Up-and-coming filmmaker's work at Tribeca festival (04/24/05)

Up-and-coming filmmaker's work at Tribeca festival

NEW YORK - A new Ukrainian film - "Zimove Vesilya" (Snowblink) - co-directed by Andrij Parekh and Sophie Barthes, is currently being shown as part of the Tribeca Film Festival in the short film category.

The film, described as "A couple's honeymoon journey across the snow-covered steppe of Ukraine [that] is inexplicably troubled by a bleeding finger" - will be screened on April 25 at 10 p.m., April 27 at 8:15 p.m. and April 30 at 11:30 p.m. Screenings are held at the Regal Battery Theatre, 102 North End Ave. (at Vesey and West streets).

A Minnesota native of Ukrainian and Indian descent, Mr. Parekh, 33, studied cinematography at the FAMU film school at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, where he received his M.F.A. in 2001.

He has made more than 50 films, music videos and commercials, many of which have won awards. "Zimove Vesilya" is his fourth short film, following "Mertvi Pivni" (Dead Roosters), shot in Ukraine, which won the Grand Marnier Prize at the New York Film Festival (2004) and the Future Filmmaker Award at the Palm Spring Film Festival (2004).

In its annual survey of new talent, Mr. Parekh was recently named one out of the "25 New Faces of Independent Film" by Filmmaker Magazine (summer 2004), where he was ranked No. 5.

Mr. Parekh, whose connection to Ukraine is matrilineal, has been spending a lot of time in Ukraine, where he has many contacts, including Americans who opened up a production company. Since shooting his thesis film there, he visits Ukraine frequently to work. His thesis film subsequently won a student Academy Award.

In the Filmmaker profile, Mr. Parekh credits Harris Savides ("The Game," "Elephant") with instilling in him a passion for cinematography when he served as his apprentice on James Gray's "The Yards."

In his cinematography, which he characterizes as "very director-bound," Mr. Parekh underscores that it is essential for him "that the image feels like something - that it is soulful. If not, there's nothing there."

Among Mr. Parekh's cinematographic credits are such feature films as Jessica Sharzer's "Speak," Philip Farha's sci-fi thriller "Messengers" and Kirill Mikhanovsky's Portuguese drama "Sonhos de Peixe" (Dreaming of Fish), shot last year in Brazil.

Co-director of "Zimove Vesilya" is Sophia Barthes, a 1998 graduate of the Paris School of Management (École Supérieure de Commerce de Paris) in media and cultural management. Ms. Barthes worked for two years as a journalist for the press agency Medialink in the Philippines, Mongolia, Lebanon, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Greece, and Colombia.

Tickets for "Zimove Vesilya" (Snowblink), at $10, general screening, may be purchased online at tribecafilmfestival.org (24 hours) or by phone, (866) 941-FEST (3378). For additional information access the website: www.tribecafilmfestival.org.

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