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Slava Pogorelsky
Slava Pogorelsky An artist's statement
Slava Pogorelsky, 27, is originally from Russia, but moved to Israel with his family at the age of
12. His father was a painter and records collector, so art and music was around Slava from an early age. Yet it was only after coming to Israel that he really discovered his passion for making music, in particularly electronic music.
After studing electronic music production at BPM college, Slava had a couple of successful years with a techno project "Kulten Yeuk". But for Slava something was missing, a picture, a picture that can move and evolve with his music
and together create something unique. For now Slava is about to finish his 4th and last year at Sapir University, where he studing sound disign, music and film making.
Slava Pogorelsky
An interview with
Slava Pogorelsky Since the first time we watched Slava Pogorelsky's work, we have been strucked by his imagery so close to Guy Maddin's surreal films: Slava, how did you get started in filmmaking? Silent Misery" was actually the final project I got for one of my classes at Sapir Academic College, where I did my B.A. at Soundtrack, Cinema and TV course. My main passion is sound design and music in visual media, but things got very interesting for me when I had to create my own visual work. Audio has a huge importance in your works. The use of soundtrack has not a diegethical aims, but tend to sabotage the common perception mechanims like in the films of the French director Jacques Tati. Could you introduce our
readers to this fundamental aspect of your filmmaking? Feelings is not an easy task to achieve in a short film, it's even harder when film itself is about feelings. In "Silent Misery" I wanted to bring the viewer an unusual audio visual experience with different way of story telling. The sound work started before the picture, and when I had enough musical ideas to play with I started shooting. For me soundtrack playing a very big role in a storytelling, sometimes it comes in a perfect sync to reinforce the image and sometimes tells it's own story adding another meaning and depth. We have used the term "soundtrack", however, it would be more appropiate in your case to say that the starting point is not music itself, but musical thinking: you have studied electronic music production
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at BPM college, an experience which has no doubt marked your artistic practice. When did you come across electronic music?
We have selected your short film Silent Misery for this year's edition: could you introduce our readers to this abstract visual poem?
One day me and my friend Kirill Diamandy realized that we didn't just want to listen to music, we want to make it. So we started to make some noises with some old programs and gear for a couple of years.
For me "Silent Misery" is an abstract audiovisual poem about the "dark side" of emotions. The poem shows us an individual that dealing with those emotion as the soundtrack reflecting his inner thoughts and memories.
Back then I had no specific direction... everyday it was a new style and experience. At some point I wanted more knowledge and skills to improve my sound, so I found BPM College in Tel Aviv. It was a great experience for me, I started a techno project called "Kulten Yeuk" and released a couple of CD's under this name. It was an interesting journey, but at some point it wasn't enough, something was missing. I've always loved cinema, especialy the power of music and sound in it that brings another level of interpretation and meaning . After graduating from BPM, I started studying Soundtrack, Cinema and TV at Sapir Academic College.
We really appreciate you refined black and white cinematography in Silent Misery, your grainy footage shows no doubt a painterly-analog feel. How did you achieve this effect? My father, Boris Pogorelsky is a painter, so I always was around him working. Back then he worked at a newspaper, he was writing short stories and ink drawing pictures for each of them. I was fascinated by the ability of one black and white picture reflecting the story so well. I think that black and white photography allows the viewer to focus on the forms and
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relations of image elements. "Silent Misery" was shoot black and white, with massive use of out of focus, close ups, masks and little post production effects. We have previously quoted the Canadian director Guy Maddin, however, your filmmaking is rich of references: Silent Misery remind us of Artavazd Pelechian' cinema too. Can you tell us your biggest influences in art and how they have affected your work? I think my biggest influences are directors like Andrei Tarkovsky, David Lynch and Jan Svankmajer, I can really appreciate their creative work with image and sound. There is always something mesmerizing, innovative and Intriguing in their filmmaking. Salvador Dali left a big scar on me as well, sitting hours as a kid, trying to crack his fascinating paintings. What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? What gives you the biggest satisfaction? I can really enjoy the "idea searching" process, I find it very mystique. For me it can start with music, or a certain sound that evoke something interesting and brings those little pieces of images. But of course a post production stage is the most enjoyable, where you put all the ideas together in a certain order and magic is happening.
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Thanks for sharing your time and thoughts, Slava. What's next for you? Have you a particular project in mind ? Recently I've been working with Rob Whitworth, urban filmmaker and a timelapse genius on a short
film called "Barcelona GO", also with David Reinlib, Israeli young and very talented director on a short film "Labyrinth", which soundtrack won at Cinema South Festival this year. Now I am working with Indiefferent - a game development team from Croatia, on black and white, point´n´click adventure game called Bear With Me. It's dark and fun