Documentary Film Festival "Turan Doc Film. Lifestyle – Expedition" will be held from November 28 to 30, 2024 in the city of Almaty in Kazakhstan. The large-scale film forum was organized by the Russian Geographical Society together with Kazakh partners: Turan University and the geographical community QazaqGeography.
The main idea of the festival "Turan Doc Film. Lifestyle – Expedition" is experience exchange and development of cooperation in the preservation of historical and cultural heritage and natural diversity, stimulating interest in cognitive and research activities, mutual involvement of specialists and enthusiasts of Russia and Kazakhstan in expedition activities. This will contribute to strengthening good neighborly relations between the two countries.
“The festival is an opportunity to share experiences in research and expedition activities, assess the level of documentary work of our colleagues, and share their ideas. And, in my experience, after such events, serious projects are born, including at the national level. And it's great that we have the opportunity to involve active youth in such events and we have something to offer them," said Roman Botabekov, General Director of Turan-TV, the media partner of the festival, representative of the geographical community of Qazaq Geography.
The festival will feature three documentaries shot during the expeditions of the Russian Geographical Society in the most remote and protected corners of our country. The films are presented by their authors: well-known Russian documentary filmmakers, full members of the RGS, and research participants.
The festival will open with a full-length documentary "The Master of the Altai Mountains". The film tells about the life drama of a family of snow leopards. The uniqueness of the project is that snow leopards are the main characters of the film, their presence in the shot takes up almost 50% of the movie time, which became an absolute record for films about wild animals.
“We are encouraged by what we have achieved. We have drawn attention to the snow leopard. It will be a great luck to see it not only for specialists and those who specifically follow it, but just to see it. It took more than three years to shoot, but it turned out to be a good and accurate film about the fate of Tural. To live in such conditions and survive, you need to be very strong both in body and soul. Therefore, the leopard is a symbol of freedom, courage, and independence for the people,” said the author of the idea of the film, chairman of the association "Irbis" Ali Uzdenov.
Snow leopard. Photo: Vyacheslav Zametnya, participant of the RGS’s contest "The Most Beautiful Country"
On November 29, the audience will see a record-breaking film for the duration of filming called "To the Arctic". The work on the film, which reveals in its entirety and breadth the Arctic spaces of Russia from the Barents Sea to the Bering Strait, took five years.
“In the five years that we were shooting the film, I crossed the Northern Sea Route four times, made more than a hundred landings, and saw more than 150 polar bears. The consequences of global warming (melting of glaciers) have made it possible to make real geographical discoveries and discover many artifacts: traces of polar expeditions of past centuries. In our project, the viewer will find everything that is most important for a courageous person: discoveries and adventures, real, serious trials, overcoming and victories. Our film is for those who want to feel the breath of the Arctic Ocean while staying alive and answer the question: why has man been gravitating towards these dangerous and cruel waters for centuries?” noted the director of the film Leonid Kruglov.
Members of the film crew in the Arctic. Photo provided by the project participants
The documentary film "ALSIB: Chronicles of the Air Route" will wrap up the festival on November 30. The film tells about the expedition of the Russian Geographical Society to search in the mountains of Chukotka for aircraft that were transported from Alaska to Siberia during the Great Patriotic War. In July 2022, a search party discovered the remains of a radio operator, a native of Kazakhstan.
“Secrets, riddles of the past – all this excites our imagination so much. I know people who have joined the movie industry after watching our film. And I know even more people who got addicted to expeditions for all their lives. And anyone who has been on a real expedition is unlikely to be able to return to normal life – it's like a light drug. And although the era of geographical discoveries is mostly over, our past still holds many secrets. Therefore, history, historical film tours are my favorite genre. That's why millions of people watch our films. History is interesting and useful. It has an obvious practical value: it allows you to understand the present and predict the future. I act not only as a documentary filmmaker but also as a ‘detective’. I have been engaged in archival and field investigations for years. And I will tell you a lot about this and other expeditions that is not behind the scenes," admitted the author of the film Aleksey Nikulin.
Flight map fragments of an ALSIB’s pilot. Photo: Aleksey Nikulin
An exhibition of the best works of the international photo contest of the RGS "The Most Beautiful Country" is also planned during the festival. The film forum will also host master classes from leading Russian documentary filmmakers.
Snow leopard. Photo: Oleg Bogdanov, participant of the RGS’s contest "The Most Beautiful Country"