Marusya Syroechkovskaya is a Moscow-born award-winning filmmaker and visible artist who had to flee Russia in March 2022 because the crackdown on opposition voices elevated. Her pupil brief movie, “Exploration of Confinement,” acquired a Jury Award on the 2013 New Orleans Film Festival and certified for the 2013 Academy Awards. Syroechkovskaya is also a 2015 Nipkow Programm Fellow.
“How to Save a Dead Friend” is screening on the 2022 DOC NYC movie competition, which is working from November 9-27.
W&H: Describe the movie for us in your individual phrases.
MS: A boy saves his girlfriend from killing herself however neither of them can save him. “How to Save a Dead Friend” is about a love that stays sturdy by way of the years, regardless of oppressive and repressive regimes, regardless of depressions and addictions. It’s a movie about a love that’s stronger than dying. And it’s a private story that I’ve been filming for 12 years.
W&H: What drew you to this story?
MS: Since it’s so private, the story was simply consuming me from the within and I had to inform it. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have been in a position to go on. There had been so many issues in my life I couldn’t speak about earlier than. I didn’t have the language nor the voice. This movie is a method of discovering my voice to inform my story.
W&H: What would you like individuals to take into consideration after they watch the movie?
MS: I hope audiences will see that I’ve saved a reminiscence of Kimi – my finest buddy, husband, and protagonist. I didn’t need his voice to be misplaced and gone. I consider that you’re not gone so long as individuals bear in mind you.
I hope audiences will acknowledge the early warning indicators of self-destruction – it doesn’t have to be dependancy, it may be melancholy, it may be not seeing the trail forward of you that appears open. I feel the movie can contact a lot of individuals.
Also, once I was rising up as a depressed teenager who didn’t know she had melancholy, I felt severely remoted from the remainder of the world. Depression is an isolating sickness. I hope my movie helps break this isolation, even a little bit. I hope it helps people who find themselves going by way of one thing related really feel they don’t seem to be alone.
W&H: What was the most important problem in making the movie?
MS: It was arduous to consider myself as a character within the movie. I’m normally the particular person behind the digicam, not in entrance of it. So, getting this distance between me as a director and me as one of many protagonists was troublesome. But once I received it, it felt therapeutic and helped me in my grieving course of.
Another problem was that a lot of the materials got here from my private archives, with footage shot on totally different cameras, with totally different codecs, and with totally different frames per second. How do you discover a cohesive language for footage spanning 12 years, footage that wasn’t meant to be a part of a movie when it was shot?
I wished to present the sensation of what it was like to develop up within the ‘00s, to dive into sunny summer season days by way of a kaleidoscope of codecs, pulsating visuals, and sounds coming from all instructions. It was undoubtedly a problem, not just for me and the editor but additionally for the post-production group. The picture post-production group developed a particular AI algorithm that upscaled among the footage as a result of it was shot on VHS and a few small digital cameras from the early ‘00s, with a very small body decision.
W&H: How did you get your movie funded? Share some insights into how you bought the movie made.
MS: We knew from the beginning that we couldn’t – and didn’t need to – finance this movie in Russia. We didn’t need any affect from the state’s movie fund our bodies nor did we would like any censorship. The incapability to finance this venture in our personal nation, the place the story occurred, made the manufacturing course of a lot extra sophisticated. It is an unlucky future that many unbiased filmmakers from Russia at the moment are going through.
Due to such circumstances, co-producing was a part of our plan from the beginning. What helped us discover our companions was Eurodoc, a workshop and coaching program in artistic documentary manufacturing. Through them, we discovered our Swedish producer Mario Adamson; our Norwegian co-producer Anita Norfolk, who labored with Mario on his earlier venture; in addition to our French co-producer Alexandre Cornu. Eurodoc additionally related us to our German co-producing companions Arte and RBB.
All in all, “How to Save a Dead Friend” is a Swedish-French-Norwegian-German manufacturing, with funding from nationwide movie institutes. It remains to be in the end a commentary on Russian life.
W&H: What impressed you to change into a filmmaker?
MS: When I used to be a teenager, the digicam was my coping mechanism. I didn’t understand how to talk my emotions, how to speak about my melancholy, nor how to ask for assist. My digicam helped me make sense of this world and have become my communication software. There was one other side in regards to the movie medium that at all times fascinated me – the likelihood to preserve individuals, locations, and music you’re keen on in a single area. Film captures time. I misplaced a few of my pals to suicide, however they’re nonetheless alive within the movies I took of them.
And there was one movie that drastically impressed me: “Nowhere” by Gregg Araki, which I watched once I was 16. It was virtually a spiritual expertise for me.
W&H: What’s the very best and worst recommendation you’ve acquired?
MS: The finest recommendation is widespread information, nevertheless it’s at all times good to repeat it as soon as in a whereas: at all times, at all times backup your materials on at the least three totally different arduous drives. If you’ve got a backup on a cloud someplace, that’s even higher! Doing so dramatically reduces nervousness in your life, helps your psychological well being, and retains your materials secure.
I attempted arduous, however I couldn’t bear in mind the worst recommendation. Maybe the one from my ex once I was getting ready to shoot my first brief movie. He mentioned, “You can’t jump over your own head.” Ouch! So right here comes one other bit of fine outdated recommendation: life’s too brief to spend it on individuals who don’t consider in you.
W&H: What recommendation do you’ve got for different ladies administrators?
MS: Look into your self. Look for a story nobody can inform however you.
W&H: Name your favourite woman-directed movie and why.
MS: It modifications each different day however at this time, my favourite is “Raw” by Julia Ducournau. It’s touching, daring, and never afraid to cross the road, with some darkish humor. And deeply feminist. A really inspirational movie.
W&H: What, if any, tasks do you assume storytellers have to confront the tumult on this planet, from the pandemic to the lack of abortion rights and systemic violence?
MS: I don’t assume movies can cease wars, sadly, however movies can break the cycle of isolation and alter individuals’s opinions and minds. To quote Kathleen McInnis, “And this, as far as I can tell, is how we start slowly but surely shifting our perspectives to live in someone else’s shoes, even for a moment. It’s how and where we learn to question authority, build empathy, and discover both sameness and uniqueness. It’s where our first glimmer of understanding starts to make its way into our conscience, into our being.”
W&H: The movie trade has a lengthy historical past of underrepresenting individuals of coloration onscreen and behind the scenes and reinforcing – and creating – unfavourable stereotypes. What actions do you assume want to be taken to make Hollywood and/or the doc world extra inclusive?
MS: We typically see how Hollywood productions are plugging in a single or two BIPOC characters to improve variety, however the story nonetheless facilities round white individuals. It’s essential to have BIPOC writers on the group and among the many crew to create relatable tales.
Also, there needs to be extra funding and monetary assist for BIPOC administrators and writers, particularly those engaged on debut movies. The first movie is the hardest to finance.
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