A new project aiming to connect the film industries of the CIS countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) with Europe and the rest of the world is launching in the Kazakh city of Almaty this autumn.

The first edition of the Eurasian Film Market (EFM) will take place from 11 to 14 of September. The initiative is intended to be an annual international forum that facilitates the expansion of regional cooperation and the building of new business connections between the film industry in the region and the global film community.

Due to its rich natural environment and varied scenic landscapes, most films are shot in or around Almaty, making it the centre of the Kazakh film industry. The main film organisations are based in Almaty, which is why the city was chosen to host the first edition of the EFM.

The Eurasian Film Market aims to serve as the platform that not only unites professionals in the CIS film industry and creates optimal conditions for film business within the region, but also forges robust cooperative bridges between the CIS countries and the global film community.Hélène Haug, EFM co-founder and director

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“In light of the ongoing social-political developments worldwide, we recognise the increasing significance of Central Asia as a critical link between the East and West. Presently, Central Asian countries are producing films that garner invitations to prestigious A-list film festivals, with sales agents incorporating Central Asian films into their international line-ups. This surge in demand for co-production projects is further supported by a well-developed infrastructure for filming in the region. However, there remains much to be accomplished, improved and achieved”, said Hélène Haug, co-founder and director of EFM.

Among the participants to the forum will be other international film festival organisers, producers and production companies, distribution companies, sales agents, cinema chains, streaming platforms, as well as foreign organisations promoting the film industry of their country and representatives of foreign funds and selective fund programs that can support film production and distribution in the region.

One of the main goals of the EFM is to support the film industry in Central Asia, so the organisers set up the #SEARCH program, matching creators with buyers. Submissions for full length features films and documentaries from 2022/2023 are open until 31 August, after which international distributors, sales agents, streaming platforms or film festivals can choose the projects they want to partner with.

Additionally, EFM is creating an industry guide of Central Asian companies operating in the film industry. The catalogue will be distributed to all Eurasian Film Market participants and uploaded on a dedicated online platform created in partnership with Toqsan.com, as well as on the website of the Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival in South Korea.

Source: Travel Tomorrow

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A film catches amazing views of the remains of a space program from the Cold War.

Tucked into a lonely hangar at Baikonur Cosmodrome on the Kazakh steppe, two Soviet-era space shuttles are quietly gathering dust, bird poop, and rust. They’re also attracting photographers eager to sneak around the ruins, such as Alexandar Kaunas, who recently filmed part of his journey into the cavern where the derelict shuttles are housed.

One shuttle, named Ptichka, never left Earth. The other, a test vehicle, was never meant to fly.

It’s a rather unceremonious end for these abandoned icons of a once-proud space program. The space shuttles were designed and built during the 1970s and 1980s as part of the USSR’s attempt to outdo the U.S. winged orbiters. As envisioned, the Soviet shuttles would not only be able to fly themselves, they would also lift vastly heavier cargo into space that could then be used to build space stations and weapons.

That didn’t happen.

A casualty of the waning days of the Cold War and a collapsing Soviet economy, the shuttle program never took off — despite the successful flight in 1988 of an unpiloted orbiter named Buran, which loosely translates to “snowstorm” or “blizzard.”

Buran would be the only Soviet orbiter to leave Earth. In 1993, Boris Yeltsin canceled the program entirely, leaving some vessels to rot in a hangar while others were put on display in such places as the Sydney Summer Olympics and Moscow’s Gorky Park.

Buran, the shuttle that actually flew, was destroyed in 2002 when its hangar collapsed after an earthquake, killing eight people. Ptichka and this other test shuttle remain at Baikonur, beckoning those who enjoy visiting moldering relics of the Cold War and yesterday’s quests to send humans to space.

In 2015, photographer Ralph Mirebs ventured into the complex and captured images of the forgotten monuments to a bygone space race.

Six months ago, Russian photographer and film director Alexander Kaunas and a companion hiked 24 miles through the desert, gained entry to the site through questionably legal means, then spent three nights among the decaying space shuttles.

Next door to the blast-proof shuttle hangar, another lonely cavern contains the remains of the enormous Energia rocket meant to boost the shuttles into space.

If this were a Hollywood flick, Kaunas and his buddy would revive one of those shuttles with a bit of engineering hocus pocus, fly the thing straight into the heart of an intergalactic battle, and save humankind in the process. But this is not a movie, and the shuttles will likely remain covered in the detritus of decades, waiting for the next photographer to sneak into their realm.

Source : National Geographic

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