
The Bootleg Video Vans of the Soviet Union - valeg
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/12/bootleg-video-vans-soviet-union/577060/
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varjag
There was also _oral_ tradition of reciting the films. Typically one lucky kid
who've seen the movie would be the playground hero reciting it to others over
and over again: often with some added cool detail that wasn't there.

I got familiar with The Fly and Terminator that way years before watching them
firsthand.

~~~
ptaipale
My experience is less extreme than that, but I became familiar with the Star
Wars saga by reading the story in a weekly magazine which ran a few pages
every week; it had still photos from the movies.

This was West of the Iron Curtain (Finland) but we had no movie theatres
nearby.

~~~
sverige
It's odd, I suppose, but as a kid who grew up in America immersed in Hollywood
movies ... we also recited movies to each other.

I'm in my 50s and have a friend who has uncles and cousins in the Colombo
family of the Mafia. We would crack each other up at work by saying lines from
The Godfather during boring meetings.

~~~
ptaipale
Citing lines from movies is perhaps a bit different. Well-known movies have
for decades been a part of building culture (national and international).

For instance, I notice I regularly reference a pacifist war movie (from 1955,
with two re-makes) that everyone here has seen (and most have read the novel
the movies are based on), and at least most men know the dialogue well enough
to understand the reference. Perhaps it's part of building cohesion: a
reference to history that is shared by all.

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baursak
There was a period after the collapse of the USSR when there were a lot of
private TV channels being set up, which would just show latest Hollywood
bootlegs. Some movies which were still in theaters in the US would be shown on
TV. That, and random soft porn after children's bed time.

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mxfh
When interested in the whole east bloc bootleg culture topic, don't miss out
on the 2105 documentary film _Chuck Norris vs. Communism_ who covers the
organized structures of 80s Communist Romania.

[https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5422606/communist-
romania...](https://www.theverge.com/2014/2/18/5422606/communist-romania-
dubbed-vhs-tapes)

~~~
robbfitzsimmons
Highly recommended! Watched it on Netflix a few years ago and teared up
several times.

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readhn
The picture in the article shows a small minivan. But a lot of them were
actual huge tourist busses "converted" to mobile movie theaters. 100's of huge
busses all over the country showing "Terminator", "Rambo First blood"
etc."Converted" as in they used already built in bus TV's to show movies ,
some had larger screens though.

Up until late 1990's there were huge open air bootleg markets in Moscow. All
of the newest American movies were available there on VHS often the day of the
release (or even before the official release in USA! directors cut/pre-view
copies were illegally sold by Hollywood insiders to the video pirates for
undisclosed amounts of money on the black market). One could buy any newest
VHS or CD release for $1. Any computer software - Windows, Mac, Office -
anything was available for pennies. All latest stuff illegally
pirated/imported straight from California tech hub. A lot of
Americans/foreigners loaded up on pirated movies, software and music there
every weekend. $20 would get you a dosen latest release movies and a bunch of
newest CD's. That was the golden age of piracy.

some fun photos from back then:

[https://pastvu.com/_p/d/b/c/k/bckpfvzzrnr6ciixto.jpg](https://pastvu.com/_p/d/b/c/k/bckpfvzzrnr6ciixto.jpg)

[https://pastvu.com/_p/a/1/5/9/15910ecqs8boyjgao4.jpg](https://pastvu.com/_p/a/1/5/9/15910ecqs8boyjgao4.jpg)

[https://pastvu.com/_p/a/4/d/1/4d1zuxoht8euiaykam.jpg](https://pastvu.com/_p/a/4/d/1/4d1zuxoht8euiaykam.jpg)

[http://osapple.ru/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/37fc6281ac3683c...](http://osapple.ru/wp-
content/uploads/2017/03/37fc6281ac3683c27df752bf9f8ec1af.jpg)

[https://pastvu.com/_p/a/6/7/1/6715b7f1f96c3456f3e5dacf1bdc8f...](https://pastvu.com/_p/a/6/7/1/6715b7f1f96c3456f3e5dacf1bdc8f15.jpg)

[https://www.calvertjournal.com/images/uploads/embeddable_sli...](https://www.calvertjournal.com/images/uploads/embeddable_slideshows/Markets/Gorbushka/_large_crop/4.jpg)

[http://visualrian.ru/images/old_preview/54/28/542840_preview...](http://visualrian.ru/images/old_preview/54/28/542840_preview.jpg)

[http://leonpar.narod.ru/2.jpg](http://leonpar.narod.ru/2.jpg)

[http://movie-club.ru/pictures/f8/gorbushka/gorbushka_006.jpg](http://movie-
club.ru/pictures/f8/gorbushka/gorbushka_006.jpg)

~~~
ohithereyou
I grew up in the US in the middle of nowhere but within the shadow of a larger
town. There was a small flea market that had a few stalls that carried stuff
like this, but nothing on this scale.

Everything old is new again - I look at these pictures and I think of how big
private BitTorrent trackers are with their curation, discovery, and exchange
of materials. If you factor in the blank discs used for burning things, it
works out to about $1 to turn a set of FLACs into a CD with a cue sheet, so
the economics are the same even though the distribution is all online now.

