Miller
28 June 2018
videoLove and friendship
‘When I first saw him, my heart skipped a beat.’ What Russian women think about love
11 minutes
videoHistory of technology
Where Soviet cars go to not quite die – driving adventures in northern Russia
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videoWellbeing
Born in China, Zee seeks a gender-affirming life in the American Midwest
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videoGlobal history
After the fall of the Iron Curtain, a young couple discovers a strange, newly open world
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videoGender and identity
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17 minutes
videoChildhood and adolescence
In a Russian dump, the homeless cling to hope in the face of a bleak existence
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videoConsciousness and altered states
A neurologist finds peace and happiness in the feeling of constant acceleration
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videoLove and friendship
Meeting your boyfriend’s family is hard. Agata must travel 3,000 miles. And she’s blind
13 minutes
videoStories and literature
In rural Russia, the days of Communism are fading from memory like fairytales
12 minutes