Russian filmmakers in petition to protect children’s cinema

A group of Russian filmmakers plan to send a petition to President Vladimir Putin, the State Duma and Ministry of Culture, calling for the protection of Russian children’s cinema.

The project’s initiator is head of the international family film festival “Up”, Yuri Ryazanov.

“Children’s cinema is a very delicate matter that we must pay more attention to. [...] The state must regulate the market and help both in distribution and in production,” Mr Ryazanov stated.

The authors of the petition intend to start a working group, made up of representatives from the relevant ministries and departments, filmmakers, distributors, psychologists, educators and interested parents. In their opinion, it is essential to develop a new financial mechanism for supporting children’s cinema, new children’s content for television, and reviving children’s cinemas.

“Children’s cinema is not about money… it’s a moral matter. At present we don’t have professional resources, children’s scriptwriters or directors, when during the Soviet period the best filmmakers [...] were working on it,” said producer Natalya Mokritskaya on the situation in an interview with RIA Novosti.

In Ms Mokritskaya’s opinion, if children’s filmmaking is approached not as a business but as an investment in the future, the industry will enjoy more success.

Source: RIA Novosti (in Russian)