Individual consultations and invited experts

The course duration is 5 months, with classes held online three times a week. Students will learn various methods of documentary storytelling. Assignments will cover all stages of film production, from developing an idea and selecting a hero to post-production and distribution. Each student will create a 15-minute short film during the course. Students will be filming their stories throughout the course: the work begins as soon as the topic is determined. Parallel to filming, students will work on material selection and editing. Instructors will provide individual consultations for each course participant.


Twice a week, workshops are held. Once a week, a general master class is conducted with invited experts and professionals from the film industry. The topics of the master classes include editing, working with camera and sound, film distribution, and other aspects of film production. Every two weeks, students will have the opportunity to participate in a psychological support group. In a highly supportive atmosphere, led by a psychologist, students will be able to discuss the difficulties that arise during creative work and find solutions on how to deal with procrastination, loss of motivation, personal fears, and more.


Students will have the opportunity to present their film ideas during a pitching session in the first part of the course. Each student will be prepared for this: we will explain the most important criteria and requirements for presentations at international festivals and film markets.


The program concludes with a screening of the final works, during which virtual Q&A sessions with participants and detailed reviews of the works by instructors and invited experts will take place. The best works will be selected for participation in a series of Un/Filmed screenings worldwide and for distribution on a partner VOD platform. Five students, based on jury voting, will receive monetary awards for promoting their films.

Registration is closed

Un/Filmed Online: Documentary Film Workshop

Last year, the competition for the course led by director Anastasia Patlai and playwright Ekaterina Bondarenko was 10 people per place. The course was very strong and successful. As a result, 9 plays were written, many of which were published, participated in public readings, were shortlisted for prestigious competitions such as Lubimovka-2024, were translated into Polish and Spanish, and one of the plays will soon have its premiere. And Lubimovka readers recognized the work of the Un/Told workshop with a special mention!

This year we are launching a new open call! 

We will select 12 participants during the open call. Out of the 12 spots, we will allocate 2 free grant spots for talented contestants in need of financial assistance. During the course, students will learn techniques for working in documentary dramaturgy, and by the course finale, each will have created their own play.

Classes are held online once a week for 12 weeks. Additionally, the course includes three lectures on the history of documentary theater from theater scholar Elizaveta Spivakovskaya. 

The program concludes with a reading of the resulting works, which will include a virtual Q&A with participants and in-depth dissections of the works with instructors and guest experts. 

We will not only help you create a play, but also support you in promoting it after the course. Graduates become part of the school's community and gain access to professional contacts in the field of documentary theater.

Course fee is $290 for the entire course, and payment is possible with Visa and Mastercard cards issued outside the Russian Federation.

The program is aimed at Russian-speaking participants over 18 years old from different countries. We accept applications from all over the world.

You can apply with any topic you personally care about. However, this year we will pay special attention to applications with a reflection on global geopolitical shifts and how they affect personal freedom.


Un/Told: Online Documentary Theater Workshop

Un/Filmed School offers an online course in documentary filmmaking for Russian speaking professionals from different countries. The project is initiated by a group of documentary filmmakers and producers from the United States, the European Union, former USSR countries and Latin America.

An international online documentary film school for Russian speaking students

We advocate for the freedom to choose topics and the freedom to be you

Victor Ilyukhin

Victor Ilyukhin is a non-fiction Producer/Director who has worked internationally in documentary film and television for more than 10 years. He produced and co-edited the documentary “Busy Inside”, which premiered at The Moscow International Film Festival, won the audience award at the Middlebury Film Festival, was screened at DOC NYC, Hamptons Doc Fest, and broadcasted nationally on PBS in 2021 and 2023. His other film “Two and Twenty Troubles” has been screened at many festivals worldwide. Victor is also a co-author of FRAME documentary film series produced by Positive Exposure in New York State. His work has been featured in The New York Times. Victor believes in the healing power of documentary filmmaking.

Evgeniia Borisova

A mathematician with primary education and a film director with a secondary degree. She has produced several short films, one of which got special jury mention at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York. In 2022, she completed the main course at Un/Filmed and started working with the school's team.

Anastasia Vereshchagina

Anastasia is a film producer with extensive experience as a script supervisor, assistant director, and producer on numerous international film and TV projects, including those distributed by Netflix, Amazon, and Walter Presents, and nominated for a Daytime Emmy. After completing the 'Cultural Management' program at the University of Vienna in 2023, she began working with cultural initiatives and joined the school’s team in 2024.

