My Father Evgeni

From 1961 through 1979 Evgeni Zagdansky was editor-in-chief of the Kiev Popular Science Film Studio.

From 1981 through 1992 his son, a film director, Andrei worked in the same film studio.

In 1992 Andrei along with his family left Kiev and settled in New York.

Evgeni stayed behind.

Evgeni's letters to Andrei and Andrei's narrative of father's life intertwine in the multi-layered fabric of the film creating a portrait of the man, his epoch and a self-portrait of the auteur.

Festivals & Awards

New York Jewish Film Festival
Lincoln Center, 2012
2nd DOC NYC Documentary Film Festival
New York, 2011
8th International Festival "Jewish Eye"
Ashkelon, Israel, 2011
14th Istanbul International 1001
Documentary Film Festival
Istanbul, 2011
51st Krakowski Festival Filmowy
Krakow, 2011
Documenta Madrid 11
Madrid, 2011
Docudays
Kiev, 2011
National Award "Laurel Branch" for
the Best Documentary
Moscow, 2010
ArtDocFest
Moscow, 2010
23rd IDFA, Program Reflecting Images:
Masters' 2010
Amsterdam, 2010

Press

...“My Father Evgeni,” a smart, impressionistic documentary about the passage of historical time as experienced by father and son. Using a cleverly thought out combination of archival footage, family movies and films from his father’s studio, bracketed by haunting footage of the now deserted corridors of that film factory, Andrei traces his family’s and his nation’s complicated, fractured history. Working with the play of textures that he gets by juxtaposing and manipulating the various film stocks, the director creates a dialectic of time — his father always speaking and thinking about the future, the son always dredging up the past — and the hurt of exile, that is both moving and smart. More...

Joe Bendel:

...once Zagdansky gets into the rhythm of it, the film is a parade of striking images. War, famine, and propaganda campaigns all factor prominently, but sometimes the little details are the most telling, like the frequently changing street names, ever reflecting the political tenor of the times. More...

Jeff Reichert:

My Father Evgeni, ...a simple tale of a father and son made up of few elements: archival footage tracing the rise and fall of the Soviet state; lushly photographed images of New York, present-day Kiev and an abandoned film studio; family video; some letters from father to son read aloud that push the narrative along. These pieces are woven into a pleasurably drifting biographical tale that spans decades in the lives of Evgeni and Andrei. It’s supremely personal but thankfully never maudlin. I especially appreciated how Zagdansky presents each new piece of newsreel, and in voiceover offers commentary: “Here, I was X years old.” The filmmaker is not in the frame, these aren’t home movies, at least not exactly. His choice of syntax highlights the complicated familial relationship to images (both the deceased father and son were filmmakers) and history (and images and history to each other) that runs throughout the film. Its low-key aesthetics are decidedly unfashionable, but I enjoyed its reverie-inducing spell all the more for it...More.

Olga Sherwood:

I was personally impressed with Zagdansky’s work more than any other I saw at “Artdocfest”. It is... a perfect combination of the general, the external, the socio-political, and the deeply personal, showing the relations of the family and the attitudes of the son. It is, in a word, poetry. More...

Credits

Conceived, directed, edited and narrated
by Andrei Zagdansky
Evgeni Zagdansky letters read
by Alexander Gelman
Cameraman Vladimir Guyevsky
Sound design/mix Boris Peter
Sound effects editing
Andrei Rogachev
Story editor Victoria Bondar
Narration Coach Peter Rofe
Co-producer Svetlana Zinovyeva
Producers Andrei Zagdansky, Gleb Sinyavsky
AZ Films llc with participation of Inspiration Films
74 min., HD, color and b/w, stereo
© 2010 AZ Films LLC