WILD HONEY
Documentary Feature Film, 2019. Directed, produced, filmed, and edited by Ava Porter and Farhad Akhmetov.
A rapturous ethnographic look at traditional folk music, ‘Wild Honey’ presents the ethnic communities of five regions across Russia: the Bashkirs of the Ural Mountains, the Cossacks of the Caucasus, the Molokans of the Southern Steppe, the Ashkenazim and Krymchaks of the Black Sea, and the Altaians of Central Siberia. While on the surface these groups appear to differ, varying in location, religion, and language, they are united through their connection to music — for all of them, song is an expression of everyday life, each note a trace of the ancestral past, each beat a conduit to the future.
Screenings & Awards
Special Screening LACMA’s Migrant Sounds Film Series, 16 November 2022
Nominated Best Documentary Budapest Independent Film Festival 2022
WINNER Best Sound Festival Images de Sons Lyon 2021
Official Selection Ethnografilm Paris 2021
Official Selection Maykop International Film Festival 2021
Official Selection Nadym International Film Festival 2021
Official Selection Votkinsk International Film Festival 2021
WINNER Interdoc Film Festival Moscow 2021
Nominated Best Documentary and Best Editing NewFilmmakers LA: DocuSlate 2020
Official Selection, Special Program: Music Film FIDBA Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival 2020
Official Selection WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) 2020
Official Selection International Festival of Folk and People Arts and Cultures 2020
Official Selection Constanta International Film Festival 2020
Official Selection Ierapetra International Film Festival 2020
Official Selection Oregon State International Film Festival 2020
Selected for inclusion in the Agora Doc Market 2020 | 22nd Thessalonki Documentary Film Festival 2020
WINNER Best Documentary Score Golden State Film Festival 2020
Screening at the SOAS University of London, 22 February 2020
Official Selection Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2019
Official Selection Premio Felix Festival of Cinema Russo 2019
Official Selection Eurasia International Film Festival 2019
Selected for inclusion in the Media Library 2019 | Visions du Réel Festival International de Cinéma Nyon 2019
Interviews & Conversations
