Elena Pogrebizhskaya

Elena Vladimirovna Pogrebizhskaya (Russian: Елена Владимировна Погреби́жская) is a Russian director of documentary films and screenwriter, and former leader of a rock band, Butch. In the 1990s and early 2000s, she worked as a journalist and TV host.

Elena Pogrebizhskaya
Born
Kamenka, Vyborgsky District, Leningrad Oblast, RSFSR, USSR
OccupationFilmmaker
AwardsTEFI (2008, 2009),[1]
Laurel branch (premium) (2008)[2]
International Human Rights Film Festival "Stalker" (2013)
Websitewww.partizanets.com

Early life and education

Pogrebizhskaya was born in Kamenka, Leningrad Oblast.[3] In 1993, she graduated from the Russian Philology department of the Vologda State Pedagogical University. In 1995, she graduated from the MSU Faculty of Journalism, Television department.[4]

Journalism

In the middle of the 1990s, Elena Pogrebizhskaya worked as news reporter at a national Russian TV station Channel 1. Pogrebizhskaya covered events in the Kremlin and interviewed President Boris Eltsin. When war broke out in the Balkans, Pogrebizhskaya and her news crew were present on both sides of the conflict, in Albania and in Serbia. Pogrebizhskaya reported on the war in Chechnya, including from refugee camps. After Putin became President, Pogrebizhskaya left the news field because she decided that that work became too muddied.[5]

Musical career

In 2001, Pogrebizhskaya decided to pursue musical career. Her rock group Butch (rock band) recorded 4 albums, selling one hundred thousand discs. She confessed that her decision to become a rock-musician grew from a desire to be in a spotlight and receive public attention. Eventually, she felt that she didn’t use her intellectual abilities in a musical career and decided to move on.[6]

Films

In 2007, Pogrebizhskaya announced an end to her music career and emerged as a film director. Her films "Blood Trader" and "Doctor Liza" received the TEFI award in 2008 and 2009 for Best Russian Documentary Film.[7][8]

In 2011, Pogrebizhskaya founded her own cinema studio 'Partizanets'.[5] She made a series of documentaries dedicated to psychological disorders. The first film was titled 'Me and My Neurosis'. Pogrebizhskaya suffered from this condition since 2004 and it took her 2.5 years to heal.[9] The money for the films were collected by crowdfunding. The next film was dedicated to posttraumatic syndrome.[10] In 2017, she made a movie 'Fat and Slim', dedicated to people with eating disorders.[11]

Released in 2013, her film 'Mama, I'll kill you' got Amnesty International prize at the Film Festival in Pesaro in 2014, as well as awards of the Black Maria, Jersey, and NorCal Film Festivals. The documentary shows lives of three children, Alexander, Nastya and Alexey, in an orphan boarding school in Moscow region.[12] The movie got a wide response, even on a governmental level because it showed dramatic lives of orphans in asylum, while all the adults thought it were the best possible place for the children.[13] Eventually, the film became one of the factors that led to a legislative reform related to the rights of the child and overall orphanage care system in Russia. In 2020, Pogrebizhskaya made a sequel, 'Mama, I'll Kill You 2', that showed the same characters 7 years later. After the reform, kids were taken into foster families and their old orphanage was closed.[14]

In 2014, she received the Grand Prix of the Internet Media Awards.[15]

In 2017 she released a film Andreeva Case about a power-lifting champion Tatiana Andreeva, who stabbed a man for harassing her and got 6 years of prison for murder. Pogrebizhskaya showed in her movie all inconsistencies of investigation, confessions and statements of witnesses.[16]

Pogrebizhskaya currently hosts a “Cinema Club with Elena Pogrebizhskaya” at the Moscow Tolerance Centre.[17][18] In one of her interviews, Pogrebizhskaya stated that: “Film is the surest means of conveying emotions. Through cinema, the problems of another become fully understandable to anyone who sits in the audience. This is better than any speech or exhortation.” The discussions that Pogrebizhskaya holds after the film showings strengthen this effect manifold.[19]

In 2018, she launched an online cinema club called Psychologies.[9]

References
  1. "Погребижская Елена Владимировна". Состав АРТ-биографии. Academy of Russian Television. Archived from the original on 25 March 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  2. "Лавровая ветвь — Победители 2008". Laurel branch (premium). Archived from the original on 11 August 2016. Retrieved 16 May 2013.
  3. "Elena Pogrebizhskaya" (in Russian). Stalker Film Festival. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  4. "ПОГРЕБИЖСКАЯ Елена Владимировна" (in Russian). Russian TV Academy. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  5. "Speakers" (in Russian). Russian Guild of Non-Fiction Movies and Television. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  6. "Режиссёр Елена Погребижская о переменах в карьере и неврозах" (in Russian). Wonderzine. 1 June 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  7. "Elena Pogrebizhskaia". IMDb. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
  8. "Фильм об Игоре Алексееве завоевал "ТЭФИ"" (in Russian). BBC Russia. 7 October 2008. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  9. "Елена Погребижская" (in Russian). Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  10. "Елена Погребижская собирает деньги на фильм про неврозы" (in Russian). Intermedia. 15 September 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  11. "Елена Погребижская: мы сняли фильм не о похудении и переедании, а о психологических проблемах" (in Russian). Agency of Social Information. 9 March 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  12. "Фильм Елены Погребижской "Мама, я убью тебя" был удостоен премии на итальянском фестивале Pesaro International Film Festival" (in Russian). Russian Guild of Non-Fiction Movies and TV. 30 June 2014. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  13. "Мама, я убью тебя" (in Russian). Art Doc media. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  14. "Вышел фильм Елены Погребижской "Мама, я убью тебя — что было дальше?"" (in Russian). Agency of Social Information. 28 May 2020. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  15. "Елена Погребижская стала обладателем гран-при Internet Media Awards". Russian Guild of Non-Fiction Movies and Television. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
  16. Nazarova, N. (13 December 2017). "Жертва или убийца? Елена Погребижская о фильме про чемпионку, убившую за домогательства" [Victim or Killer? Elena Pogrebizhskaya on her film about champion who killed for harassment] (in Russian). BBC Russia. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  17. Светлана Рейтер (8 January 2012). "Интервью: О марше 13 января: Елена Погребижская". Echo of Moscow. Archived from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
  18. "Фильм об анорексии и переедании презентуют в Москве" (in Russian). TASS. 28 February 2017. Retrieved 18 July 2022.
  19. "Yelena Pogrebizhskaya". www.jewish-museum.ru. Retrieved 3 March 2022.
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