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.
His 1996 film, Birds of Naukan, was dedicated to the fate of Asian Eskimos, too. The film was awarded the Festival Directors Prize at the Munich International Festival of Film Schools and the Silver Plaque Award in Documentary History/Biography category at the Chicago International Film Festival, 1997.
Aleksei has experience in several areas within film. He has written scripts, made commercials, worked as an AVID editor, and participated in ethnographic expeditions as a TV film director. He also has dozens of scripts, projects, and ideas in his bottom drawer waiting to be made and realized. These projects are connected with the history, culture, spritual and social life of the native people of the far northeast of Russia.
