Documentary of IGTRK and INRTU Became a Finalist of the XI All-Russian Festival “Man and Faith”
The documentary “With great respect, Rabbi Solomon Beilin” made by the State TV and Radio Company “Irkutsk” based on the script by Elena Berman and Galina Gilenova became the winner of the XI All-Russian Festival “Man and Faith”. The film is dedicated to the life and work of Solomon Beilin, an ethnographer, folklorist and rabbi of pre-revolutionary Irkutsk.
In September of this year, the All-Russian Film Festival “Man and Faith” was held in Irkutsk for the first time. The creative competition, which was a joint project of the regional government and VGTRK, received 300 applications from 75 cities - 188 stories, films, TV and radio programs. The finalists were 16 works, which were divided into five nominations. The best of the submitted works received the Grand Prix of the festival.
Solomon Beilin was well known as a historian, ethnographer and folklorist not only in the scientific community of pre-revolutionary Irkutsk, but also all over Russia. He published about a hundred scientific articles in major Russian and German journals and completed a number of monographs. Solomon Beilin was in correspondence with outstanding scientists of his time, among whom were academician Alexander Veselovsky and the promoter of science in Siberia Grigory Potanin.
Professor of INRTU Elena Berman has been studying and preserving the scientific and cultural heritage of Solomon Beilin for the last eight years. During this time a monograph has been published, on the motives of which the Irkutsk Drama Theater presented a mono-performance. Folk vocal club "Sing, Friend!" headed by Galina Gilenova and theater actor Sergey Travnikov took part in the production. Irkutsk audience showed great interest in the play.
Last year, the Irkutsk State TV and Radio Company approached Elena Berman with a proposal to write a script for a documentary about Solomon Beilin. The movie was supposed to be filmed and presented at the All-Russian Festival “Man and Faith”. The film was directed by Irina Bukhalova from IGTRK. Together with her and Elena Berman, the project included the folk vocal ensemble “Sing, Friend!” headed by its permanent leader Galina Gilenova, theater actor Sergei Travnikov, actor of the Irkutsk Drama Theater Andrei Vinokurov and Vladimir Rabinovich, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Head of the Advertising Department of the Faculty of Service and Advertising of the Irkutsk State University.
“We set a goal to make a good, kind movie, which could familiarize the viewer with Jewish cultural and folklore traditions through the personality of the rabbi of Irkutsk and the first Jewish folklorist of Russia Solomon Beilin. The title of our movie was chosen for a reason - this is how Rabbi Beilin signed all his letters”, explained Elena Berman.
As Galina Gilenova added, the shooting took place in the studio of IGTRK, the concert hall of the University, the State Archive of the Irkutsk Region and the Department of Historical and Cultural Heritage of the Molchanov-Sibirsky Library. The creative team applied in the nomination “Best TV project” with time limitations, so they prepared two versions of the movie.
“The full version, more extensive in story, lasts 40 minutes. A shortened 26-minute film was submitted to the festival program.
We enjoyed working with the professional team of IGTRK. This experience was useful both for the participants of “Sing, Friend!” and for Sergei Travnikov. INRTU demonstrated its skills at a high level”, stated Galina Gilenova.
The creative team has already prepared an extended version of the film for presentation screenings and participation in other International and All-Russian film festivals. This year Elena Berman also plans to publish a monograph on Solomon Beilin's scientific activity, which will include for the first time the historian's extensive manuscript heritage translated from Yiddish.
