MICHAEL SHUR
PRODUCER / DIRECTOR
After receiving a master's degree in film and theater directing at the Institute of Theater, Music and Cinema in St. Petersburg, Russia, he released two feature films, in 1975 and 1984. He made many documentaries and commercials. In 1974, he was an assistant director in the famous film Blue Bird, where Elizabeth Taylor starred. On &, he worked side by side with director George Cucor. Blue Bird became a joint project of 20th Century Fox and Lenfilm Leningrad Studio. As a jazz pianist and music lover, he met and played with musicians such as Duke Ellinton and John Gonzalez. His love of music inspired him to create a documentary about Russian jazz - the film was distributed in the United States. For many years, Mikhail worked on biographical documentaries, corporate videos and films about jurisprudence. He collaborated and performed freelance work for large video companies, providing them with archival documentary footage from the former Soviet Union. He assisted in the filmmaking and distribution of films in the territory of the former Soviet Union. His aSHURthing company is engaged also in the translation and a repostscoring of English-language movies into Russian, the full-length picture "Maggie and I" became Mikhail's work most known at the moment in this direction. Anderson's Mission is his company's first bilingual project.
EUGENE KOLKEVICH
CREATIVE DIRECTOR
Born in Moscow, Russia, Eugene Kolkevich graduated from the Moscow Military Music School and the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory, with a focus in orchestral conducting. He then worked as a conductor in Kaunas, Lithuania and in Moscow. In Moscow, he was the business owner of a restaurant, a video salon, and a computer game salon. In 1993, he immigrated to the United States, where he was trained and worked as a programmer. In 2001, he founded and began hosting the Russian-language radio program "Lunch Time Radio.” The same year, he founded and became leading actor of the First Russian Repertory Drama Theater "Atrium." In 2008, after studying oriental medicine in India, he organized the Help Yourself Center for Alternative Medicine. Currently, he serves as president of the Russian-American Cultural Center in Chicago.
VLADIMIR STRELKOV
SCREENPLAY
Vladimir Alekeslavovich Strelkov is a Soviet and Russian film director and screenwriter, working with popular science, documentary and feature films. His most famous films include Allegro with Fire (1979), I, the Son of the Working People (1983), and Feat of Odessa (1985). In the field of non-fiction cinema, he has released more than forty films and television programs.
He was born March 15, 1938, in Ilyinsky Pogost, a village in the Orekhovo-Zuyevsky District of Moscow. He graduated from the directing department of VGIK (1964, documentary film workshop of L. Kristi). During his schooling, he also worked as a director at the Nizhne-Volzhskaya and Kazan newsreel studios. From 1964 on, he was director of the Kazan Film Studio. In 1970 he became director of Central Science Film, then worked at "the Screen" studio of the Central Theater of the USSR in 1972. From 1978-1985, he served as Director of the Odessa Studio of Feature Films, followed by work as a freelance director.
In 1992, he created the film studio "Annunciation" at the ECB, creating films and television shows on religious topics. From 1995-1998, he taught directing at the GUK. He was recognized as an Honored Artist of the Mordovian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1971.
KEITH KELLY
NARRATOR
Keith Kelly is a professional film, TV, and commercial actor and VO artist based in Chicago, Illinois, as well as a filmmaker and Director. His versatility in shifting from white collar to blue collar roles is a testament to his training and devotion to the craft, and he’s on his way to becoming one of the market’s busiest actors over 50. He’s represented exclusively in the Midwest by DDO Artists Agency in Chicago and managed by Spire Artists Management.
Keith frequently works in the genre of comedy, often appearing as eccentric or clueless yet lovable characters. His polished delivery and serious demeanor have led to roles conveying a sense of power, too, including detectives, politicians, judges, clergymen, news anchors, and includes two stints as The President of the U.S.
Keith brings a story-driven approach to his roles, and his involvement in storytelling extends beyond narrative film and TV projects and advertising. For three decades, he’s guided ​entrepreneurs, small businesses and large corporations in telling their stories authentically and effectively as a producing Business Story Coach. His expertise in the field of communications is influenced, in part, by a stint as a radio personality at a Top 40 station, WSOY-FM, in Decatur, Illinois. He is currently in post production on a documentary feature film he is Directing and co/writing-Showing Up.
Keith has been married to Connie, the love of his life for over 30 years, and is the proud dad to his furry doggie daughter Sophie.
DMITRY YAKUBOV
FIRST ASSISTANT DIRECTOR
Dmitry Yakubov is a journalist, translator and graphic designer who collaborates with a number of Russian-language media companies in Chicago.
Yakubov graduated from the St. Petersburg State Academy of Culture with a degree in directing theatre performances and events. He has directed several performances with the stars of the St. Petersburg scene, in venues including The Comedy Shelter, Estrada Theater and others.
After studying and teaching sociology at the Saint Petersburg State University of Economics and Finance for a few years, he moved to Chicago in 2002 at age 30. From 2007 to 2010, he published the magazine Information Window.
At the same time, he began working professionally in poetic translation. His work has been featured in collections "Age of Translation - 3" and "The Spell of the Yukon by Robert Service" (both collections edited by E. Vitkovsky). His translations have appeared in the magazines Alpha and Omega, Floating Bridge, and Foreign Literature. He translated into Russian and voiced the documentary film Anderson’s Mission. He also translates from English and German.
