On October 19, the administration of the Odessa Film Studio, with the participation of its private shareholder, Alexander Tkachenko, held a closed, only for the press, presentation of the results of a survey of Odesa residents about the future of the legendary enterprise.

We asked the head of the Odessa Filmmakers Guild public organization, filmmaker and producer Igor Shevchenko to comment on this event..

Odessa Daily. Igor, did you attend the event?.

Unfortunately, neither me, nor my colleagues - professional cinematographers, who gave the studio many years of life, were allowed to such a significant event, as is obvious, only so that we could not publicly, before the press, ask the organizers very uncomfortable questions for them, from the intelligible official responses to which the administration of the film studio and its private co-owner has been diligently evading not for the first month.

And the first question is why the film studio, despite the protests of the State Property Fund, the creative team, the public of Odessa in 2006 was reorganized by a court decision, what were the reasons for this? Why didn’t the labor collective receive a gratuitously indivisible part of the shareholding of its enterprise, as provided for by the Law? Why is this the main intangible asset of the studio being privatized by court - the copyright on a collection of more than 500 films, bringing the studio tangible and most importantly - permanent, income, was taken from the studio, without any compensation? Why were two studio dormitories transferred to the balance of the newly established “CJSC”, which, again, according to the Law, in principle could not be transferred to it, because they had to become the communal property of the territorial community? Why was one of these hostels sold off in parts by the previous administration of the studio to people who have no real relation to the film studio? How exactly were private investments spent in the authorized capital of CJSC "Odessa Film Studio" at the time of its creation, and were they made in full? Why, finally, since 2009, has the film studio ceased to produce “films of its own production”, and switched to the provision of services to other filmmakers? Who made that decision? And what about the official loss of the film studio today? We are still waiting for official answers, but we do not want to answer any of these questions to our “interlocutors”..

Od. And the head of the film studio, Andrei Osipov, knew that you and your colleagues were going to come?.

Of course, he also urged us to abandon confrontation and move to constructive cooperation in solving the problems of the film studio, he also knew that we had prepared our constructive proposals for overcoming the crisis for this meeting. But apparently, his call was not entirely sincere, and at the very last moment the irrational desire to protect the film studio from the filmmakers he outweighed. In any case, I have never seen such a number of police and private guards around..

Od. Igor, the administration of the company reported that according to their survey, half of Odessa citizens were in favor of privatizing the Odessa Film Studio, do you think this is true?.

The questions from this “questionnaire” seemed to me and my comrades to be openly manipulative, they were deliberately designed so that a negative answer is obviously impossible. In my opinion, much more indicative in this respect is the open poll, which the current “owners” of the film studio negligently started on the official page of the Odessa Film Studio on Facebook, and when the answers were upset and upset, they hurriedly removed the opinions of Odessans. But we still have screen-shots of the real attitude of Odessa citizens to this, as I believe, frank scam, I will gladly give them to you.

Od. The administration of the film studio announced the start of cooperation with Norway, how would you comment on this?.

International cooperation is great, art cannot have borders. The main thing is that it does not damage the national production..

You must admit that we should not only be a service platform, in Ukraine as a whole and specifically in our city in Odessa, first of all, we should make our own films intended for our viewers, focused on our mentality. And I would prefer that, instead of the next pretentious statements, private shareholder Alexander Tkachenko finally fulfilled all his loud promises of the 2005 model.. After all, he “threatened” to revive his own film industry at the Odessa Film Studio and promised “I will work with you, and with whom else? ". I understand that they have been waiting for the promised three years, but as many as thirteen have passed.. Alexander Tkachenko, we are ready for a long time! Its time to begin!.

Od. Igor, on the eve of the presentation in the online publication “Odessa Courier” in the article “Who Saves the Odessa Film Studio” Yevgeny Zhenin speaks very unflatteringly about the work of the Guild, how do you feel about this?.

Eugene, sorry who.

Od. Member of the Board of the National Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine.

You see, in the National Union of Cinematographers, as elsewhere, there are very different people. I respect many of them, but if by “Zhenya” you mean Yevgeny Barenboim, then he is not one of them.. Therefore, I don’t comment on his attacks, it would be ridiculous. We are not discussing with you, for example, the loud street performances of the famous grandmother from Odessa, nicknamed “America notices”. Maybe a person has an “autumn aggravation” now, with some it happens. And we only do what we have to do.. And we do it strictly in accordance with the Law.. Here, as they say, the dog barks, and the caravan goes.

After all, we have committed ourselves with all our forces to hinder the conversion or liquidation of the Odessa film studio, in every way contribute to the revival of the Odessa film studio, and restore the release of our own production at the studio of feature films and television films, and therefore uncompromisingly deal with any violations filmmakers and actively seek the abolition of the illegal privatization of the Odessa film studio, and the return of the film studio to its copyright lmofond. I think, together we will protect the Odessa film studio, and save it for Odessa and Ukraine.