Feature – Oleg Chorny & Gena Khamruk

Interview on VIP- Interview Project
Oleg Chorny – http://vip.newmediafest.org/?page_id=1630

Oleg Chorny
Born in 1963 – Graduated from the film director’s department of the State Institute of Theatre and cinema in 1985.
Worked at the Olexander Dovzhenko State Film Studio in Kyiv, various governmental and non-governmental film and video studios.
Shot a number of feature shorts, documentaries, ecological and promo films, musical video clips and art videos.
His short feature movies, documentaries and art videos participated at the programs at the Ukrainian and international festivals.
He is member of the Ukrainian Filmmakers Union and Ukrainian Film Academy.

Gena Khamruk
Born in 1972 – Graduated from the director’s department of the State Ukrainian Academy of Culture.
Worked as an editor and director at the non-governmental video and TV studios, worked as VJ and computer graphics designer.
In 1996 Oleg Chorny and Gena Khmaruk has founded the non-profit creative unit “SAMPLED PICTURES”.
A number of videos created by “SAMPLED PICTURES” were presented at the various film and video festivals, exhibitions and club screenings.

Selected videos

Oleg Chorny & Gena Khamruk (Ukraine) – Still Alive, 2012, 1:00
Once a strange event took place at subway station in Kyiv (Ukraine).

Oleg Chorny (Ukraine) – OLEXA HIRNYK STAIRS, 2012, 14:00
Olexa Hirnyk (1912-1978). Ukrainian dissident, political prisoner. On 21 January 1978, the eve of the sixtieth anniversary of Ukraine’s declaration of independence by the Central Rada (Ukrainian parliament) of 21 January 1918, he burned himself to death nearby the grave of national poet Taras Shevchenko as an act of protest against russianization of Ukraine. Before his self-immolation, Olexa Hirnyk scattered about a thousand by him hand written leaflets. The Soviet regime hushed up any information about this act. This video inspired by Olexa Hirnyk`s act.

Oleg Chorny (Ukraine) – Summer 2014, 2014, 7:10
Author:Oleg CHORNY / Camera:Andriy TARTYSHNIKOV /Video and Sound Editing: Andriy KOROTAYEVSKY / Audio mixing: Mykhailo KAPUSTA
Synopsis
How does the WAR sounds? Somewhere on the East of Ukraine, the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war. Now we hear the sounds of war not only in the East of our country, but in the most big cities, towns and villages of Ukraine.

Oleg Chorny & Gena Khamruk (Ukraine) – The Tree, 2019, 6: 40
Authors: Oleg Chorny & Gennadiy Khmaruk / Music by Olexiy Mikryukov Aka King Imagine / Sound mixed by Andriy Ryzhov / Producer : Bohdan Shumylovych / Production manager: Oleksandr Makhanets
Production : Center for Urban History of East Central Europe (Lviv, Ukraine) & Sampled Pictures (Kyiv, Ukraine)

Synopsis
The film tells the story of a craftsman’s creativity and his connection to a tree that extracts an invisible form from a material substance. The act of creating by a human being is subject to the power of the substance that governs the carver independently determining the result. The subjectivity of nature is also manifested in the film through chemical damage – images and memory are absorbed and disappear behind the veil

Oleg Chorny & Gena Khamruk (Ukraine) – FON, 2021, 27: 54
Music by Vladyslav Dikhtiarenko & Dmytro Kurovskiy Aka FOA HOKA / Sound designed and mixed by Andriy Ryzhov / Additional footage shooting by Andrey Tartishnikov, Gena Khmaruk, Oleg Chorny
Synopsis:
FON album was recorded in 1998 and its visualization has been started simultaneously. Ancient analog Soviet synthesizers have been used in the process, so, the results of syntheses were unpredictable. The uniqueness of every Act is determined by the fact that it is impossible to reproduce the sound of any of the performances. Each of the Acts is a report on the expedition to the country of lost electrons.

Oleg Chorny & Gena Khamruk (Ukraine) – BOLERO MUSHROOM, 2001, 11: 14
The comparison of an atomic explosion with a mushroom is quite common. We can even state that this is one of the very first associations that people have when reminded of an atomic explosion.
The key visual idea was to “get inside” an atomic explosion, to find ourselves among the pixels of the atomic explosion. At a very close distance pixels begin to resemble some unclear infernal objects.
As a soundtrack we used the Bolero by Maurice Ravel, a masterpiece of classical music. This well-known piece of great dramatic power and emotion was a forerunner of many directions of contemporary music, including techno. Ravel’s “Bolero” had many visual and scenic embodiments. We tried to create our own version of the immortal classical piece.