Svetlana Matyushina

A documentary road movie. Traveling across his homeland, the filmmaker explores what Yakut cinema is, and what it means to the Sakha people and to himself.

A two part documentary about the first five decades of Russian cinema: from its birth to 1953 - the death of Stalin and the first seedlings of the thaw. The film covers the most important milestones of cinema. Its introduction as a lowbrow entertainment, the impact of WWI and revolutions on the film process. The principal masters - Kuleshov, Vertov, Eisenstein - and their discoveries in film language at the turn of the 1920-30s. The arrival of sound. The evacuation of the Soviet film industry during WWII and the heroic work of the wartime documentary crews. Restricted film production and early signs of the thaw in the late 1940s - early 1950s. Film historians and art critics, directors and screenwriters put the history of cinema in a broader context, considering the path that the country took from Tsarist Russia to the totalitarian state under the rule of Stalin.

Time to wake up is an online documentary filmed during the period of coronavirus. It’s an almanac of stories that would not have appeared without quarantine. The crisis revealed two types of people: those who are waiting for instructions, and those who adapt to new conditions. The characters of the film, volunteers, street musicians, founders of charitable foundations, entrepreneurs and artists, find themselves in the same house, called the new reality. Pupils of the “Anton tut ryadom” center collectively practice vocals and dances through ZOOM so as not to become isolated again. The owner of the 3D printer company decides to produce protective shields for doctors, although it is almost impossible to certify these products. A twenty-year-old student teaches free digital professions to people with difficulties appeared during a crisis. Danish street musicians, without earnings, believe that the world broke a couple of eggs in order to find out what kind of omelette it will turn out.