Yuri Mamin Fund «Fountain» for the support and development of cinematography (Russia)
FOUNTAINCINEMA, INC (USA)
The Fund «Fountain» was established on recommendation of the French partners to facilitate the work on the co-production «Window to Paris». The French suggested the name for the Yuri Mamin Fund. The name was taken from the preceding film «Fountain», which Madame Mitterrand, the wife of the French President François Mitterrand, came to like very much.
Indeed, the «Fountain» won the Grand Prix at a French film festival under the patronage of Madame Mitterrand. A model of the Russian society of the «perestroika» times, the film precisely reflected the current processes and people who participated in them.
That was why American senators ordered this film for special screenings in 1989 in order to understand through this film what contemporary Russia was. The film won about twenty main prizes of various international festivals.
The film «Window to Paris» became the first project realized by the «Fountain» Fund in co-production with the French film companies «Sodaperaga» and «Film du Buloi». In France the film was screened as «Salades russes» which means a «Russian solyanka soup».
Released in 1993, the film was a stunning success.
The head of the American distribution company Sony Pictures, Michael Barker, arranged for the picture to be released in the USA and twice contacted Goskino Russian Federation to request that the film «Window to Paris» be Russia`s submission to the 1994 Oscar Awards.
He wrote: «... the kinds of films, like «Window to Paris» that have received much acclaim among American viewers and jury members of the Academy of Motion Pictures thanks to the humor and originality of the screenplay. For this reason it is real possibility that it could win the award for best foreign film...»
However, at this time Nikita Mikhalkov with his recently finished film «Burnt by the Sun» very much wanted to be considered for the Oscar. Seeing as the chairman of the Russian Oscar Committee, Elem Klimov, did not agree to send Mikhalkov`s film to the competition, Mikhalkov demonstrated his outstanding ability as a political schemer. Elem Klimov was immediately replaced by Andrey Konchalovsky, who sent his brother`s film to the United States. Therefore the Oscar was not given to Yuri Mamin.
In 1994, when the government had halted funds for the creation of films, president of the Fund Yuri Mamin was forced to make a decision to work in television.
Between 1994 and 1998, the «Fountain» Fund, alongside «Nikita-video» and «Marina» companies, was filming for the channel RTR educational, funny, musical, and original programs such as «From Forte to Piano» and «Chameleon» gaining the high-opinion of specialists and popularity among the intelligentsia and Russian-speaking expat community all over the world.
In 2001, the «Fountain» Fund, together with the «Lenex» Firm, shot 5 episodes of the TV series «Grim Tales from Russia» and offered them to the TV channel STS.
The channel bought the episodes and commissioned 13 episodes more.
In 2003 the series «Grim Tales from Russia» (18 episodes) was shown on the TV channel STS at night because the format was so different from the other projects on the channel and its satire was too blunt and straightforward. Similar to the American series X-Files but in a Russian reality, the independent satirical television series «Grim Tales From Russia» are characteristic of the satiric tradition of their authors – Yuri Mamin and Vladimir Vardunas.
In 2003, actress Ludmila Samokhvalova became executive producer of the «Fountain» Fund. She managed to find some state funds to support the production of the film «Don`t Think about White Monkeys». Together with Yuri Mamin, the president of the «Fountain» Fund, they started filming in 2005.
Production funding for the film was obtained over a long period of time with great pauses and work sometimes stopped for months. By selfless efforts, Ludmila and her colleagues found a few honorable people from a number of successful Russian businessmen who knew and appreciated Mamin`s films. Without their financial support the film would never have been finished. But nevertheless it was completed in 2009.
Even before its release, the picture was fiendishly stolen by criminals who released pirated copies of the film on disks and on the internet. Pirated copies were on sale in a chain of specialized shops and became the sales hit in the April of 2009.
It became a reason for the large financial difficulties for the film sales in Russia. With limited advertizing media and a minimum number of printed copies, theatre screenings of the film «Don`t Think about White Monkeys» could not possibly be commercially successful.
But having won two prestigious Grand Prix awards at the Independent Film Festival in England and in Morocco (Rabat), western distributors became interested in the film. It was brought in to be dubbed by the famous English sound engineer, Ray Gillon.
Notably, it will be the first time that a Russian film in verse will be dubbed in English verse.
The film premiered successfully in the USA (New York and Minneapolis), France, Portugal, Lithuania, Ukraine, Canada, and Germany. The mystic ballad of the film titled «Insomnia» is sung by the actress Katerina Kseneva and has been positively received by its listeners.
In 2009, actress and producer Katerina Ksenyeva with the support of American partners establishes the American company «Fountaincinema Incorporation» in the USA. Yuri Mamin is president of the American company «Fountaincinema, Inc».
PERSONALIA:
YURI MAMIN
Yuri Borisovych Mamin, President of the «Fountain» Fund, Russia
President of «Fountaincinema, Inc.», USA
«For me movies are musical pieces and I try to construct them according to laws of music which is the most perfect human creation of the mind and heart so far». Yuri Mamin
Yuri Mamin, President of the «Fountain» Fund and «Fountaincinema, Inc. is the only person in Russia to win the Chaplin Golden Walking Stick, presented by his widow Oona Chaplin at the festival marking a 100 years since the birth of the great master in the Swiss city of Vevey, where he is also buried.
While heading the «Fountain» Fund for support and development of cinema», Yuri Mamin acts as an artistic instructor for less experienced directors. He gives young directors and cinema specialists a chance to participate in his filming as trainees.
He is planning to start a school for film directors.
As far as the American company Fountaincinema Incorporation is concerned, two film projects by Yuri Mamin are under way: «Window to Paris-2» and «A Dangerous Likeness». Two other projects by Katerina Ksenyeva – «The Rockman» (Russia-USA coproduction) and «The Joy of Loving Joyce» are also taking shape.
