Good Russian documentaries do not sell well in Russia, however, some of them are of great demand worldwide.
Professional buyers work with Russians using their ideas, creativity, original vision and cultural background. And some enthused Russian filmmakers cooperate with emigrants, who work as promoters or even distributors in their countries.
Sergey Zaitsev, director of Moscow-based Russian Way film club and namesake film company, has made a successful debut with one of his recent documentaries – Died For France. In November 2005 he won Golden Eagle, a prestigious national film award in Russia and showed the film in France.
Recently he released another documentary On The Threshold of Heart (script by Jeanne Shanurova with poet Alexandra Popova) with 15 songs, mainly romances by Valery Agafonova.
In 2005 Zaitsev set up a Russian Way Film Club, a cultural center to promote documentaries worldwide especially for Russians, who live abroad. He invites Russian film directors with their films, organizes film premiers in his club and then worldwide. In April Sergey Zaitsev makes a tour around US cities to present Russian documentaries there.
Ekaterina Malkovskaya, Elena Loiter