Askold Kurov

Askold Kurov is a Russian documentary filmmaker. He graduated from the Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov School of Documentary Film and Theater in Moscow. In 2012, he was one of the directors of the award-winning documentary “Winter, Go Away!”. His subsequent films, “Leninland” and “Children 404”, “Novaya” and “The Trial. The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov”, and "Of Caravan and the Dogs" also garnered critical acclaim and were screened at numerous festivals. As a co-producer of the HBO MAX documentary “Welcome to Chechnya”, he won a BAFTA award and received an EMMY nomination.
In 2024 he received a Golden Horn Award at the Krakow Film Festival for 
"Of Caravan and the Dogs". Kurov is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

Pavel Loparev

Pavel Loparev is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, producer, and stop-motion animator. He has collaborated with major studios in Moscow, New York, Barcelona, and Santiago. He has directed various animated and documentary projects aimed at supporting stigmatized groups in society and raising awareness about various challenges they face every day. His projects were screened and won prizes at numerous prestigious international festivals, including DokLeipzig IFF, Hamburg FF, Jihlava IDFF, One World FF, HotDocs, IDFA, CPH:DOX, Open City Doc, Annecy, IAFF, and others. In 2015, Pavel co-founded “Illuminator”, an educational online media project for Russian parents of LGBTQ teens. Later Pavel produced an animated documentary series about the lives of LGBTQ people in Russia.

Ksenia Gapchenko

Ksenia Gapchenko is an award-winning, forward-thinking producer, striving to create engaging, powerful content with a lasting impact. In 2022 she produced the documentary “How to Save a Dead Friend” (co-production by Sweden, Norway, France, Germany, directed by M. Syroechkovskaya). The film was selected for the International Cannes Film Festival in 2022. It was also rewarded with a Special Mention at Visions du Reel and nominated for the EFA. Ksenia was a fellow of the Nipkow workshop 2022/2023, Ksenia’s professional training includes highly competitive international programs such as Eurodoc, Ex Oriente, B2B doc, and others. She pitched her projects at IDFA Forum, European Documentary Platform, Baltic Sea Docs, and was a recipient of the IDFA Bertha fund.

Anna Artemyeva

Anna Artemyeva is a director and cinematographer who has been working in documentary film for the last 20 years. She graduated from the cinematography and directing (animation department) faculties of VGIK. She also completed a master's program in documentary directing at DocNomads in 2021 (Portugal, Hungary, Belgium). Her short film “Don't hesitate to come for a visit, mom” participated in more than 30 major international festivals, including Visions du Réel, Go Short, Hot Docs, Vienna Shorts, ZagrebDox, Doclisboa, Artdocfest, and others. The film was awarded the IDFA Spotlight Award at Visions du Réel and won Best Student Documentary Film at the VERZIÓ International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival.

Renato Borrayo Serrano

Guatemalan and Russian film director. Renato participated in various prestigious film industry events such as Dok Leipzig Co-production Market, Karlovy Vary IFF Works in Progress, NORTH PITCH — Below Zero, and many others. His “Film for Carlos” received the Honorary Prize of the Jury at Dok Leipzig 2017 and an Honorary Mention of the Jury at Artdocfest in 2017 in Moscow. It also won the Prize for Best Short Film at DocuDays UA 2018 in Kyiv, among many others. His feature-length directorial debut, “Life of Ivanna”, premiered in the main competition at CPH:DOX in 2021 and was screened at Hot Docs 2021. Later, it was screened at the Zurich Film Festival, DOC NYC, and Docaviv. His films were financed in part by the Norwegian Film Institute and the Estonian Film Institute. Most recently, he worked as a director of photography on "Skywalkers: A Love Story" which premiered at Sundance in 2024 and was acquired by Netflix. 

Darya Sidorova

Daria Sidorova is a director, cinematographer, and editor. She graduated from the Stroganov Art Academy, and later from the Marina Razbezhkina and Mikhail Ugarov School of Documentary Film and Theater. She directed documentary films “Why Am I Here” and “I Want to Sing”, and worked on over twenty films for the Russian TV channel “Kultura.” Daria’s films gained recognition at numerous international film festivals. Together with Renato Borrayo Serrano, she worked on the documentary “Life of Ivanna” as a co-director and cinematographer. The film made its debut in the main competition of CPH:DOX in 2021, and was screened at Hot Docs, Zurich Film Festival, DOC NYC, and Docaviv.

