A hit at the Sundance Film Festival, East Side Story is an exploration of a previously undiscovered genre of Soviet-bloc production in the 1950s and 1960s: the socialist movie musical—part Stalin, part Beach Blanket Bingo. Through the presentation of numerous clips, this compilation proves that humor and extravagance really were a part of the allegedly gray and bleak terrain of Eastern European culture of the time. Was it all done for propaganda purposes? Does it reveal a vein of hope and desire running against the grain? Should we re-evaluate East European socialism? Come and see.