Producers and Directors

Elephants On Termite Mound.jpg	QL.jpg	Ivory Trade.png

Producers and Directors

The scale of illegal wildlife trafficking (including tusks, horns, and fell) has reached $10-20 billion (according to different sources).

General Overview

In 2012 about 22,000 elephants were massacred in Africa for their ivory to aliment a principally illegal trade worth millions of US dollars annually. At this rate, it is estimated that elephants will disappear from the wild in Africa by 2025. The idea for a documentary film that would bring the illegal ivory trade and the resulting brutal elephant massacres to the public eye grew from the director, Sergey Yastrzhembskiy, and the producer, Chris Bolzli’s numerous travels and interests in the African continent.

Sergey Yastrzhembskiy and Chris Bolzli are working on a factual hard-hitting documentary that will reveal to a global audience these massacres and the corrupt political environment that makes them and the resulting illegal trade still possible. This film will combine the beauty of a nature documentary, along the lines of Winged Migration, with the rhythm of a an investigation thriller as it also shows the criminal networks and agents who are at the origin of the extinction of one of our most beautiful creatures in horrific conditions. Thanks to unique documentary material shot over the last few months the film-makers are in a position to make this film in an urgent manner as the clock ticks… contrary to the large scale animal documentaries (for example, The March of the Penguins) that take years to prepare and shoot. If we act now, we can bring about change across the world before it is too late.But as film-makers, they cannot do this alone and hope to associate partners around the globe, including a hight level charity, such as:

World Wildlife Fund,
Wildlife Conservation Society,
African Wildlife Foundation,
Conservation International,
International Fund for Animal Welfare
Clinton Global Initiative founded by Bill, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton
The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Project WISDOM, Interpol.

The Producer - Chris Bolzli

Chris Bolzli began his career as Osteopath before landing his first job in the music industry as assistant to Claude Nobs, Founder of the world famous Montreux Jazz Festival. Twenty years on, Chris is member of the Festival’s board acting as financial and creative advisor. Notably he played an important role in financing the digitalisation of the Montreux Archives in collaboration with the festival and EPFL.

In the 1990s, his passionfor cinema and Russia led him to produce films by pioneers of the Russian new wave, making films by Sergei Bodrov, Andreï Konchalovsky, Karen Shakhnazarov and the polish director Andrzej Zulawski.

From here,he went on to produce a dozen European films, specializing in international co-production. His relationshipwith the ex-politician director/producer Sergey Yastrzhembskiy has enlarged his already impressive networkin Russia.His collaboration with Claudie Ossard from 2003 has led to films by some of the world’s hottest talent and consolidatedhis expertise in creating an international network for financing the movie industry through privateequity partnerships.

Chris Bolzli is 100% owner Images & Perspectives and owns 50% of Eurowide Film Production with Claudie Ossard. Together they are producing films of international scope.

• BETTY BLUE by Jean-Jacques Beineix (1986)

• CHARLOTTE FOR EVER by Serge Gainsbourg (1986)

• MARQUIS by Roland Topor (1989)

• DELICATESSEN by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro (1991)

• ARIZONA DREAM by Emir Kusturica (1993)

• THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN by Jean-Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro (1995)

• LET THERE BE LIGHT by Arthur Joffe (1998)

• LE FABULEUX DESTIN D’AMELIE POULAIN (AMELIE) by Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2001)

• LAISSE TES MAINS SUR MES HANCHES by Chantal Lauby (2003)

• MON ANGE by Serge FRYDMAN (2004)

• PARIS JE T AIME collective feature film by Alexander Payne, Gus van Sant, Olivier Assayas... (2006)

• RICKY by François Ozon (2008)

• COCO CHANEL & IGOR STRAVINSKY by Jan Kounen (2009)

• LE REFUGE by François Ozon (2009)

• PINA by Wim Wenders (2011)

• AFRICA by Sergey Yastrzhembskiy (2011)

• INDIGNADOS by Tony Gatlif (2012)

• ATTILA MARCEL by Sylvain Chomet (2013)

The Director - Sergey Yastrzhembskiy

Sergey Yastrzhembskiy has pursued a career in journalism, diplomacy, and politics. As a journalist he has worked for magazines Problems of Peace and Socialism, Megapolis, VIP. Later, he chaired the Board of Directors of the TVC television channel.

Sergey has been a photographer for over 20 years, having studied photography under Lev Melhov. He was among the winners in the competition for the best photo-report about Moscow sponsored by the museum Moskovsky Dom Fotografii (The Moscow House of Photography) under the aegis of the Moscow City Government. His passion for documentary photography and filmmaking, has taken him throughout the African continent but also to the far flung corners of the globe.

His photography can be found in presitigious museums including, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, Maison Europeenne de la Photographie (The European House of Photography in Paris), Museum of Contemporary Photography (Milan, Italy), the Allinari Fund (Florence, Italy), Moskovsky Dom Fotografii, The South Sakhalinsk Museum of Art, State Art Gallery in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia; The Irkutsk Oblast Art Museum, and Slovakian Ministry of Culture, as well as private collections in Russia, Belgium, Italy, France, Portugal, Slovakia.

Out of this passion he made the international TV series dedicated to native African peoples, BEYOND THE PASSAGE OF TIME in 2011 and his first feature length documentary : AFRICA, BLOOD & BEAUTY which had it’s world premiere at the Montreal World Film Festival in 2011 and for which he won the Russian Cinema National Prize (the Golden Eagle) for Best Documentary 2013. His documentary work has led him to make films defending peoples, animals and traditions threatened by the modern world, including shamans in northern Siberia or the practice of voodoo across Africa.

Of all the causes for which he has fought, the illegal ivory trade and the massacres that ravage the elephant population is perhaps his deepest concern. He feels it is his duty to urgently bring to public light this global scale scandal before it is too late.

Director & Producer

2014 Untitled Elephants & Illegal Ivory Trade Project (Documentary) (filming)

2012 Possessed by Voodoo (Documentary)

2012 The Death Charmers (Documentary)

2012 Africa, Blood & Beauty (Documentary)

Thanks

2002 War (special thanks - as Sergei Yastrzhembsky)

Hide Self

2004 Shkola zlosloviya (TV Series)
Himself - Guest