Director, writer and producer, author of more than 10 documentaries, including The Tundra Book, participated in dozens of Festivals in 2012, uncluding Hot Docs, Vision du Reel, Jihlava, etc. and received Russian National NIKA Award in the nomination "The best documentary of the year".

 

Aleksei Vakhrushev was born in Anadyr, the capital of the Chukchi autonomous Region (Russia) in 1969. He has received his degree in actors' art at the Theatre Institute of Vladivostok and started his filmmaking study at the All Russian State Cinematography Institute (VGIK) in Moscow in 1991. 

 

He began his film career with the documentary Time When Dreams Melt, 1993-1996, the real story of his people - Eskimos of the Yupik group of Northeastern Asia. His view from the inside provided a completely new perspective on the life, problems, and hopes of the indigenous people of Chukotka for the first time.

As director and screenwriter worked at M Film studio (1996-2001), contributed to Ethno-online as the director of a series Russian National Geography for Channel 1, Peoples of Russia for the channel Russia Today. In the 2000s  worked on his own projects  and since 2009 General Director of a Moscow studio High Latitudes.

The Tundra Book premiered in the spring of 2011 at DOKer project in Moscow and brought Aleksei dozens of awards at international and Russian festivals, among which The Silver Apricot in Erevan. Best Feature at DocsDF in Mexico. Best Feature, Press prize and the prize of the National Cinema Archive at RUSSIA Festival in Ekaterinburg. INALCO prize in Paris, Grand Prix  of Baikal festival, etc. It also won the  Best Documentary award at Nika, Golden Eagle, White Elephant and Lavr.

Aleksei works at the Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology. He is also a member of the Russian Filmmakers Union and the Directors Guild and an author of the National Geographic video journal.

He is currently completing his new film The Book of Sea.