The Center for Russian and East European Studies
Presents a Film Screening by
Marianna Yarovskaya

A Russian-American director and filmmaker and a former correspondent for Russian State Television, Yarovskaya graduated from Moscow State University, then worked for a prime time news station on Russian television before obtaining her MFA degree in film production from the University of Southern California.

Film Screenings will include:

Undesirables

reveals how homeless youths and other marginal residents were swept out of Moscow by Russian police in preparation for high profile events, including the 1998 International Youth Olympics. The film follows the stories of four young runaways in different parts of Russia. Three of them ran away from their provincial homes to Moscow. The film depicts Moscow's juvenile detention center and documents the children's eventual deportation from the capital back to their abusive families or to reform schools in the provinces.

HOLY WARRIORS

chronicles the spiritual upheaval brought about by war on those involved, offering profound insight into the resilience of the human spirit during trying times. It demonstrates the traumatic effect of enlisting unwilling soldiers in wartime, while raising the pertinent question of the links between war and religion, through these direct manifestations of fear and hate, love and faith in modern-day society. "There are no atheists in a foxhole," as one of the characters puts it.

February 15, 2006
White Hall 206
6:00 pm

Marianna Yarovskya will be screening her new documentary Holy Warriors.

Holy Warriors is a documentary chronicling the lives of Chechen and Afghanistan war veterans in Russia. Holy Warriors is a about the consequences of wars, in particular the Russian conflicts in Chechnya and Afghanistan and other Islamic regions with "terrorist regimes."

Marianna Yarovskaya is a former journalist for Russian televison. Graduating from Moscow State University she went to work for a prime time new programa "Vremya" (Time) on Russian State Television. She then went on to work for a cultural news program "Namedni" (This Week) on Independent Television (NTV), the most highly rated network in Moscow. She got her Masters of Fine Arts degree in Film Production at the School of Cinema-Television at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, she worked in research on several documentary features, including kindertransport (Warner Bros.) by Academy Award–winning documentarian Mark Harris, and Kent State by Academy Award–nominated producer Mark Mori (Single Spark Pictures).

In 1999 Marianna directed and produced Undesirables, a documentary following the lives of four young runaways in different areas of Russia. The film was nominated for a Student International Documentary Association Award, earned a Student Oscar (Student Academy Award) and a College Emmy. The film was also featured at the 53rd Cannes International Film Festival as part of the Kodak Emerging Filmmakers Showcase.

During the past five years Marianna has worked as a video producer at the NASA Ames Research Centre in Moffett Field, California, and for the Discovery Channel series Unsolved History and the History Channel Series Modern Marvels.