Our team had the incredible opportunity to produce 26 episodes of a documentary television series in for the Voice of America / BBG Russian-language TV station Current Time with active distribution in over 20 countries. The series was designed to tell the stories of Russian-speaking immigrants in pursuit of the American Dream from coast to coast. We jumped on board and immediately begin reaching out to friends across the country who were from a former USSR country. Before we knew it, we had assembled a fascinating collection including musicians, artists, a Cirque du Soleil performer, a Paralympic athlete, a surgeon, a pilot and so many more. Watch the series below to see them for yourself!
Episode 1: Pavel Antonov
Watch as Pavel discusses his personal journey to make it as a fashion photographer in NYC – from his arrival with only $100 in his pocket all the way to his present-day work with prominent clients from around the world. (25 mins. Russian with English captions.)
Episode 2: Kristina and Olga
This is a busy day-in-the life of a family in Virginia. Kristina juggles her career with a prominent law firm in DC while her mother, Olga, works at a Russian market. Meanwhile, Kristina’s kids do homework while their grandfather cooks Blue Apron meals. (25 mins. Russian with English captions.)
Episode 17 Promo: DJ Uzo
Uzo Udo was born in the former USSR but raised in Ukraine before immigrating to Indianapolis in 2003 with his parents and younger brother. He is of Nigerian, Cameroonian and Russian decent. Today he is known as DJ Uzo and is an entrepreneur with a myriad of business endeavors in the arts & marketing industry. (30 sec. Russian)
Production Photos
Our team travelled all across the United States to capture 26 episodes. From Cirque du Soleil in the summer heat of Las Vegas to filming in New England snowstorms, each story was inspiring in its own way.
How The Project Was Received
Production
More Examples of Our Work
There is nothing our team enjoys more than diving in to a new subject matter in a new part of the world. Our clients consistently challenge us to learn new technical areas and we find ourselves completely immersed in the subject matter at hand. Just in the last year we have worked on agricultural product promotion in Latin America, a promotional piece for Paralympic Gold Medalist Jessica Long, a web and radio nutritional campaign, and much, much more.
Education: Through its Education Connections initiative, the Center for Applied Linguistics provided training to teachers around instructional strategies for working with English learners, and fostered teacher collaboration and leadership to share these strategies with other educators. In this video, four educators in Fitchburg, Massachusetts demonstrate and describe these strategies, as well as the impact of this work on the English learner students with whom they work.
Human Achievement: Jessica Long was born in Russia in 1992 and was adopted a year later by American parents. She now lives in Baltimore, MD and is a highly decorated Paralympian swimmer. Jessica was born without bones in her lower legs and feet called fibular hemimelia. At 18 months old, her lower legs were amputated below the knees so she could be fitted for prosthetic legs and learn how to walk. She has won 23 Paralympic medals and is the second most decorated Paralympian in U.S. history.
Development: Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) is The USAID Global Development Lab’s open competition that supports breakthrough solutions to the world’s most intractable development challenges—interventions that could change millions of lives at a fraction of the usual cost. DIV looks for bold development ideas, pilots them in small increments and tests their effects, and scales those that demonstrate widespread impact and cost-efficiency.