Alexei Uchitel

(biography, photos, videos) Alexey Uchitel

photo Alexei Uchitel

Name: Alexei Uchitel ( As Alexey Uchitel )

Date of birth: 31 August 1951

Age: 65 years

Place of birth: Saint Petersburg

Activities: Director

Marital status: Married to Kira Saksaganskaya

Alexey Uchitel: biography

Aleksei Efimovich Uchitel was born on 31 Aug 1951 in St. Petersburg. Father Yefim Yul’evich Teacher was a prominent Soviet documentary filmmaker, winner of the Stalin prize. He made a series of documentary films dedicated to the heroic struggle of the residents of besieged Leningrad during the great Patriotic War.

The future Director learned from his father. Yefim Yul’evich from an early age took his son in shooting, instilled in him a love of art and documentary films. As a child, Alex attended creative workshops at the Palace of pioneers, where he first studied cinematography and later switched to photography. The choice of a profession never stood in front of Alex. From childhood he knew it would be a Director.

After school Teacher-Junior goes to Moscow to enroll in VGIK, but not at the faculty of directing and cinematography. Insisted his father, convinced that to lay the Foundation for the skill of the filmmaker, you must first visit an operator to better understand the visual component of the profession. Alexei Uchitel recalls with gratitude the advice of his father.

First attempt at College was unsuccessful — Alexey was not accepted, despite high test scores and well-known in film circles the last name. The then head of the Department of documentary filmmaking, cinematography-and during the interview recommended Alex to first get experience in the army service, after which they promised to accept him without examination. Fortunately, Alexey Uchitel not listened to this Council and the next year he worked as an assistant operator at the Studio of documentary films. The Director remembers that for successful results it was necessary to pass eight exams, of which there could be only one «four», after which it was necessary to pass an interview. Such strict rules were due to incredible competition, which was three hundred people in the place. However, in 1969, Alexey Uchitel has successfully passed the exams and was admitted to VGIK.

Alexey Uchitel: documentary

After studying in Moscow for five years, Director upon graduation returned to his native St. Petersburg, where he entered to work in documentary film Studio. Alexei Uchitel continues to work there to this day, despite the fact that for a long time, he has his own Studio «

Rock.» In 1975 it was removed the first picture «one Hundred thousand «I». Next came a further six works of nonfiction, which the Director released on average every two years. Honing style and gaining experience, Alex the Teacher involved in the creation of motion picture documents of the era, following his work on actual events of public life of the country. The turning point in the master’s life came in 1986. Then Alex takes the legendary movie «

Rock» where several film short story takes the lives of prominent, but at that time the leading okoloogiline existence of the musicians. The Director has set a goal to show rock musicians in their natural habitat. Among the heroes of the film — Boris Grebenshchikov, with which the Director talks at his home, Viktor Tsoi, running has now become a legend of a boiler-house «Kamchatka», Yuri Shevchuk with the group «DDT», experimental theatre Anton Adasinsky, the group «Auktyon». The film was unique and perhaps the only professionally made documentary evidence of his age. The following work is highly valued by the Director, the movie «

Obvodny Kanal» — a favorite film by Alexei Uchitel. Obvodny Kanal in Saint-Petersburg is an artificially created five kilometres of the waterway, passing by which, the Director drew attention to the proximity of various institutions on its shores: three mad houses, palaces of culture, spiritual Academy. The main idea of the movie, according to Alexei Uchitel, was that you can never precisely tell which of the walls is hiding a madhouse. Arguing about the specifics of documentary cinema, the Director emphasizes the emotional component.

Alexey Uchitel: feature film

Removing more than ten works of nonfiction and earning fame and a cult film Director, Alexei Uchitel is drawn to the genre of game cinema. The peculiarity of this genre for the Director is, first and foremost, in the subtle accommodations the fate of the hero and the highest priority of the human factor.

The transition from documentary to feature films took place thanks to a fateful coincidence — in 1995, Alex is preparing a documentary film about the great ballerina Olga spessivtseva. Shortly after the start of filming, the main character, who was already in a fairly advanced age, dying. You can complete the picture by typing the missing material from the memoirs of people who knew Olga Spesivtseva, but this method was at odds with the creative credo of the master.

Alex’s Teacher made it a rule not to use interviews in a documentary — his style lies in capturing the natural reactions of the hero, are in the circumstances. Then came the idea to get out of the situation by changing the concept. The script for the film was written by Dunya Smirnova, the main role is played Galina Tyunina. Removing the picture, which was called «

Giselle» Alex the Teacher is aware of how different from each other, two similar, at first glance, the profession. Among other feature films the Director is allocated a painting «

His wife’s diary» dedicated to the biographies of Bunin. In this work, Alexei Uchitel tries to objectively show the combination of genius and bad temper with the various features embodied in the complex texture of his personality. In 2008, the Director takes a picture «

Prisoner», where touches on the theme of war and the ability to dialogue, to find the enemies were face to face, figuring out that only external circumstances force them to kill. At the moment, the premiere of a new film called «

Matilda».

Alexey Uchitel: personal life

The Teacher’s Wife —

Kira saksaganskaya, she works with him in the Studio «Rock». The couple are raising two sons. Hobbies Alexey Uchitel — the game tennis and reading. Alex tries to play tennis at least twice a week. Reading modern literature, but fun, serves as a source of ideas for new films by the master.