One of your first films was called “Orpheus”, where the film itself and camera became Orpheuses. “I Saw” is a melancholic visit to the past, which at the same time is very recent, but feels infinitely far from today. How do you look at these images yourself, after you left Russia?
Now it’s more painful than ever because I can’t return or do anything besides make a film made of my archive from the distant past.
Thanks to you, we are already acquainted with the underground musicians from “A Lazy Comet”, as Doclisboa showed last year your “Narodnaya” trilogy. You document them as Andy Warhol was capturing the life of his Factory. Do you see this new film as a sort of post scriptum to that cycle?
We can say yes, this is the last flash that I captured but I hope that is not the end.
“I Saw” feels like a very spontaneous and improvised film. What was the most important feeling you tried to capture in the gathering of these musicians that motivated you to bring the camera? Your act of friendship? A collective action and togetherness? The small miracle of art being created from scratch?
My main motivation was to help my friends again by making a film. I was happy to see the process of creation of new art and show it to the audience.
But I edited this film already in Paris in July, and my main motivation was, inspire Gosha again, remind him about this beautiful miracle of art that they made last Fall. To remind him that he is a musician because already more than half of the year he wasn’t playing the music. He was working at the local restaurant as a cook and he had no time to work on new music. And I did inspire him again. It’s already something.
NO TO WAR
