At a recent online meeting of documentary filmmakers Sergei Miroshnichenko made a strong statement that his younger colleagues don’t need to have nobody. To obtain a grant of the Ministry of culture is not real. So young and not in need of such support. She goes even on television, and the Internet is its dynamic people. Brought up as an example of his disciple Maxim Arbugaev, awarded at the Sundance festival in the US who directed the film with the famous Swiss Director Christian Frei. “His Rothschild invited! He was filming his documentary” – that was the last straw in the argument.
About Maxim Arbugaev “MK” wrote two years ago, when in the documentary competition at the Moscow film festival involved the picture of the “Genesis 2.0”, filmed them, then still a student at VGIK, along with the star of the documentary artist Christian fry. The shooting took place at the Novosibirsk Islands in the Arctic ocean. It began with the fact that Frye read the book American genetics of the resurrection of a mammoth and saw the pictures of Evgenia Arbugaeva – older sister of Maxim in the National Geographic magazine.
the hero of the film was the Director of the Yakut mammoth Museum Semyon Grigoriev, fascinated by the idea of cloning extinct animals. Once he even tasted the meat of an ancient animal that has lain for millennia in the permafrost, what was personally told in Yakutia observer “MK”. He participated in the excavation and transportation Kromskogo mammoth, has written dozens of scientific articles. On 8 may he was gone. He was 46 years old. In “Genesis 2.0” is the footage where headed by Semyon, the expedition saw the trickle of blood, mammoth, and there was a shadowy hope to restore him to life. Because nothing is reported about the cause of death of the scientist started talking about the fact that it was not necessary to try mammoth meat, it is not known what it was bacteria.
We talked about all this with Maxim by Arbugaeva, miraculously ended up in the days of quarantine in Moscow.
You also believe in the cloning of mammoths?
– I believe that humanity is not ready from a technical point of view. Cloning mammoths, the Ice age is the brand. Impossible to find a living cell. Blood mammoth – 29 thousand years. If it was the frozen sperm, it would still be some hope. But a clone is one thing, but to restore the population – is quite another. The mammoth would not have survived. There’s a lot of “if”. When I asked hunters if they would like to see a live mammoth in the tundra, one of them said, “Why? It would be lonely”.
Semyon Grigoriev’s Death shocked many began to speculate.
I once wrote Christian fry, our entire team. It’s a shock for me. My parents were at the funeral. Seeds have had a lot of plans. The day before ��death, he published an article about math on the page in social networks. I believe in what our ancestors said, in the power of the spirits. When we were shooting “Genesis 2.0”, I thought that I better not find the tusks of mammoths. But Simon is a scientist. He was born in the village where they believe in spirits, he “fed” fire, keeping the traditions, leaving the spirits of candy. He became our guide to the world of hunters and scientists.
When you’ve removed the “Genesis 2.0”, Christian fry you went North?
– We do not know him when he wrote me a letter. And after a few weeks, I flew to Switzerland to discuss the project. I immediately knew I had to shoot one. This is my personal story, my homeland. And so it happened. Christian took on the story of the scientists-geneticists, I’m talking about hunters the tusks of mammoths, and went with my partner for two months in the North.
You worked in a difficult environment. From childhood you have been accustomed to endurance?
– On the set of “Genesis 2:0” for two months, we lived in a tent in sub-zero temperatures. I was lucky that I picked a good partner who supported me. The relationship of Director and cameraman my elders is compared to the relationship in married couples. My father is a professional traveler, a biologist by profession. He took me from the age of five in the expedition to Yakutia, instilled a love of nature, people living in the far North. I feel the harmony of being in a deer herd, with the fishermen. Usually our expedition was delayed for a month, and had the opportunity to observe wildlife, to see the pristine beauty of Yakutia. It deeply affected me. I can’t live without it, and now it is hard for me in the apartment.
Your sister was involved in expeditions?
