The project of the Russian Documentary Film Festival in New York began in 2008 based on the New Review Corporation's initiative. It has been supported by Russia Abroad House (Moscow). The Russian Consulate in New York supported the festival by holding a reception for participants and guests in 2008. 12 works by Russian documentary cinema directors were presented then. A world premiere of Vladimir Zvorykin, a Russian Gift to America about the Russian inventor of television and a winner TEFI 1995 award about the Nobel Laureate Joseph Brodsky were both among them.
In 2009 the Second Russian Documentary Film Festival in New York was conducted with the support from the Russkiy Mir Foundation, as well as from the Alexander Solzhenitsyn Foundation and the Russia Abroad House, from the Nobility Association of America, and other organizations. The festival was widely covered by the Russian media, including TV. During the Second Festival, works by 16 Russian documentary directors were shown, including films about Solzhenitsyn, Nabokov, Aksyonov and Mikhail Chekhov, films about World War II, about the Russian provinces, Russian children, etc. Leading Russian directors have participated in the festival.
The Third Festival of Russian Documentary Cinema in New York had a varied program of new documentaries by filmmakers in Russia and the Russian Diaspora in the US. Films of different genres, filled with concern and angst over the fate of humanity in today's world will be shown together with profiles of prominent artists and writers, and reports about everyday life in Russia. The festival presented two main Awards, the Grand Prix and a Special Jury Prize. Valery Gergiev, general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Metropolitan Opera, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg, and Ernst Neizvestny, a world-known sculptor were among the special guests of the festival.
Among the directors coming to New York were Russian filmmakers Sergei Miroshnichenko (Twilight of the Gods, Yuz, Jazz, Irka and the Dog), Aleksei Burykin (18 Seconds), Angelina Golikova (Encounter), Alexander Gurjanov (State of the Moment), Elena Yakovich (Ernst Neizvestny's Bronze Age), and Russian Americans Dmitry Khavin (Across the Narrow Bridge) and Dmitry Trakovsky (Meeting Andrei Tarkovsky). The festival was being held with the help of a generous grant from the Russkiy Mir Foundation (Moscow), as well as financial and logistical support from the Consulate General of the Russian Federation in New York; Panorama Travel; the Russian Nobility Association in America; Princess Diana Bagrationi; Alex Soldier; Serge Hollerbach, Peter Tcherepnine, Victor Lazuchin, VK Studio; Mr. and Mrs. Oudolsky, the Liberty Award, the Knights of the Orthodox Order of Saint John. Russian Grand Priory and the Anyway Cafe. Information sponsors of the festival are Global Advertising Agency, the RTVi television channel, "CTC-International" TV channel (Russia), Nash Dom Multi-Media Holding, NTV-America television channel, Novoye Russkoye Slovo newspaper; Telenedelya Russian TV Guide; New York Plus Plus; VIA-3, Radio Pozitiv; MoRa; the Brooklyn Public Library and ShoreFront.
The festival project, in general, has a non-commercial, humanitarian and cultural nature. Its main goal is to promote Russian culture and art in the USA.
Director - Ksenia Adamovitch
