Natasha Masharova
Directing
Biography
Natasha Masharova is a Ukraine-native visual artist, photographer, and documentary filmmaker based in Los Angeles. She co-founded and edited various art and culture media platforms, including Looo.ch, Proza, and Sho, covering the post-Soviet region. She has also provided photography for numerous international outlets (Vice, TimeOut, Esquire, etc.).
Known For
As an immigrant from a raceless country, I’m troubled by the American obsession with the color of one’s skin. In 2018 I’ve asked my friends to recall the very first time they became aware of having a race.
My First Memory of Color
The documentary tragicomedy tells the story of a conservative girl Maryana, 23, who has just emigrated to the United States from Ukraine. Alone in this new and alien world, she meets Anya, 27. Anya works as a dancer in nightclubs for immigrants, and agrees to be Maryana's guide to a strange looking glass world at the crossroads of the United States and the USSR. Mariana does not yet realize that this journey will change her forever.
Wonderland
Sergiy Astakhov is a modern Russia, converted by patriotism and Orthodoxy. Here, against the background of the eternal Olivier salad in front of the TV, the "largest" shopping malls are being built and laws are being passed against the "propaganda of homosexuality." Living on the outskirts of Moscow, in a maze of faceless gray skyscrapers, Astakhov absorbs this caricatured "Russian world" and expresses it by shooting very sincere videos for his YouTube channel.