Tea Tsulukiani

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Georgia’s Culture Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, in a 13 December interview on pro-government channel TV Imedi. Screengrab from the video.

Bidzina Ivanishvili

Tsulukiani accuses filmmakers of ‘scamming’ Film Centre

by OC Media

•3 min read

Georgia’s Culture Minister, Tea Tsulukiani, has criticised a director for allegedly changing the plot of a documentary funded by the government-run Georgian Film Centre, making the film critical of the ruling party’s founder. The documentary, titled ‘Magic Mountain’, tells the story of a tuberculosis clinic in Abastumani, southern Georgia, and its patients. In 2019, a company associated with the billionaire founder of Georgia’s ruling Georgian Dream party, Bidzina Ivanishvili, bought the terri

Protesters holding a banner saying ‘No to censorship! Independence to the film centre!’ on 6 July. Photo: Georgian cinema is under threat/Facebook

culture

‘Georgian cinema is in danger’: filmmakers take on the culture ministry

by Luiza Mchedlishvili

•12 min read

Since mid-June, Georgian filmmakers and their supporters have been protesting a ‘reorganisation’ of the country’s National Film Centre by the Ministry of Culture, warning that it aims to extend full government control over the country’s cinematic output. ‘Censorship’ is the word that Gaga Chkheidze uses to describe the Ministry of Culture’s reforms at the Film Centre. Chkheidze is the founder of the Tbilisi International Film Festival and a former board member of the Georgian Film Developm

Minister of Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs Tea Tsulukiani. Image via RFE/RL.

Georgia

Podcast | Tea Tsulukiani’s chokehold on Georgian culture

by OC Media

•2 min read

Georgia’s Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth has seen a lot of changes since Tea Tsulukiani’s appointment as minister, with Tsulukiani, a veteran member of the ruling Georgian Dream party, overseeing the ‘reorganisation’ of the ministry and its agencies. This week on the Caucasus Digest, we spoke to Lika Zakashvili, editor-in-chief of Publika, about Tsulukiani’s tenure as minister and her reorganisation efforts. Luka Beradze, director of Smiling Georgia, talks about wh

Georgia

Ruling party member to head Georgia’s Writers’ House

by Shota Kincha

•3 min read

Georgia’s Minister of Culture has appointed an MP from the ruling party as the new director of the Writers’ House of Georgia, a state-supported but historically independent literary association. Thursday’s announcement that Ketevan Dumbadze would be taking on the role was met with criticism from writers and other cultural figures, who accused the ruling Georgian Dream party of attempting to exert control and pressure in Georgia’s cultural spheres. ‘Georgian Dream have just added another he

Image of Sandro Sulaberidze - via video by art magazine Flamingo

Freedom of Expression

‘Putinist response’: Georgian painter investigated for removing own painting from exhibition

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

Georgian authorities are investigating the ‘theft’ of a painting removed by its author from an exhibition in Tbilisi. Supporters of the artist have criticised the move as ‘authoritarian’, and are protesting the action. On 4 February, artist Sandro Sulaberidze removed his painting from an exhibition at Georgia’s National Gallery, writing ‘art is alive and independent’ in its place on the wall. The Interior Ministry confirmed to OC Media that they were investigating the incident under the cr

Georgia

Georgian Church criticises Ministry of Culture over monastery restoration

by Shota Kincha

•2 min read

The Ministry of Culture has found itself at odds with the Georgian Patriarchate over a report criticising the ministry’s restoration work on the Gelati Monastery in western Georgia. The report was issued by the Chubinashvili National Research Centre for Georgian Art History and Heritage Preservation, a subagency of the Ministry of Culture. The centre described the restoration of the monastery as falling ‘far behind modern international standards’. It cited a November 2022 report made by t

Ramzan Kadyrov. Photo via Grozny-Inform.

Armenia

Podcast | Kadyrov's cancelled sabbatical & Starmus in Yerevan

by OC Media

•2 min read

In this week’s episode of the Caucasus Digest, Anna Edgar talks to Luiza Mchedlishvili about Ramzan Kadyrov hinting at taking an ‘indefinite break’, and then changing his mind a few days later to continue fighting ‘global satanism’ in Eastern Ukraine. Tata Shoshiashvili talks about the recent waves of dismissals from the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Youth Affairs as part of Minister Tea Tsulukiani’s ‘reorganisation efforts’. Read More: * Georgian Culture Minis