Russian Documentary Triumphs at US Film Festival

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - Russian documentary The Holy Archipelago won the main award at the film festival in the United States because it was of superior quality and offered a different view of Russia, Executive Director of the Great Lakes Christian Film Festival in Buffalo, Shawn Patrick Greene, told Sputnik.

"The film itself was just superior, and all of its production value, presentation, and subject matter are well put together," Greene said.

The festival was held on November 4-5 and featured about 200 documentaries from more than 20 countries. The Holy Archipelago, a film about Russia's famous Solovetsky Monastery directed by Sergey Debizhev, won several nominations, including Best Documentary Feature, Best Cinematography, and Best Music.

The executive director stressed that the documentary "surpassed all expectations in just about every category."

The Solovetsky Transfiguration of the Savior Monastery

© RIA Novosti . Sergey Ermokhin

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When asked what the American audience could learn about Russia from the film, Greene expressed confidence that people familiar with Orthodox Christianity already would have an understanding of certain things, but others would be exposed to a perspective not covered by the American mainstream media.

"I would say that a lot of people who have seen this documentary understand there is a different perspective. Intelligent people are more in tuned with what is going on and are not spoon-fed or allowing the mainstream media to spoon-feed them information," the executive director emphasized.

The Solovetsky Transfiguration of the Savior Monastery

© RIA Novosti . Sergey Ermokhin

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The Holy Archipelago film crew was not able to attend the festival.

Greene did not rule out inviting other Russian documentaries to take part in the festival. Many films from Russia have participated in the festival in its nine-year history, he added.