
Elena Demidova
Directing
Biography
Elena Vyacheslavovna Demidova (Russian: Елена Вячеславовна Демидова; April 23, 1964, Orenburg — January 4, 2024, Moscow) was a Russian documentary filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer. Member of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, member of the Guild of Film Directors of Russia and the Guild of Non-fiction Films and Television of Russia. She graduated from the Bauman Moscow State Technical University with a degree in engineering, in 1997 she received a degree in history at Voronezh State University. In 2006, she successfully graduated from the Film School with a degree in "director". Later she became a member of the Union of Cinematographers of Russia, then a member of the Guild of Film Directors of Russia and a member of the Guild of Non-fiction Films and Television. She collaborated with the Gorky Film Studio, with the Kultura TV channel, as well as with the Finnish Yle TV channel. She directed the documentary film workshop for young directors at the Gorky Studio of Children's and Youth Films, as well as in the workshop for young documentarians at the Kinoproba Film Festival. She participated in various competitions and awards on the topic of her work many times. She passed away on January 4, 2024 at the age of 60 in Moscow.
Known For

Within one day, Alice's life changes. Her husband, prosecutor of the Leningrad region Pyotr Filippov, becomes the hero of several high-profile scandals. The reputation he had built for so long was destroyed. Now Alice must provide for the whole family herself. Years later, she returns to her legal career and begins work in the law firm of her university friend Vitaly Kalinin.
The Good Wife(ru)

A young and wealthy widow, Maritsa, is a tempting prize for fortune hunters in search of a rich bride. To scare off all the suitors once and for all, Maritsa randomly invents a fiancé’s name. But it turns out that a man with that exact name actually exists—and now he’s happily rushing to meet his “bride.”
Maritza

New Russian experimental film, which combines fiction and documentary scenes in one continuous narration. The shooting of the film took place in Buryatia - a South-Eastern part of Russia that is considered the center of Buddhism in Russia. In the fictional story a Moscow actress comes to faraway Buryatia to find the man she once loved. She is terminally ill and Buryatia gives her a second chance, she does not believe in miracles, but miracle happens. The real actress Julia Aug, like her character, is also in Buryatia for the first time. The documentary, filmed during the shooting of the film, shows the real Julia's feelings and experiences while she discovers the unique atmosphere, nature and culture of Buryatia.
A Touch of Wind

Summer 2010. The entire central part of Russia is engulfed in fires. The authors of the films of the almanac together with the volunteers go to the epicenter of events. Volunteers, foresters, firefighters – they are not heroes in the usual sense of the word, it was just their life, their trouble, and they tried to cope with it as best they could.
Portmanteau Film Dedicated to the Fires of Summer 2010

Summer 2010. Russia. Almost the entire European part of the country is covered with fire. The village where the film’s main character lives has been almost completely burned down. We walk with him along the former village to the ashes of his house to feed his cat and dog. We walk and talk about the fire and many other things...
Lesha
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Not by Bread Alone
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Living Water

Many five-story buildings was built in Moscow during the sixties of the last century. Service life of these houses was designed for 50 years. Now these houses are destroyed in order to build new houses in their place. Digger crushes concrete blocks like cardboard. He looks like a dragon with a long neck. After two or three days dragon will grind house where Sasha and Lena live. But they don't have place to go. Relatives have taken Sasha's apartment ownership forcing him to sign the documents when he was drunk. Now Sasha's sister is ready to buy a room to Sasha, but she not allow him take Lena. Sasha does not agree, Sasha loves Lena. And Iron Dragon is coming.
Sasha, Lena and Iron Dragon
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The Golden Wedding

Lesha is the last man in his village. Other men died or left. The village burned down, the houses of the fire victims were built in another village twenty kilometers away. But Alex does not want to leave. He really wants to find a wife, but instead a woman director comes to him from time to time. He wants love, and she makes a movie. The consequences of terrible fires, volunteers and the life of the village, as well as an attempt to understand the relationship between the author and the hero. The story of how we have the right to enter the lives of other people and how to get out of it.
The Last Man

The Almanac of the Laboratory of Scientific Cinema. 16 directors selected the most interesting scientific developments and research at Skoltech and created 16 short films.
16 Ways to Change the World

This cinematic study tells us a story of one of the most famous lamas in Russia and Buryatia, XII Pandido Khambo Lama Dashi Dorzho Itigelov.
The Mystery of a Buryat Lama

A film about simple human love in a large family. The head of the family, Grigory Babanin, went through the Chechen war and managed to keep the warmth that he gives to his children, and there are 16 of them, and all are adopted.
Time to Go Home

This is a story about the Russian Munchausen, who builds a windmill in his yard and raises beehives with bees on the roof, because in nature bees live in hollows of trees. The wife then argues, then agrees, is engaged in children and economy and assures that he lives in paradise. And sometimes she plays the piano - with her eyes closed. The village around is empty - almost all residents have moved to cities or died - our heroes live like on an island. And the children clean the sewers, learn English and German and are growing up before our eyes ...
Cranberry Island

A girl and a boy of eight and nine years old live in a lost village in the steppes. The school is four kilometers off-road. The boy's daddy dreams of building a snowmobile, and while the girl's mom drives them sometimes on a horse. So they quarrel, and reconcile for a long journey - like a little peasant with a woman. The reason is any - multiplication table, for example ...
The Multiplication Table
The documentary is an investigation into why disputes and passions around the personality of Alexander Kolchak are still boiling, as a generalization – questions of historical truth, rewriting history, new views from a new time.
Alexander Kolchak. The Unfinished Story

The heroine of the film is ill with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Masha can no longer move and speak, only her fingers move a little and make it possible to control a computer mouse. Masha lives in a poor apartment with a small daughter. Alice is a successful musician living in two countries - Russia and America. She comes to Masha as a music therapist. But sometimes she does not really understand how to behave, she is afraid of this meeting ... Women from different worlds – and the contact might not have happened, but something is happening between the heroines very important, which makes them both not so afraid to look into the future…
Alice from Wonderland

The series is based on the memories of children, participants and witnesses of various events in Russia in the 20th century. How children who grew up in Russia in different years of the 20th century perceived the world around them, and with it the everyday life of Russian history. Life, the behavior of parents, the behavior of friends and enemies of the family, the external environment, social upheavals, political events, all this is noticed by children, all this adds up to that picture of history that we will not find either in official reports or in historical research.
Russian History Through the Eyes of Children - 2

From the permafrost of the North to the thirty-degree heat of Adler, a train carries residents of the polar Urengoy to the Black Sea through 4,500 kilometers of Russian expanses. In the cramped space of a reserved carriage, in six days, fellow passengers - either by the will of the highest authority, or by chance of dropped tickets — will become the closest people in this tiny space for some time.
The Ark

The story of a woman who literally changes her life before our eyes. With a prison behind her and a life in a dysfunctional environment, she is trying to become an actress. She plays in the theater, she is filmed by Loznitsa and Serebrennikov, but she has nowhere to live, and there is no money even for cigarettes. The new life is difficult, and the old one pulls back. And the prison is still nearby, because she finds herself at the very center of the Moscow protests.