Tag: Russian musicians

A Second Life for The Long Way Home as Michael Apted’s Documentary Returns at MoMA

Dave Stewart and Boris Grebenshchikov in The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded. Photo: EG-PR, used with permission.

The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026)

Screening at MoMA’s To Save and Project: The 22nd International Festival of Film Preservation

Michael Apted’s The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026) will be screened as part of To Save and Project: The 22nd MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation. (EG-PR, 2026)

About To Save and Project

To Save and Project is an international festival dedicated to newly preserved film treasures from archives, studios, and independent filmmakers. Many of the films premiering at MoMA will receive their first U.S. screening since their original release, while others will be shown in meticulously restored versions that more closely approximate their original presentation. Some titles will even be screened publicly for the first time ever in New York.

The festival runs from January 8 through February 2, 2026.

About the Film

The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026) is a newly restored version of Michael Apted’s documentary, based on the only existing 16mm print, supervised by producer Steven Lawrence and editor Susanne Rostock.

The film is a revealing, rollicking portrait of Boris Grebenshchikov, the Soviet underground rock legend who became the first Russian rocker to record in the West during the early, optimistic days of Glasnost. It captures a rare moment of artistic freedom, cultural collision, and creative risk.

Featured Artists

The film features:

  • Boris Grebenshchikov
  • Dave Stewart
  • Members of the legendary Russian rock band Aquarium

With special appearances by:

  • Annie Lennox
  • Chrissie Hynde
  • Ray Cooper
  • Crosby, Stills & Nash
  • and many more

Boris Grebenshchikov is widely regarded as one of the “founding fathers” of Russian rock music and is the founder and lead singer of Aquarium.

Film Details

Title: The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026)
Directed by: Michael Apted
Epilogue Directed by: Steven Lawrence & Susanne Rostock
Produced by: Steven Lawrence
Edited by: Susanne Rostock

Format: Feature Documentary
Languages: English, Russian (English subtitles)
Running Time: 98 minutes

Screening Information

To Save and Project: The 22nd MoMA International Festival of Film Preservation

Date: Wednesday, January 28, 2026
Time: 7:00 PM
Location:
MoMA, Floor T2/T1, Theater 2
(The Roy and Niuta Titus Theater 2)

🎤 With an in-person introduction by Producer Steven Lawrence and Editor Susanne Rostock.

A Film Rediscovered

The Long Way Home was released to critical acclaim following its UK broadcast and its premiere at Sundance, yet it has largely disappeared over the past 30 years. By 1988, Michael Apted was already a highly regarded director in both fiction and nonfiction.

Apted’s extraordinary ability to draw people out results in a complex study of an artist who seized a fleeting moment of unimaginable freedom—recording new music with new collaborators—while grappling with the emotional fallout. Members of Aquarium felt abandoned, and longtime Russian fans were uncertain about Grebenshchikov’s English-language songs when he returned home to perform them.

Thanks to producer Steven Lawrence, the film now has a second life in this newly remastered edition. Together with editor Susanne Rostock, Lawrence has also created a new epilogue tracing Grebenshchikov’s life after the release of his U.S. album Radio Silence, including his years in exile and his outspoken criticism of Putin’s war in Ukraine.

The epilogue partially fulfills Apted’s own ambition to make a sequel—a project he hoped to complete before his death in 2021.
(Courtesy of MoMA)

The Filmmakers

Michael Apted (Director)

Michael Apted made documentaries and feature films for over forty years. His globally recognized, award-winning work includes the UP Series (1964–2019), which followed the lives of fourteen British individuals from age seven, revisiting them every seven years. His documentary work also includes The Long Way Home, Moving the Mountain, Incident at Oglala, and The Power of the Game.

Steven Lawrence (Producer / New Epilogue Co-Director)

Steven Lawrence is a producer-director who has been making documentaries for over 30 years, focusing on artists, activists, and everyday heroes—from underground Soviet rockers and Senegalese rappers fighting female genital cutting, to Brooklyn cat rescuers and scientists racing to save the human microbiome.

As a producer, his collaborations with Michael Apted include three feature documentaries, among them The Long Way Home: Remastered and Expanded (2026) and Married in America.

Susanne Rostock (Editor / New Epilogue Co-Director)

Susanne Rostock’s more than 20-year collaboration with Michael Apted as editor resulted in a series of richly provocative films, including The Long Way Home, Incident at Oglala, Me & Isaac Newton, Inspirations, The Power of the Game, and Moving the Mountain.