GIRL WITH FLAIR

After learning the news of his ex-fiancee’s unconventional marriage, an immigrant poet and a New York social worker questions whether it’s possible to be a true revolutionary and a nonconformist while living a comfortable life of a government employee.

ILYA POPENKO

Having two rival countries to call his home and feeling like an alien in both of them, Russian-American photographer, illustrator, songwriter, musician and filmmaker Ilya Popenko explores lines between national, collective and personal identities across different media.

Ilya was born in 1980 in Moscow, Russia. In 1996 he immigrated to the USА where he graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree in photography. In a recent series of solo exhibitions that took place both in Russia and in the US, Ilya has been successful in combining his photography work and illustrations with performances by his music project Mad Meg. He has taken part in numerous group shows, and his most recent photo series ‘Vlad and John’ won First Prize at the annual PDN Magazine competition.

Popenko is very new to filmmaking. He made a transition from still photography to moving images only in 2020. Before completing his first documentary short film Girl with Flair, he has mostly been doing educational and music videos.

DOKer 2021 — Short Competition