The Road of Bones

So that was basic idea at the beginning of shooting process. Flight from Moscow to this place (Magadan) took about 8 hours. There is no railway connection. Also possible to drive here by car, but it very long way and road could be really dangerous sometimes.

 

Russian Far East

I was making documentary as a co-director together with two German filmmakers from Cologne’s International Film School (ifs) in Russian Far East during November 2014.

Here a treatment that was written by Christian Zipfel (director of this film) before we go to Magadan and start shooting process:

"Russian Fashion" nowadays

It is my response to the latest news. Synthetical patriotism it’s like “fashion” in Russia now. This video based on the USSR old footages (20-30-s). Made by me in Russian State University of Cinematography (VGIK) in 2008. At this moment it has on YouTube: 241850 views; 417 comments; 641 likes and 51 unlikes. For people from some another countries it available just on vimeo(3 min 37 sec): https://vimeo.com/7753848

"SHADOW" MADE IN GERMANY

In October 2013 I (Roman Moshensky) watched one episode from the film by Jean Cocteau in cinematheque of Paris. It was adaptation of the fairy tale "Beauty and the Beast". Despite the rather primitive (compare with modern standards) effects used in this film and another strange and funny moments, I like episod in the house of Beast ("La belle et la bête" (1946)).

Girl For French

 It was the thirtieth of October. Yellow leaves fell down from the grey trees. She was going to a party. Beautiful handmade female mask hides her face. She has the book by Nabokov in her hands - "Camera Obscura". I used it as an reason to talk to her. The novel was first published by "Modern Notes" and "Parabola" (Berlin - Paris) in December 1933.

She was twenty years old, and she loved Russian literature. It's so nice when people from another country tells you that the first association that comes to them when they hears the word "Russia" is Russian literature. She read most of Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Turgenev.

She wore a light beige coat and a red knit cap. Long blonde hair penetrated beneath her cap.

She had very good English and a light French accent. I amused the English «cool», which she, like many French, pronounced softening end.

Her bus stopped at the traffic lights. Autumn frenchmen crowd held at a pedestrian crossing in front of the bus. I asked her mobile phone number. She did not have a pen. Me too. She wrote a number by red nail polish on the surface of the book and gave it to me. It was paperback and French text .

Bus arrived. She jumped inside. Hissing doors closed. Gray smoke stream escaped from the exhaust tube. I thought about global warming.

Micro-Films

I'm going to use CouchSurfing as the main way to travel through Europe. I plan to spend 3-7 days in each new house and during this time I will make one micro-film about the house and the people who live there. Duration of the movie 3-5 minutes. This is my way of saying "thank you" for the accommodation and food. Then I will make selection of the most interesting micro-films and will use them to create a great film.

Artist Statement «Time and Place»

Life goes unnoticed, and we can’t return our time. Therefore, I am motivated by a desire to fix reality. I feel the camera is the best tool to preserve the past and reflect the present. Besides filmmaking (documentary and fiction) it is a chance to immerse oneself into an unfamiliar environment and to live a different life.

The filming process gives me the opportunity to travel around the world and see life with all its variety. An interesting location is a starting point for me to develop new ideas for a movie. I am interested in the possibility of a documentary film with the highly visible subjective views of the author, when the director tells the story in the first person or he is directly involved in the events. My technique is a mixture of documentary, feature film and video art.

The film is a way to communicate with many people because this language of images is a universal language of communication. A good result for me is when many other people like to watch my films and they understand the message. I like it when everyone amongst the audience understands something special and personal. I feel that I have concluded a stage of my life when I finish a new film; and it's time to start a new one.