LUDMILA SAMOKHVALOVA
Ludmila Samokhvalova, a drama actress by profession, is Executive Director of the «Fountain» Fund.
She is a graduate of the Leningrad Theatre, Music and Cinematography Institute, where she studied in the experimental actor-director course under professor L. F. Makariev. It was also here that she met her life`s companion Yuri Mamin and to this day they are still together. In 1975 their daughter Katerina was born.
It was Ludmila who inspired him to try his hand at film, and on her advice he entered a 2-year higher course for directors and screenwriters in Moscow.
In 1988, Ludmila performed an almost autobiographical role of a poverty-stricken, talented actress in Yuri Mamin`s film «Fountain». In this film cops arrest her and put into the «monkey cage» for selling the tulips, which she and her husband grow at home and sell, for it is the only way to earn money to make a living.
In her own life, the actress didn`t have to sell tulips, of course, but she had to haunt the thresholds of pawnshops. Her tragic, heart-rending monologue in the «Fountain» was a shock for many viewers in those times. Ludmila was awarded a prize for this role at the «Sozvezdie» film festival in 1988.
A devoted and selfless assistant to Yuri Mamin, Ludmila undertook the hard task of being the director of the «Fountain» Fund and she spares no effort to do the job.
Ludmila Samokhvalova`s filmography
as an actress:
Hold on the Clouds «Держись за облака»
The Prince and the Pauper «Принц и нищий»
Fountain «Фонтан»
Gorko! (Wedding Kisses) «Горько!»
TV programs: From Forte to Piano, Chameleon
KATERINA KSENYEVA
Actress, singer, composer, author.
Worked as creative producer of the «Fountain» Fund till 2012.
Work as president of FOUNTAINCINEMA INCORPORATION in the USA from 2013
Born in Saint-Petersburg, she graduated from the Saint-Petersburg Academy of Theatre Arts, where she studied in the master-class of actor and director Yuri Tomoshevsky, the honored figure of Russian arts, with the diploma role of «Elvira» in the Max Frisch play «Santa-Cruz» (State Theatre «Priyut Komedianta», 1998).
Before entering the Theatre Academy, she had studied opera vocal which allowed her to win Grand-Prix of the All-Theatre Contest of Romance Singers, 1995 (when a 2nd year student) and the prize of the International Contest for Young Singers AYUM-97, 1997
Her debut in movies was the naïve 60s bride in the film «Gorko!»(1997). Then came the cross-eyed journalist Masha Palkina in the popular original series by Yuri Mamin «Grim Tales From Russia» (2000-2003).
In 2004 Katerina Ksenyeva accepted the offer to take part in the Cyril Kapitsa series «Cops» in the «Sniper» episode, playing the part of actress Zoia, killing rapists with a snipers rifle.
In 2008, Katerina Ksenyeva shot in the role of a destitute young Russian woman, Dasha in Yuri Mamin`s film «Don`t Think about White Monkeys», for which she was awarded Special Jury Diploma of the International Film Festival in Morocco (Rabat), 2009.
In 2009 the company «Bomba-Piter» released the first vocal album of Katerina Ksenyeva «Lullaby for a Man», which includes the actress` rock-ballad, dedicated to the «Kursk» submarine. «Lullaby for a Man» by Katerina Ksenyeva took the top place in the ratings of open voting on the Radio «Maximum» Sunday program with Gennady Bachinski in February-March of 2007. It was received with delight by domestic and famous foreign musicians (Aleksandr Zhurbin, Tristan Dell, Bernard Stollman and others) and regular listeners.
Katerina is also the author of the song «New York, New Life, New Love», which will be recorded with American Gospel Music singers under David Quinones in New York. This song has been enthusiastically received by Russian and American Musicians, such as producer Tristan Dell, Tina Turner`s producer Denny Diante, vocal coach from Hollywood Seth Riggs, the cellist Borislav Strulev and others.
Prizes and Awards:
Grand-Prix of the All-Theatre Contest of Romance Singers, 1995 (when a 2nd year student).
Winner of the International Contest for Young Singers AYUM-97, 1997
Special Jury Diploma of the International Film Festival in Morocco (Rabat) for the part of Dasha in «Don`t Think about White Monkeys», 2009
She sings with the Russian musical ensemble «Grad-Quartet», a prize-winner of many international music festivals.
Katerina`s repertoire includes Russian romance songs, soviet songs, rock and French chanson, opera arias and musicals, Russian folk songs and Negro spirituals.
Official sites:
Yuri Mamin: «Katerina is an actress of outstanding talent and of amazing dedication. She pays attention to every little detail in her work. There are no little things in her work. Whatever she does, she does it with passion. All her heroines are endowed with this feature. I consider Masha Palkina and Dasha to be the best acting achievements of «Grim Tales from Russia» and of the film «Don`t Think about White Monkeys». As to her musical talents, she` unique as both a performer and as an author of the songs. Her album «Lullaby for a Man» makes people wonder why such a performer has not become a recognized star. Unfortunately, such are the moral costs of our times: today the world is ruled by masters of information who set up fashion priorities. And a talent, well, a talent has to pave its own hard way to recognition.»
The «Fountain» Fund Copyright Property
The Fund possesses exclusive rights to the following:
«Window to Paris» - a feature film (104 min.)
«Don’t Think about White Monkeys» - a feature film (120 min.)
«Grim Tales from Russia» - a series of 18 episodes, (with English subtitles) 40,5 min/ each.
Video program «From Forte to Piano» - 18 programs, 26 min. each .
Video program «Chameleon» - 9 programs, 26 and 40 minutes.
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