[1] Winner of a College Emmy from the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and two CINE Eagle Awards from the Council on International Non-Theatrical Events in Washington, D.C., “The Bridge Project” is the ground-breaking student film that embraced Mikhail Gorbachev’s “Glasnost” and “Perestroika” in 1988 to become the first filmed collaboration between students in the United States and the former Soviet Union.
Shot on location in Moscow, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg) and Chicago, the project brought together young filmmakers who bridged the gap between their respective countries to express a message of hope and cooperation through their shared visual language of film.
It had taken over a year of planning and preparation to find the proper channel of communication by which Kath’s proposal for a joint US/Soviet student film production could be delivered to a receptive authority within the U.S.S.R. Lawrence Schiller, the producer of the television miniseries “Peter the Great” had enjoyed unprecedented access to locations in Russia during his production and had agreed to hand-deliver the proposal to Alexander Komshalov of Goskino, the Soviet State Film Agency.
While the logistics of the physical production were finalized, the two directors, Mazzucato and Airapetyan, dove into the process of creating a story and joint concept for the film.
They were escorted to a wide range of locations, both simple and grand—from produce markets along the street, to backstage at the Bolshoi Theater and the courtyard of the Winter Palace of Peter the Great in Leningrad.
Producer Kath had secured corporate sponsorship for the U.S. portion of the project which included accommodations at the North Shore Hilton along with a variety of local restaurants.
Additionally, Eastman Kodak, Sony Corporation, RiverNorth Recorders and Editel—Chicago, among others, provided the film and video products and services that had made the project itself possible.
Using the brand-new Montage non-linear editing system at Editel-Chicago allowed directors Mazzucato and Airapetyan to assemble and fine-tune their collaborative effort on a tight schedule without having to compromise any creative exploration.