Olga Lvoff

Olga Lvoff is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and a member of The European Film Academy. Her feature documentary “Busy Inside” aired on PBS and was featured in The New York Times. It premiered at the Moscow International Film Festival and won the Audience Award for Best Feature at the Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival. The film was theatrically released in over 30 theaters in Russia in 2019. Olga’s previous film “When People Die They Sing Songs” was broadcast on NHK (Japan), shown at the Documentary Film Center in Moscow, and participated in festivals such as DOC NYC and Message to Man. It was nominated for a Student Oscar and won CINE Golden Eagle Award. Olga received an MFA in Social Documentary from the School of Visual Arts (New York).

Igor Myakotin

Igor Myakotin is an Emmy-nominated, BAFTA-winning filmmaker who produced “Queendom” (SXSW 2023, NEXT:WAVE Jury Award at CPH:DOX) and “Welcome to Chechnya” (Sundance, Berlinale 2020). He was a 2022 Sundance Producing Fellow and was named one of the “40 Under 40” professionals working in the documentary industry by DOC NYC. Previously, Igor directed two award-winning shorts and was awarded a Davis Peace and Diplomacy grant at the International House in New York. Igor is a member of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and an alumnus of NextDoc.

Olga Demina

Graduate of the Faculty of History of Art and the Master's Degree in Psychology at the Russian State University of Humanities, as well as the Moscow Institute of Gestalt Therapy and Counseling. Started her career as an art historian in the education department of the State Center for Contemporary Art. She continues her therapeutic education at the Instituto di Gestalt in Italy.
A graduate of Un/Filmed, Olga now leads a psychological support group for filmmakers at the school. She lives and works in Milan, helping creative people to cope with professional challenges and unlock their potential.

Anastasia Patlay

Anastasia Patlay is a director, playwright, and festival curator, who specializes in documentary theater. Her productions were featured at Teatr.Doc, Meyerhold Center, Novosibirsk Globe Theater, Sakharov Center, and Museum of Architecture. She served as a curator of a theater program "Archaeology of Memory" at the Sakharov Center and was one of the curators of the festival "Hunting for Reality" at Teatr.Doc. Anastasia gives master classes and workshops on documentary theater. Since February 2022 she has been living in Granada, and participated in The Lubimovka Echo Festivals in Paris, Belgrade and Berlin (2022-2023). Together with Nana Grinstein she researched and wrote the play Discrediting (2023); which was a part of the international project "Sąsiedzi. Sąsiedzi. Sąsiedzi. Neighbors", initiated by the Polish foundation Floating EKA. In June 2023 she organized the festival “The Lubimovka Echo. Granada”.
Since February 2023, Anastasia was a resident of the Brecht House Museum in Augsburg. In 2024 she staged the play Memoria in Germany, which was shown at the Brecht Festival in Augsburg and at the Münchner Kammerspiele Theater in Munich. Since 2024, she has also been one of the artistic directors of the Lubimovka Festival of Contemporary Dramaturgy.

Ekaterina Bondarenko

Ekaterina Bondarenko is a playwright, dance-dramaturge, and performer. Her documentary texts and plays have been staged in Russian independent and repertory theaters. Since 2011, she has worked at Teatr.doc (Moscow) as an author and curator of documentary projects. From 2014 to 2017, she served as the chief playwright of the New Stage at the Alexandrinsky Theatre (St. Petersburg), organizing festivals such as ‘New Play for Children’ and a festival for readings of contemporary European dramaturgy. From 2016 to 2020, in collaboration with choreographer Tatiana Gordeeva, she created a series of performances for the Meyerhold Center (Moscow). She also curated the Blackbox laboratory there in 2019. Additionally, she taught the practice of documentary theater at the St. Petersburg Theater Academy under Natalia Skorokhod’s master’s course in 2015 and at the Moscow School of New Cinema (MSNC) under Dmitry Kubasov’s course from 2020 to 2021.

Courses

Un/Filmed Team