He created a number of movies popular in Russia including Neptune's Feast (1986), Fontain (1988), Sideburns, (1990), Window to Paris (1993), and Don't Think About White Monkeys (2008).

Because of this, he found difficult to find support for his productions in the totalitarian USSR, as well as in today's Russia, where film makers became dependent on corporate oligarchy.

But professor Leonid Fyodorovich Makaryev, a People's Artist of the USSR, liked the 18-year-old boy who, at a colloquium, boldly answered questions about theater, film and literature, Peter Brook and existentialism - a result of his mother's teaching.

During his collaborative study at the institute, Mamin gained confidence in both acting and directing skills, participating in student revues and in plays on the stage of the old Young Spectator's Theatre (TUZ).

For his graduation play, Yuri Mamin was sent to the regional city of Velikiye Luki, where he was commissioned by the leaders of the local drama theater to direct Denis Fonvizin’s comedy "The Minor" for a high school program.

Having decided to follow in the footsteps of his idol, Vsevolod Meyerhold, Mamin directed "The Minor" in such an uninhibited manner and with so much eccentricity, that the teachers forbade their students from seeing the play, which caused a frenzy in the city.

Since Mamin had already worked with this organization before his military service and had delivered to them a variety show that received an award at the All-Russian Competition, Yuri was hired.

Dmitry Bykov came twice to Moscow to see this play that he considered one of the best examples of modern satire, as he remarked in his radio program on City FM.

After leaving Lenconcert, he entered Lenfilm as a director's assistant on a film crew for Sergey Mikaelyan's movie "Victory Day" ("Widows").

At this time period, from 1979 till 1982, which became an important milestone in Soviet cinematography, the courses offered a uniquely eclectic curriculum that included philosophy lectures by Merab Mamardashvili and history classes by Natan Eidelman.

Among other lecturers were the art critic P. Volkova and film directors Alexander Mitta, Leonid Trauberg and Andrey Tarkovsky who left the USSR after a long period of participation as a teacher.

[7] Before starting an independent director career, Mamin also co-directed Viktor Aristov film "Gunpowder", timed to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the World War II Victory.

Attendees at the Fifth Congress of Soviet Filmmakers and at writer and journalist conventions responded vigorously to Mamin's work, calling it "the first film of Perestroika".

The judging panel, led by Eldar Ryazanov, consisted of the satirist Mikhail Zhvanetsky, journalist Vitaly Korotich, composer Nikita Bogoslovsky and artist Ilya Glazunov.

[9] In 1990, Mamin released the film "Bakenbardy" ("SIDEBURNS"), written by V. Leikin, a brutal Brechtian farce about a fanatical "national-Pushkinist" scholar and his clique, who were obsessed with nationalist ideas and the poetry of Alexander Pushkin.

Because of this situation, Yuri Mamin moved to television at the end of 1994 and began hosting educational, humorous, musical and original TV programs such as "From Forte to Piano" and "Chameleon" for the channel RTR, appreciated by artists and popular among the intelligentsia.

Together with his closest associates, including Vladimir Vardunas and Arkady Tigai, they came up with a screenplay for a film consisting of ten funny short stories about brides.

Finally, the Saint Petersburg company Bomba-Piter released the series on DVD in 2009, which immediately led to their appearance on file sharing websites.

In 2005, Yuri Mamin's wife, actress and producer Lyudmila Samokhvalova, and their daughter, Katerina Ksenyeva, convinced the distinguished film director to return to the big screen.

They found investors who supported his socially critical film "Don’t Think About White Monkeys," written together with Vladimir Vardunas and rendered into verse by the poet Vyacheslav Leikin.

For that reason, the director, as an experienced, skilled worker capable of fulfilling tasks within a tight schedule, had been working on this film for over three years.

[12] Today, Yuri Mamin conducts a master studio for directors of screen entertainment at the Saint Petersburg Institute for Television, Business and Design.

The TV program "House of Culture" is run in an interactive fashion whereby Yuri Mamin engages in direct discussions with viewers on matters of public concern.

[15] Grand Prizes at film festivals in Moscow, Kyiv and Tbilisi, 1988-1989 (Neptune's Holiday) Yuri Mamin says that inherited a gift of music and leadership qualities from his mother, a talented pianist, and his grandfather "who was the life and soul of every party".

[16] In his youth, when Mamin studied at the theater institute, he met the actress Lyudmila Samokhvalova who remains his wife and lifelong creactive partner.