It’s a great pleasure to encounter a rare and startling movie one year, and then see it reach the critical acclaim it deserves the following one. This is exactly what happened with Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev’s now Oscar nominated documentary short Haulout. I first encountered the film when it played at the Berlinale Shorts 2022, where it easily made our top 10 picks of the festival. I was awe-struck by its evocation of life in a remote shack in northeast Russia, populated by a lone scientist, Maxim Chakilev, who spends three months a year studying the walruses. With a sweeping grandiosity fit for the subject, the New Yorker-presented film is a stunning, slow-burn exploration of the deleterious effects of climate change upon some of the most vulnerable creatures in the world. We talked to one half of the sibling duo, Evgenia, about the difficulties of shooting in remote locations,...
- 3/4/2023
- by Redmond Bacon
- Directors Notes
The Elephant Whisperers
Kartiki Gonsalves’ documentary debut, “The Elephant Whisperers,” released on Netflix, shines a spotlight on the ways in which climate change and human encroachment are rapidly destroying the habitats of Asian elephants. The film’s dire warning is subtly woven into a heartfelt narrative about forging family in unlikely places with elephant caretakers Bomman and Bellie at its core. The duo raise an orphaned elephant named Raghu, whom they’ve cared for since infancy, as well as another calf named Ammu. “[Bomman and Bellie] are still understanding the process of what the Oscars exactly are, but they’re just overwhelmed with messages and calls and really happy to share their lives with such a large audience,” Helmer Kartiki Gonsalves told Variety. “I don’t think they’ve ever had this kind of recognition before.”
Haulout
For their documentary debut, Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva spent 3½ months in close quarters with Russian scientist Maxim Chakilev,...
Kartiki Gonsalves’ documentary debut, “The Elephant Whisperers,” released on Netflix, shines a spotlight on the ways in which climate change and human encroachment are rapidly destroying the habitats of Asian elephants. The film’s dire warning is subtly woven into a heartfelt narrative about forging family in unlikely places with elephant caretakers Bomman and Bellie at its core. The duo raise an orphaned elephant named Raghu, whom they’ve cared for since infancy, as well as another calf named Ammu. “[Bomman and Bellie] are still understanding the process of what the Oscars exactly are, but they’re just overwhelmed with messages and calls and really happy to share their lives with such a large audience,” Helmer Kartiki Gonsalves told Variety. “I don’t think they’ve ever had this kind of recognition before.”
Haulout
For their documentary debut, Maxim Arbugaev and Evgenia Arbugaeva spent 3½ months in close quarters with Russian scientist Maxim Chakilev,...
- 2/23/2023
- by Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
We hear the walruses before we see them, but their sheer number and proximity to marine biologist Maxim Chakilev's beach shack still comes as a shock. He spends months in this tiny, ramshackle home every year, in Chukotka in the Siberian Arctic, watching and documenting the animals as they come ashore.
Why there are so many of them is revealed at the end of this Oscar-shortlisted documentary and, perhaps, a line or two about that right up front would have been better placement, allowing us to think about the reasons why so many animals are crammed on to this beach as we watch the footage from filmmaking siblings Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev rather than afterwards. Like so many ecological problems on the planet, climate change is driving them. Where previously they used to be able to take a breather between fishing on ice floes, now they have to come ashore,...
Why there are so many of them is revealed at the end of this Oscar-shortlisted documentary and, perhaps, a line or two about that right up front would have been better placement, allowing us to think about the reasons why so many animals are crammed on to this beach as we watch the footage from filmmaking siblings Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev rather than afterwards. Like so many ecological problems on the planet, climate change is driving them. Where previously they used to be able to take a breather between fishing on ice floes, now they have to come ashore,...
- 1/11/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
AFI Fest 2022 announced the three winners of this year’s short film Jury awards on Nov. 7, spotlighting the live action short “Birds,” the documentary short “Haulout” and the animated short “Sierra” for creating art that can “bring people together,” AFI president and CEO Bob Gazzale said.
“Birds,” directed by Katherine Propper, is a 14-minute narrative that follows the lives of teenagers in Austin, Texas through summer boredom. Directors Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev’s “Haulout” features Maxim Chakilev, a man who waits in the Russian Arctic to observe an ancient gathering. “Sierra,” directed by Sander Joon, is a black comedy that uses car racing as the literal vehicle to discuss themes of toxic masculinity, which the jury dubbed “simple in subject but deep in content.”
Special mentions include “Yokelan” for ensemble acting, “How To Be A Person: How To Get An Abortion” for screenwriting, “An Avocado Pit (Um Caroço de Abacate)” for lead acting,...
“Birds,” directed by Katherine Propper, is a 14-minute narrative that follows the lives of teenagers in Austin, Texas through summer boredom. Directors Evgenia Arbugaeva and Maxim Arbugaev’s “Haulout” features Maxim Chakilev, a man who waits in the Russian Arctic to observe an ancient gathering. “Sierra,” directed by Sander Joon, is a black comedy that uses car racing as the literal vehicle to discuss themes of toxic masculinity, which the jury dubbed “simple in subject but deep in content.”
Special mentions include “Yokelan” for ensemble acting, “How To Be A Person: How To Get An Abortion” for screenwriting, “An Avocado Pit (Um Caroço de Abacate)” for lead acting,...
- 11/10/2022
- by Jazz Tangcay and Katie Reul
- Variety Film + TV
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