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QUADRAT FILM in St. Petersburg,Russia specializes in the production of video and film documentaries. The main trend of its activities is to represent and investigate cultural and historical events and processes.
The studio has been created in 1993 by the producer and film director Alexander Krivonos and the director of photography Sergey Dubrovsky.

Alexander Krivonos and Sergey Dubrovsky have long since co-operated with the well-known Russian writer Andrei Bitov. In 1986 they produced the film Back to the Old Ways, or A Sentimental Journey with Andrei Bitov, which was shown on the Leningrad television three times and twice on the Central TV.
In 1989 Alexander Krivonos and Sergey Dubrovsky produced for the Central Television Those Charming Provincials, a film devoted to the graduates of the Higher Courses for Script-Writers, Andrei Bitov, Rezo Gabriadze and Grant Matevosian. The documentary was screened by the Central TV four times.

In 1990 Krivonos and Dubrovsky produced for the Leningrad television a one-hour programme, Nocturne in an Empty Flat, dedicated to Mikhail Zoshchenko, an eminent writer of the Soviet period who was persecuted for his satirical observation of post-revolutionary society. Andrei Bitov and the satirical writer Mikhail Zhvanetsky commented on the personality and creative work of Zoshchenko in his flat, not yet converted into a museum then.

In 1994 QUADRAT FILM produced on the St. Petersburg TV the 52-minute programme A Pit Up to the Heavens, in which Andrei Bitov discussed the destinies of writers in Russia dwelling in particular on Zoshchenko’s drama, and read excerpts from this writer’s Sentimental Stories. The programme was shown to mark the centenary of Zoshchenko’s birth and topped the rating list of TV programmes. Quadrat Film plans to complete this cycle of programmes devoted to the life and work of Mikhail Zoshchenko.

In 1992 Krivonos and Dubrovsky produced the film A Lonely Street based on Bitov’s story of the same name. The film is an experimental translation of this piece of prose into the TV idiom — it does not contain a single word, but nevertheless the message and the spirit of the story have been eloquently conveyed.

During that same 1992 the film Lessons of Armenia based on Bitov’s screen-play was produced. This is an account of events in present-day Armenia which has separated from the large Soviet Empire, shown against the background of the history of this small country, more ancient that the empire itself. The film was shown on the Russian National TV channel as well at such film festivals as the Cinema Lux in France and the 4e MONDIAL de la VIDEO in Belgium. The film score is the symphonic music composed by Gennady Banshchikov specially for the documentary and reproduced in stereo digital recording. Russian and French versions.

The films produced by the studio include:

Antonina. 1990.
The film story focuses on the life of a Lithuanian woman who saved a Jewish boy, Kama Ginkas, later a famous theatrical director, during World War II. The film was shown on the Russian National TV channel. Now the film has been kept in the Catastrophe Museum in Jerusalem.

K.Malevich Transfiguration.1992.
(co-production with the Russian Museum, St. Petersburg)
.The film is an attempt at explaining the art of the founder of Suprematism and creator of The Black Quadrilateral, one of the most enigmatic paintings of the twentieth century. The film was transmitted on the Russian National and St. Petersburg TV channels.

Stalin Is with You...1993.
( co-production with the Russian Museum, St.Petersburg)
. The film is an attempt at tracing and explaining the reasons for the emergence, between the 1930s and 1950s, during Stalin’s totalitarian regime, of a specific artistic phenomenon known as Socialist Realism. The video was shown on the Russian National TV channel and at the 4e MONDIAL de la VIDEO, Belgium. The film is accompanied by The 11th Quartet by Dmitry Shostakovich and a pot-pourri from Soviet music of the 1930s–1950s. Russian and English versions.

Hold the Line, Please... 1995.
This thought-provoking film discusses prospects of Russia’s recovery from its present-day collapse and dismay. The film-makers, with the composer among them, ask themselves: "What will come next?" — and the answering machine replies: "Hold the line, please. You are in a queue..." The film was purchased by the Goethe Institute in Germany and the Danish Royal Institute of the Cinema. It was shown on the Russian National TV channel and on the Danish National Television (it won the top rating of the association of the Danish TV critics), as well as at the Balticum Film and TV festival in Denmark.

The House on the Island. 1995.

It is a life story of three generations of St. Petersburg artists who lived in of the most beautiful parts of the city — Vasilyevsky Island. The film was shown on the Russian National TV channel. Russian and English versions.

From January 14, 1997, five video films produced by the QUADRAT FILM were demonstrated at the festival "St Petersburg: A Cultural Celebration" in the Liberty Street Gallery of The World Financial Center in New York.

At the present time the company is working on the project Russian Avant-Garde:A romance with the revolution(Length – 52”), 1999. In cooperation with Vesterholt Film & TV (Denmark), DR TV (Danish Broadcasting Corporation), Independent Netherlands Broadcasting Organisation AVRO, Radio-Television BELGE de la Communaute Francaise, NRK (Norsk Riksringkasting AS) NORWAY.) What lies behind the paintings preserved in museum archives? The passions of the artists who created them. The history of the country, time condensed on canvas. Reveal the sufferings and joys of the avant-garde artists who gave the world a completely novel view on art. The setting is mainly Petrograd/Leningrad, the city where the events of Russia’s history over the past three centuries has largely been concentrated. The components of the film: paintings: newsreels dating from 1918 to 1953. We will bring back to life on screen what has long since disappeared - the museum which was established by our heroes and which existed for several years, the display of a one-man show in the Russian Museum that never opened; we’ll recreate the arrest of one of our heroes and travel to the concentration camp where he died. And, of course, we’ll show a host of paintings which will be of no less interest to the viewer than the newsreels or diary entries.

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