– Yes. Thanks to my Wife I became to do the film even before the fighting positions. She trained to be a exhibition organizer and Director of mass events. Long interested in photography, studied in Moscow, then went to America, where she was trained in the international center of photography. Lived there for five years. For two years she was in London, received a grant for the author’s project, devoted to the Northern sea route. She has galleries in France, London and new York. And in 2012, she was invited to participate in the project National Geographic about hunters for the tusks of mammoths, and she invited me. I then only hockey was done, didn’t know what to do. Went with her for two months, helped, was her guard. Because there is a harsh land, some men. I couldn’t let her go alone. Eugene had a spare camera I took two months off as a self-taught, not knowing what is composition, playwriting, sound. I was very late.
How old were you years?
– 19. I two months I removed a lot of material. Bought at last money computer��Ter, the installation program has smontirovat a short film, sent it to National Geographic. There I said, “Cool. We take”. I realized that I need to learn. Learned that there is the state Institute of cinematography, where Sergey Miroshnichenko scored the workshop, although I haven’t heard from him.
– do You, says Sergei Miroshnichenko, do not expect help from the government?
– I have applied to the Ministry of culture, and only the third time I managed to get a grant. Yes, and the amount allocated, small. Hardly enough for post-production. And the group got something to live for. Everything rests on the enthusiasm. So much effort goes into a picture that is impossible to do parallel do for a living. Many can not cope with it and retire. With my classmates from the workshop of Sergey Miroshnichenko Andrey Anagninum, Julia Sergino and Arseny Kadatskiy we organized the Studio of documentary films “Стая.doc”. Sergey V. another second year told us that it is necessary to organize the community to its own team.
what do you do?
– are working Together on the author’s picture of children’s hockey in the Urals. I participate as an operator. Someone engaged in the installation, someone sound, performs administrative duties. I can bring your project to direct and recruit a team. The other day, discussing a project about doctors working in days of the pandemic. What happens, it is difficult to say.
We are a young company thinks about the promotion of their projects on European sites. We are interested to work with streaming platforms, interested in creating their own paintings. There is a demand for more topics, but not registered. When I finished work on the film “Boy” about a team of blind players, the streaming platform is interested in them. “The fight” received an award at the Milan festival of sports cinema, a dozen prizes, including two in Russia. Premiere in Moscow was planned at the theater on April 1. But now hardly anyone will go to cinemas on a documentary. I wonder how after a pandemic will be supported by the movie. Now it is hard topic to find, in addition to coronavirus, and especially to develop. There is no possibility to get out somewhere and take off.
do You work for Rothschild?
– the Rothschilds for many years annually invite artists and photographers to capture the story of their estates for future generations. It is a family chronicle. You can draw and shoot on any topic. Among those invited was my sister. We worked in tandem.
Rothschild lot, and they live in different countries?
– There is Rothschild, who is engaged in the banks, and the Rothschild, whose vineyards and wine production. We were shooting in Chateau Lafite in fFrance, in the Bordeaux area.
– That is, they lived a normal life?
– Yes, it’s in their culture such. You live a week from the Rothschilds, lunch and dinner with them, take pictures, and after some time send them pictures and they will present them at the Museum. Someone shot the bottle, someone documentary the story of the pickers of grapes, and architecture. Some themes are repeated, but the Rothschilds important author’s view of artists on the estate of château Lafite. We filmed only at night the mysterious history of the castle.
– what is mysticism? It’s not Dracula’s castle?
– Difficult to describe, better to see once. In my opinion, the work is not published. Everything is going in the personal archive of the Rothschilds. They put them at, someone give.
Participated in an unusual project?
– six Months we filmed in Indonesia about the hunters of butterflies, listed in the Red book. This whole business is illegal. In the jungle, local people catch butterflies for collectors, mostly from Japan and Europe. We – the guys from Siberia, my brother and sister went there and tried to infiltrate into their midst. Sister accidentally met in South Africa, the entomologist engaged in the study of butterflies. So it all started. I do like documentaries that you can get into unusual places.
– as a student you have worked on projects Miroshnichenko “Ring world” and “Born in the USSR”?
– I did before the movie played hockey professionally, played in the Premier League. Already from the first course helped Sergey Valentinovich, is not only “world Rings”, but for the TV show “the Philosophy of soft way”, also on the Olympics, on “Born in the USSR”, “Crosses” is about the famous prison in St. Petersburg. Everywhere was the role of the operator, and this has contributed to the understanding of what a documentary film.
