
What is Vaskino?
Vaskino is a village about 50 miles outside of
Moscow. The village estate, which dates back
to the early 19th century, was purchased in the
early 1890s by my great grandfather Vladimir
Semenkovich. His closest neighbor was Anton
Chekhov, with whom he collaborated to improve local
conditions.
To me
the word Vaskino evokes a lost past,
fin de siecle Russians, sentimentalists and their artistic pursuits--not
to mention "kino," the Russian word for film. |
Serge
Gregory has made ten narrative, documentary and
experimental short films since 1997. His film “Tientsin Diaries” (2006) is
a fictional documentary about Russian
expatriates in China on the eve of World World II.
“Foster Island” (2004), inspired by New York
landscape filmmaker Peter Hutton, premiered at the
Seattle International Film Festival and was included
in the Best of the Northwest Film and Video Festival
2005 tour. His films have been exhibited at the
Seattle International Film Festival, One Reel Film
Festival, Seattle Art Museum, Northwest Film Forum,
Library of Congress, and a variety of museum,
gallery and alternative venues in the North America
and Europe. Gregory's films have been funded by
Artist Trust, 4Culture, and the Seattle Arts
Commission. He is a board member of Seattle’s
Northwest Film Forum.
Born in China of Russian parents, he came to the U.S. when
he was seven years old. Gregory is a Phi Beta Kappa
graduate of the College of William and Mary, spent a
year as a Fulbright Scholar at Leningrad State
University, and holds a Ph.D. in Russian Language
and Literature from the University of Washington.
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