Shown in Compétition #4.
Synopsis
In 2000, Masha Godovannaya curated a programme entitled Avant-Garde Alternatives: An Evolution of American Experimental Film, which went on tour in Russia, making stops in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg. We visited necro-realist film-maker Yevgeny Yufit at his house beside Lake Seliger, helping him repair the house we stayed in and, in exchange, being lavished with the fresh fish that landed in his nets every day. This film is a tribute to Yufit, who died in St. Petersburg in 2016.
Text from the selection comittee
A gentle home movie made of dark, everyday tones. Immersed in the home of Yevgeny Yufit and Masha Godovannaya on Lake Seliger, Riba is a film tribute to the Russian filmmaker, in which the search for beauty through the simple presentation of things transcends the documentary approach.
Translation by the translator www.DeepL.com/Translator
– G.M.
What is the starting point for your film?
Masha Godovannaya scheduled a tour of American avant-garde films in Russia (the first time these films were screened in the former USSR) and since I had a film in the program, she invited me to accompany her. After the screenings in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Ekaterinburg, we were invited to Seliger Lake. Yevgeny Yufit, a neuro-realist filmmaker, had a house by the lake. There was another house under construction; during our stay we helped with the work and enjoyed the fish Yufit caught in the lake. During the stay, I had my 16mm camera with me, so I filmed this fish story.
What technique did you use to create it? And what was your creative process? What did you film with?
Masha had found me a Russian 16mm camera: a Krasnogorsk K3 (a great camera, for those who are looking for one). I’m used to filming what’s going on around me and that was the case for this film. I didn’t shoot much; pretty much everything I shot is in the film, but I always had trouble finding the right rhythm in the editing. It was only during this recent period of confinement that I got back into it, to finally find the right rhythm. I shot on negative, I think it was a 500T negative.