Alexei Yamilov

Everything for the nature



Born on December 13, 1982 in Osa town of Perm region. In 2005, he graduated from Perm National Research Polytechnic University as specialist in reservoir engineering. Between 2005 and 2012 worked in reservoir engineering in the Yamalo-Nenetsk Autonomous District, Khanty-Mansiisk Autonomous District and Perm Region. In 2013, he got third disability group in sight. In 2014, he entered extramural education department of the Perm Region Olympic Reserve College and at the same time took job as the coach of skiing and mini-football in Special (correctional) general education boarding school where he is currently working.

Shoots non-professional films: fiction film Ossa (2014), fiction film One Day of Freedom (2015), documentary Olkhon Planet (2015), fiction films Eve (2016), Steps to God (2017), and The Best Mom Ever (2018).

Quotes:

  • My dream is to create a community that could influence decisions in ecology.
  • It is difficult to interest audience in documentaries. Young people hardly watch them. I hope something changes. I hope I can change something.
  • My inspirations include travelling, working with children, honesty, and my brother who fought schizophrenia.

My story:

The first film I've ever done was about our city, it was even called Ossa. I learned that in ancient books Osa town had double «s» in its name, Ossa. I started researching, went through translations, learned facts, started writing a screenplay, and then filmed it. At some point, I realized schools teach our local history wrong. I think the name of the city came from the name of the river. Our Osinka river was called Osa before, after renaming it lost connection with the city. I didn't make anything up, just read books, notes, found some mistakes in the encyclopedias. However, I picked up a mystical plot for my film, completely fictional. I wanted to interest audience, to connect the story to local nuclear waste repository, which really exists. Then I did an autobiographical film, later on — Steps to God based on real events. You can watch them all on YouTube.

I then decided to risk it all and put the money I saved in filming The Best Mom Ever, which I finished this year. It is a story about an air force officer and his daughter. Part of the script is filmed in Osa, part in Vietnam where we went with the filming crew. Editing took all summer. We made several mistakes with the sound while filming; I now bought a new sound recording equipment, so I will learn how to use it. It's a pity, I am alone in this. I taught my brother also — if I am on camera, he is filming. If someone else is on camera, I film myself. I really hope we did an interesting film so that things start moving forward, and we can get a team, audience and support.

Short films, videos — this is not interesting for me. If I am going to do something, it will always be feature films, fiction films, with sense. I decided I would do a film every year; I've been filming since I was thirty and I keep my promise. If there happens a moment when I want to rest, I understand time is flying, and I ask myself a question, «How many films will you be able to do through your life?». So I start working again.

Yet, films are just means. I used to poach, now I feel time has come to make amends to nature. My main goal is to create a society, which would protect nature, at least, a local one. I go picking litter, sort it, teach others, plant trees. I need films only to make a name for myself, so that more people would listen to what I have to say. All of that is for nature.

Do I manage leading people? It is difficult yet. It is difficult to explain even to my family the need of sorting litter, for example, or tidying forest. If you look around the city and almost everywhere around it — in villages — it is a disaster. People come, but they go and leave the waste behind. Local authorities then collect it, put to the wasteland, set it on fire, and it goes smoking. People don't even notice how they breathe in dangerous gases in small concentrations. It is no coincidence there is a high percentage of cancer cases in Osa. I speak about it in Steps to God film. After watching it many acquaintances of mine started sorting litter, changing their attitude at least a little bit. It starts with small things; we have a whole journey ahead of us.