CNN Moderator: What was the atmosphere for a young filmmaker in the 1960s? Was there a noticeable change in that period?

Marina Goldovskaya: It was a time of hope. The people would not be as scared as they used to be. It was a good time to start. It coincided with the time of television. Television began to develop strongly in the middle of the '50s. I think I was very lucky. I could start my career as a documentary filmmaker. I was free to work. I didn't have to become an assistant to help someone make films. I could develop as an artist on my own. I can also add that in 1968 there was a special [documentary] unit and I joined it. It is where television documentary started to develop. I was lucky from the professional point of view. I could work by myself. I could do everything by myself.

CNN Moderator: Your father, also a filmmaker, was imprisoned by Stalin for five months. What effect did that have on your family, and later on your career?

Marina Goldovskaya: It happened in 1938. He was arrested on March 13 and released in August 1938. My father was very lucky because it was this little period of time when my father was released and of course all accusations were taken off of him. The only thing he had to do was sign a release form stating that he would not discuss what happened to him in prison. His five months in prison destroyed his health. He had insomnia. It was never indicated in any document because he was released.

CNN Moderator: One of your documentaries, 1988's "Solovky Power," was about the horrors of Stalin-era labor camps. Were you afraid of the official reaction? Did the film's warm reception at the Kremlin surprise you?

Marina Goldovskaya: Yes of course. We started to make the film in 1987. It was the first attempt to speak about the prison term. My mother was very worried because she remembered the fear. At the same time this was such a fantastic project. When we started it was impossible to predict how this film would be accepted because it was the first experience. We were making an anti-Soviet film with government money. We wrote a script that was our official document. This script contained 60 pages, 59 of which was dedicated to the culture, history, religion, architecture, celestial islands of far north of Russia. When we started making the film very few people knew what the film was about. We had some problems going through the Ministry of Film at the time. I remember the chief of filmmaking, Kamshalov. He wanted some changes to be done. He wanted us to make some changes in the narration. The film stayed for two or three weeks and then it was released.

Chat Participant: Do you feel that being a woman helped or hindered your filmmaking career?

Marina Goldovskaya: It didn't hinder my career. In Russia, when I started my career there were only six women filmmakers. There was a lot of attention. People were very accepting and I felt a lot of support being a woman.

CNN Moderator: After the government crackdown on artists and writers after 1968, how did you adjust?

Marina Goldovskaya: You know, after 1968 the government put a stronger control over the media and literature. The government was against free spirit and free speech. From 1968 to 1986 we had a period of very strong ideological control. I cannot say that this control didn't allow anything good to happen in literature and art. There were many good films and interesting books, but it all appeared in a very difficult ideological pressure from the government. The artist tried to push the human values.

CNN Moderator: How much control did you have over your own work? Would government censors make changes without asking or even telling you about them?

Marina Goldovskaya: Yes. There were several stages of censorship. There was already one person in the crew [who was] the first-level censor -- the editor. When the film was finished, the editor took over the creation of the film. Then, the main censor had to put his signature on the editing of the film. It was a very hard censorship.

An example: I made a film in 1984 about Nina Pereverzeva. She worked in agriculture. She worked on a big machine. She was a role model for women working in agriculture. She was a member of the Committee of the Communist Party. I wanted to show in films something human. That the person I'm portraying is a human being who can be happy and sometimes sad. She had problems. Her husband was a drunkard and her son had problems with his wife. I wanted [the film] to show that when she was walking in the rain, in big ponds of water, she was walking under the umbrella, and she doesn't hold her back straight. The whole sequence was so sad. When the film was broadcast they just cut [it] out of the film. And I was watching the film and I was flabbergasted. I was told that the main chief [censor] said, "No tricks, take it out." Our work developed in a very different environment. Filmmakers learned how to say between the lines things that were not allowed to be said directly.

CNN Moderator: So, in one sense, censorship made you more creative?

Marina Goldovskaya: Yes, I'm thinking about that now. I was lucky that I was censored so strongly. I [learned] how to think metaphorically.

Chat Participant: In the early 1980s there was a very popular American film called "Red Dawn." Did any films of this nature get made in the Soviet Union?

Marina Goldovskaya: I don't think so. People [in the Soviet Union] in the 1980s didn't trust our media. There was a lot said about an American invasion. But very few people believed [it]. We had two main newspapers. One was called "Truth" [Pravda] and the other was called "News" [Izvestia]. The joke was that there's no truth in the "News" and no news in the "Truth." Russians are very smart and educated people. They have a lot of humor and a lot of jokes. We knew that this information contained about 40 percent true information.

I was very much astonished when I made a film for TNT in 1990. I came here after I shot the film in Moscow. One of the editors was a young guy from the Midwest. The first week I had a problem working with him because he was looking at me with fear and suspicion. I cannot work in an unfriendly atmosphere. By the end of the week I was so tired of his glimpses. At the end of the week I bought a bottle of vodka. After the day was over I asked the guys to chat a little. I asked the guy why he was looking at me and he said, "Now I see that you are a normal human being, but I was always told that Russians are all spies." So I was flabbergasted. I told him that I was told that all American guys were nasty. But we had a nice chat and we became friends. I think that brainwashing is very strong medicine and very dangerous.

Chat Participant: It seems to me that two of the greatest problems facing Russia are pessimism and alcoholism. What do you think about these problems?

Marina Goldovskaya: I think this person is right. I think they are very much connected. Alcoholism is related to pessimism and vice versa. This situation is a mess. The media doesn't help people to get out of this whole situation because only the dark side of life is reported. For example, we made a big transition from socialism to the market economy and freedom of speech. Nobody [in the media] made an attempt to explain the free market, how to adjust to this new system. People felt abandoned. I think the media should teach people, make it easier for people to adjust.

CNN Moderator: If you could go back and remake a film from early in your career, what would it be? What stories would you like to tell that you weren't allowed to?

Marina Goldovskaya: I would make the same films, but they would be filled with more life and reality. The life was cut out of these films because we had to show just one side of life. If I were to remake them, I would capture more multidimensional characters. I would capture the life in which they lived, the life surrounding them, which was impossible to do at that time.