Artist Gallery

Mikhail Jeleznikov
Tel: +7 812 555 8074
mob: +7 911 212 7820
jeleznikov@hotmail.com; zmg@mail.ru
Born in 1972 in Leningrad.


Education

2001 Graduated from St. Petersburg State University of Cinema and Television, the Faculty of Economics;

2002 Co-Production Workshop for the 6th Baltic Sea Forum, organized by the ‘Baltic Media Center (BMC)’ (Riga, Latvia);
2000 Co-production Twinning course organized by the BMC (Svaneke, Denmark);
2000 Co-production Course for Documentary Programme Producers, organized by BMC (Svaneke, Denmark).

Work experience

Independent filmmaker.

In 2003 directed and edited three 10 minutes documentary episodes dedicated to the 300th anniversary of St. Petersburg for YLE1 and ARTE.

Since the beginning of 2000 has worked with Corona Films as a producer’s assistant and a screenwriter. Also has written several articles for St. Petersburg press (‘Peterburg Na Nevskom’, ‘Free Time’, ‘Gorod’, ‘Na Dne’, ‘Chas Pik’).

In 1998-1999 worked at St. Petersburg State Television (TRK “Peterburg”) as the editor of dubbing.

Filmography

2003 “Lara, Her Dogness”/ “Ee Sobachestvo Lara”, 16 min., DV – an underground documentary about a lady and her 21 dogs. Screened at Festival der Nationen (Austria).

2002 “Tales on the Marshes”/ “Skazki na Bolote”, 5 min., DV – an ironic video-essay on the history of St. Petersburg. Screened at 15 international film festivals (Tampere FF, FIPA, Leipzig IFF, dokumentART, Message to Man, etc.), received several awards.

2001 “Something in the air”/ “Chto-to V Atmosfere”, 51 min., DV – a documentary about foreigners in St. Petersburg. Screened at Deboshir IFF (St. Petersburg, 2001)



BORING TRUTH

People think that documentaries are ‘truthful’, and therefore should be boring. Truth and boredom often seem to go together in such context. M. Forman once wrote that to reach realism in documentary cinema is only possible by hiring the best actors. Reality starts fooling around once you turn on your camera. But what is realism then? Is it ‘believable’ vs. ‘real’? Believable fake will always seem more ‘truthful’ than any dry facts. Can we think of Titanic disaster without the Hollywood ‘Titanic’ instantly popping into our minds? For us DiCaprio and Winslet are much more real than the actual victims lying on the bottom of the ocean. And if we had genuine film chronicles from the sinking ship, the Hollywood version would probably still seem more realistic. So much for the ‘realism’ in realities of show business! Anyway, what do we actually accomplish by trying to maintain ‘objectiveness’ and stick to the facts? Objectiveness doesn’t exist in such a subjective form of art. We only make a film about how things might have happened, based on our subjective analyses, which is neither right, nor wrong, of course – it’s merely subjective. So, let’s stop crying about the good old ‘truth’, or so called ‘realism’, and think of documentary cinema just as another way of creative interpretation of reality. Perhaps now it’s a good time for some imagination and fantasy to be finally allowed into this (let’s face it) too ‘truthful’ form of art.


M. Jeleznikov
St. Petersburg, 08.09.2003

BIOGRAPHY AND PROJECT DESCRIPTION
ARTWORKS