He wrote the permanent online editions of Age of Translation and 45th Parallel, and is the author of the book Western Spiritual Poetry of the 15-20th Centuries (2017).
IGOR TSESARSKY
STORY
Igor Leonidovich Tsesarsky (born 1956) - Russian-American prose writer, publicist, translator; publisher and editor-in-chief of the Continent media group.
He graduated from the philological faculty of TashSU. He worked as an editor at the publishing house of the Academy of Sciences "FAN," a literary consultant in the Writers' Union of Uzbekistan, and the editor-in-chief of the publishing company "Impulse" (Moscow).
I. Tsesarsky acted in the press as a prose writer and publicist. On his account are three books of prose, hundreds of articles in periodicals, scripts of television and radio broadcasts. In his translations, prose works by leading Uzbek writers E. Agzamov, H. Sultanov, S. Siyaev and others were published in Russian. He is a member of the International Writing PEN Club and the International Press Association.
In 1992 he emigrated to the United States.
In 1995, he opened a newspaper in Russian, Russian Accent.
Since 1999 the publisher and the editor-in-chief of the Continent media group, nowadays one of the largest Russian-language publishing networks in North America publishing five weekly publications ("Continent" (East), "Continent" (South), "Continent" (West), "Review", "The Russian accent" and two monthly supplements "Russky Kaleydoskop" (East and Midvest) and also the Internet portal www.kontinentusa.com. Website of newspapers and archives www.kontinent.org. A separate division of the media group is engaged in the production of books and other printed materials.
He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of The Third Century Foundation (Washington), the Anderson House Foundation (Chicago), and the editorial boards and jury of several International Projects.
1999 - Laureate of the V Artiad of the Peoples of Russia.
2011 - European silver medal named after Albert Schweitzer with a diploma for special merits and honors in the field of journalism.
VADIM VIKTOROV
POST-PRODUCTION
United Multimedia Projects - motion picture company, Moscow.
1997 - present: Art director I Technical Director Producer. Apple Certified Master Trainer Final Cut Studio, Apple Certified Trainer Final Cut Server, Work in all projects of the company - from video to film movies, advertising, music video, visual effects, and animations. Experience in Apple XSan design and installations, also mix video audio analog-digital LAN. Supervise technological development of the company, train specifics of modern digital cinematography technologies (Stereo, HDCAM SR, RED, HDCAM). Previously supervise shooting and create composition visual effects on film and video, create 3D animation
graphics, video-editing. Cartoon animation. Manage other technologies such as 3D scanning, 3D equalize, motion capture, motion control, lipsync, design and desktop publishing, DVD Blu Ray encoding. Web development. PIDP Inc. - distribution company of Warner Brothers in Russia, Moscow. 1996 - 1997: Senior designer I Technical director. Creative and design for many subsidiary companies: Varus Video, Om, Sezam Video, Evrika Films, Video magazine. Made desktop publishing and video editing showreels about films from Warner Brothers, United Artists, MGM.
All works meet the requirements of localization key-arts in Russia.
TOM GRANT
MUSIC
Tom Grant (born February 22, 1946) is an American smooth jazz/jazz fusion pianist and vocalist. Tom Grant was born in Portland, Oregon, to a musical family. His father was a tap dancer who owned a record store in Portland, and his brother was an avant-garde jazz pianist. Grant learned to play piano and drums when he was young. After graduating from the University of Oregon, he traveled to New York City in 1970 with Native American saxophonist Jim Pepper. This led to Grant touring and recording with jazz greats Woody Shaw, Charles Lloyd, and Tony Williams. Grant cut his first solo record for Timeless in 1976, and in 1979 he formed his own band. Beginning in 1983, Grant started recording a series of jazz-influenced pop albums that have variously been called "New Adult Contemporary", "Quiet Storm", "Contemporary Jazz" and "Smooth Jazz"; each have been best-sellers in the lite jazz market.
Grant has been featured on CNN and has been a guest on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno. And he has composed music for TV and radio.
CAREY SMOLENSKY
PRODUCER / MARKETING / PROMOTIONS
Carey Smolensky is a proud Husband, Father, and "Papa C" to his two grandchildren. A Dynamic Businessman, Event Producer, Multi-Faceted Entertainer, Author, Recording Artist, and Entrepreneur, Carey was born in Chicago and began his family of companies over four decades ago, while in high school. Carey believes that change is the key to innovation, and as a result, he is constantly evolving both personally and professionally to continually live his life with passion and make a difference in the lives of others.
Carey is the Founder and President of Carey Smolensky Productions and his CSP Worldwide family of companies for over 4 decades. CSP provides global event production and entertainment for live, virtual, and hybrid events, as well as audio and video pre and post-production. Carey is also a professional film, TV, and commercial actor and recording artist based in the Chicagoland area.
Carey is the author of the book, “Living Life with Passion and Helping Others” published in 2015. The book is an embodiment of how he lives his life. Carey is also Executive Producer of “The Passion Summit” an annual life-changing event to ignite your passions, fuel your existence, create purpose, help others, and be part of a lifelong global community. Carey’s goal of creating a like-minded community is just the beginning of being able to support each other while thriving personally and helping others achieve their dreams.