The shortlist of the anniversary People and Environment Film Festival has been announced

39 works were included in the short list of the 20th season out of 186 applications submitted. There are 7 documentary, 5 popular science, 3 feature and 12 animated films in the competition program. The non-competition program consists of 12 works. 

Anniversary Film Festival named after V. Rasputin will be held from September 8 to 12 online and offline. 

The selection committee:

1. Art History Ph. D., Associate Professor of Journalism and Economics Department of the Baikal State University of Economics and Law, member of the Union of Journalists of the Russian Federation, member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation Olga Krasnoyarova; 
2. director, member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation Maria Kelchevskaya; 
3. actress, member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation and the Screen Actors Guild, lecturer of Irkutsk branch of Russian State University of Cinematography Tatyana Skorokhodova;
4. Head of the Film Production Development Department of the Irkutsk Regional Film Fund, member of the Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation Polina Stepanova; 
5. Director of the Irkutsk Regional Film Fund, member of the Union of Cinematographers, Andrey Yudin;
6. General Director of Podkova PR-firm, journalist, lecturer in Journalism and Advertising at Irkutsk National Research Technical University Nadezhda Zaitseva; 
7. animation director Georgy Boguslavsky; 
8. Ph.D. of Culturology, philologist, associate professor of film, television and multimedia directing at Irkutsk branch of Russian State University of Cinematography Tatiana Shemetova;
9. director Maria Aristova;

Nadezhda Zaitseva, member of the selection committee

«The documentary section of the anniversary season is represented by particularly strong and bright works, including Buromsky Island dedicated to the pioneering polar explorers who gave their lives to the development of harsh territories that can become an event».

Documentaries

1. 1) Buromsky Island (2020, Russia, directed by Olga Stefanova);
2. 2) Russian way (2021, Russia, directed by Tatiana Soboleva);
3. 3) The Last Breath (2021, Iran, directed by Faraz Fadaian); 
4. 4) Ground Zero (2020, Russia, directed by Yulia Byvsheva);
5. 5) Earth: Muted (2021, Sweden, directed by Asa Ekman, Oscar Hedin, Mikael Kristersson);
6. 6) Spitak. Thirty Years of Solitaire (2020, Russia, directed by Svetlana Stasenko);
7. 7) Do I love you, Robot, do I? (2021, Russia, directed by Yulia Kiseleva).

Nadezhda Zaitseva, member of the selection committee

The popular science film program turned out to be quite intense. One can single out a couple of projects out of these five: On Thin Ice telling about the consequences of global warming as well as Whale Conversations which is some sort of attempt to decipher the language of communication of sea animals.»

Popular science films

1. 1) On Thin Ice (2021, Germany, Russia, directed by Henry Mario Mix);
2. 2) A Short Tutorial on Raising Seals (2020, Russia, directed by Vladimir Marin);
3. 3) Land of the Spoon-Billed Sandpiper (2021, Russia, directed by Yulia Darkova);
4. 4) Whale talk (2021, Germany, Volker Barth);
5. 5) Mushroom country (2020, Russia, Dmitry Tikhomirov);

Elena Utrobina, member of the Selection Committee

«This year, feature films are represented by strong dramas by foreign directors, but the animation program, on the contrary, includes the works of mainly Russian animators this time.»

Feature films

1. 1) This is not a Burial, it's Resurrection (2019, Lesotho, South Africa, Italy, directed by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese);
2. 2) Walnut Tree (2020, Iran, directed by Mohammad Hossein Mahdavian);
3. 3) Bone Cage (2020, Canada, directed by Taylor Olson);

Animated films

1. 1) The Winter (2021, Australia, directed by Xin Li);
2. 2) Penguin and Whale (2020, Argentina, directed by Ezequiel Torres, Pablo R. Roldan);
3. 3) The Dance in the Depth (2020, Israel, directed by Karina Cananea);
4. 4) The Rain (2020, Russia, directed by Anna Isakova, Vasilisa Makshakova, Ivan Khanzhin);
5. 5) The Set for Creating a Mouse (2020, Russia, Anna Isakova, Vasilisa Makshakova, Ivan Khanzhin);
6. 6) How the Wind Howls (2020, Russia, directed by Ivan Khanzhin); 
7. 7) Dogs Smell like the Sea (2020, Russia, Anastasia Lisovets);
8. 8) 10000 Ugly Inkblots (2020, Russia, directed by Dmitry Geller);
9. 9) The Words in the Hillside (2020, Russia, directed by Valentin Telegin);
10. 10) Pishto's Birthday (2020, Russia, directed by Sonya Kendel);
11. 11) White Snake (2020, Russia, directed by Polina Fedorova);
12. 12) Beginning of the Light (2020, Russia, directed by Anastasia Melikhova).

Non-competition program

1. 1) Ichthyosaur (2021, Russia, directed by Krutko Saballos Nadia);
2. 2) #Goodnessbeeverywhere (2019, Russia, directed by Eva Belova);
3. 3) My Friend Yeti (2021, Russia, directed by Vladimir Krivov);
4. 4) Benedikt Dybowski. Secrets of the Sacred Sea (2019, Belarus, directed by Taras Vashchenko);
5. 5) Secret of Karadagsky Sanctuary (2021, Russia, directed by Boris Dedenev);
6. 6) House No. 6 (2019, Russia, directed by Yulia Falina);
7. 7) Shulgan-Tach (Russia, 2021, directed by Dmitry Zavilgelsky);
8. 8) Rescuing the Wooden Churches of Northern Russia (2020, USA, directed by J. Mitchell Johnson);
9. 9) Me Home (2020, Russia, directed by Kristina Koroleva);
10. 10) Mange (2021, Guatemala, directed by Josue Garcia Prado);
11. 11) North for Happiness (2020, Russia, directed by Alexander Porotov);
12. 12) Stalking Chernobyl – Exploration After The Apocalypse (2020, Ukraine, USA, Bulgaria, Slovakia, directed by Iara Lee).

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People and Environment Baikal International Film Festival named after Valentin Rasputin is the festival of «pure cinema» on the shore of the cleanest lake on the planet. It is designed as a platform that encourages to reflect on the complex relationship between people and nature in order to shape ecological consciousness. It has been held since 1999. Since 2015, the festival has been named after the writer Valentin Rasputin. The President of the Festival is a documentary filmmaker and screenwriter, producer, teacher, Honored Artist of the Russian Federation Sergey Miroshnichenko.