“What did I have to do with the film industry?” — that’s what I believed for almost 30 years.
Yes, I had experience working on photoshoots through my previous career in the event industry, but my role was always that of a decorator and set designer. How the camera moved or what lighting was needed rarely interested me.
A year ago, everything changed.
I decided to translate my art project Pearls of Memories into a visual language by creating a short experimental film. Looking back, I truly believe that idea was God’s way of guiding me.
I chose the location myself, designed the set, wrote the text, selected the music, and even became the main character in my own experimental film. I had no expectations and certainly wasn’t thinking about film festivals.
I simply wanted to have a conversation with my audience through images instead of words — to see whether cinema could become another language for expressing my ideas. Everything was driven by intuition and love for the process.
Imagine my surprise when, after sharing the film on social media, I started receiving invitations from film festivals.
Of course, I understand that there are countless small festivals, and not all of them are equally professional. Many rely primarily on submission fees, so I approached every invitation carefully.
Still, that journey led me to discover FilmFreeway, a platform where filmmakers can submit their work to festivals around the world. Suddenly, an entirely new universe opened up to me — a vast community of festivals and an incredibly welcoming network of filmmakers. Believe me, finding a community like that means everything.
Then came another surprise.
Pearls of Memories became a finalist and later received Best Experimental Film at the Swedish Film Festival and Best Inspirational Film at WSXA.
For me, these awards weren’t just recognition — they were confirmation that I should keep moving forward and continue expressing my thoughts through cinema.
More and more often, I find myself holding a camera. I look at people and ordinary objects differently now — with the curiosity of a child, constantly wondering, What angle would I film this from?
The knowledge I’ve gained at Antfilm School, countless hours spent watching documentary films, and the guidance of my mentors, Gina Onegina and Olga Lvoff, have given me confidence and a much stronger creative foundation. I’m beginning to enjoy the way I see my subjects, the way I work with composition, and, perhaps most importantly, I’m learning one of documentary filmmaking’s greatest lessons: knowing when to start filming immediately — and when it’s better to simply stop and observe.
Working with documentary and experimental cinema is incredibly demanding, but it is also endlessly fascinating.
I still have so much to learn. There will be many more mistakes, and hopefully many more victories. But every day I become more certain that I truly love being on the other side of the camera.
It has become another way for me to talk to the world about the things that matter most.
Right now, I’m working on my student documentary at film school, and I feel incredibly fortunate to have found an extraordinary protagonist — someone I’ll tell you much more about very soon.
At the same time, I’m also trying to edit a short documentary about my journey to Transnistria with my son, David.
We’ll see where this path leads…