George Lucas does a good job answering the question when he compared being a film maker in the US vs being a film maker in the USSR, how he always envied Soviet filmmakers. Stalker, Solaris, etc were all originally Soviet films before the stories got later remade by US studios. Today everyone associates "avant-garde art" with bougie rich people and luxury brands but before 1990 the term referred to the work of Soviet artists.
Segment from Lucas interview in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI
There are artists, musicians, writers, etc in socialist countries. The USSR had a really cool film industry.
George Lucas does a good job answering the question when he compared being a film maker in the US vs being a film maker in the USSR, how he always envied Soviet filmmakers. Stalker, Solaris, etc were all originally Soviet films before the stories got later remade by US studios. Today everyone associates "avant-garde art" with bougie rich people and luxury brands but before 1990 the term referred to the work of Soviet artists.
Segment from Lucas interview in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWqvaMEFIdI