New York Premiere Screening Of THE GIRL WITH FLAIR to Take Place at Fridman Gallery

Locus 29, in partnership with Fridman Gallery, has announced the screening of Girl with Flair ("?"евушка с изюминкой"), а short documentary by a Russian-American filmmaker Ilya Popenko. The film, which originally premiered in June 2021 at the Doker Festival in Moscow, Russia, will be shown for the first time in New York on October 28 at Fridman Gallery.

Girl with Flair is a 23-minute-long portrait of an immigrant poet and a New York social worker Alex Galper. After learning the news of his ex-fiancee's unconventional marriage, Alex starts to wonder whether it's possible to be a true revolutionary and a nonconformist while living a comfortable life of a government employee.

The film is in Russian with English subtitles.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A session with Ilya Popenko and Alex Galper.

Ilya Popenko

Having two rival countries to call his home and feeling like an alien in both of them, Russian-American photographer, illustrator, songwriter, musician and filmmaker Ilya Popenko explores lines between national, collective and personal identities across different media.

Ilya was born in 1980 in Moscow, Russia. In 1996 he immigrated to the USА where he graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in photography. In a recent series of solo exhibitions that took place both in Russia and in the US, Ilya has been successful in combining his photography work and illustrations with performances by his music project Mad Meg. He has taken part in numerous group shows, and his most recent photo series 'Vlad and John' won First Prize at the annual PDN Magazine competition.

Filmed, produced and directed by Ilya Popenko

Popenko is very new to filmmaking. He made a transition from still photography to moving images only in 2020. Before completing his first documentary short film Girl with Flair, he has mostly been doing educational and music videos.

Language: Russian
Subtitles: English

Duration: 24 min

More details at locus29.com