ARKHANGELSK, May 27. /TASS/. Future screenwriters and directors, studying at the St. Petersburg Institute of Film and Television, collected material for films about famous people of the Arkhangelsk region. They visited locations, associated with the region's prominent personalities, in Arkhangelsk, Solvychegodsk, Kargopol, Krasnoborsk and in the Sura village, the project's curator, associate professor of Philosophy and Sociology at the Northern Arctic Federal University (NArFU)Natalya Kukarenko told TASS.
"We had seven tracks: three routes in Arkhangelsk and four routes in the Arkhangelsk Region. Krasnoborsk is associated with artist Alexander Borisov, Kargopol - with Alexander Baranov, Solvychegodsk - with the Stroganovs, and Sura is associated with John of Kronstadt. The institute's representatives filmed episodes and actively communicated with experts. In Krasnoborsk, they even stayed in Borisov's house, had meetings with artists, and walked where Borisov used to walk. Everyone absorbed the place's authenticity, they eyed the locations like film directors do," she said.
Under the project, students will create scripted biopic applications about the region's famous people, selected in line with results of a local sociological survey and recommendations from the region's Ministry of Culture. They are Saint John of Kronstadt, artist Alexander Borisov, merchants Stroganov, Alexander Baranov - the first governor of Russian settlements in America, Ksenia Gemp - a scientist and algologist, Stepan Pisakhov - a writer and artist, and Antonina Kolotilova - the founder of the State Academic Northern Russian Folk Choir.
NArFU students of history and sociology tried themselves as film directors, they were trained, collected information about the characters and offered options for stories about them. Some projects are for documentaries, others are for feature films.
Artist Borisov is considered to be the first painter of the Arctic, but this is only part of his personal story. The manor house where he lived and worked and his legacy have been preserved in his homeland. He has participated in establishment of the Solonikha Northern balneology resort near Krasnoborsk. "We have lived in the manor where Borisov lived. What we learned there, was beyond our expectations. Yes, we did know that he traveled North to Novaya Zemlya, the Arctic's artist. But he was also a very interesting person, a strong personality," a history student Danil Kurkin, participating in the project, told TASS.
The ambiguous Storyteller
Anastasia Brauer, a graduate student at the St. Petersburg Institute of Film and Television, is working on a project about Pisakhov. He is known first of all as a storyteller, author of fantastic stories about people living in Arkhangelsk and the Russian North. Popular cartoons were based on his works, and the student's acquaintance with Pisakhov began from them.
"Further on, I bought a book of fairy tales, started reading it to the children to realize everything there was different from the cartoons, there was a transformation of perception. The thing is - this is a social satire, a completely different story, and he has a completely different vision as a storyteller. Now that I have come here and learned about him, I realize he was an ambiguous, conflicted, contradictory personality. And the fact that he's a storyteller, well, that's 30% of his life, and realistically he's a researcher, an artist," the student said.
The artists and screenwriters will present their projects in St. Petersburg on June 3. "We hope that at least two applications will be further supported to become the basis for making films," the project's curator added.
The project is supported by the Arkhangelsk Region's Governor Center, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, the Arkhangelsk Region's regional branch of the Union of Cinematographers, and the Lomonosov Northern Arctic Federal University.