Pavel Borisenko understands how loss of freedom and creativity can limit the citizens of a country.
Borisenko is a Belarusian national with dual citizenship living in the United States. He is also an aspiring filmmaker with a rebellious nature.
When not studying media arts at Pima Community College, Borisenko spends his free time writing movie scripts and creating short films. Some of his work uses religion, history and philosophy to compare Belarus and the United States.
Belarus has been under the dictatorship of Alexander Lukashenka for about 17 years. The government limits citizen access to information by controlling radio, TV and newspapers.
In 2010, Borisenko scripted and filmed a movie called “The Dictatorship” in Minsk, Belarus. He used the capital city’s Soviet-era statues and murals as backdrops for the movie, which compares Soviet power to modern-day religion.
“Belarus was the perfect spot for the movie,” Borisenko said. “As a national, I’m able to travel there with no visas and the relics that are still standing are great for film. The country is heavily indoctrinated by Lukashenka, the dictator, which adds an element of interest.”
Borisenko was born in Minsk. His father was from Minsk and his mother from Rayovka, a tiny village outside the capital. He spent most of his childhood in Rayovka before his mother, Irina Borisenko, came to New York City.
“I came for a visit when I was 8,” Borisenko said about his first trip to the United States. “When I was 9, my mom told me ‘Well, we’re going to be Americans.’” The United States approved her application for citizenship a week before she was planning to return.
“It’s crazy,” Borisenko said about the events that followed. “They Americanized me. I went by Paul and they stole my middle name.” His middle name, Sergeivich, is only on official records in Belarus.
Borisenko decided to come to Arizona after he graduated from high school in Manhattan, N.Y., because he wanted to become more independent and explore real life. “I wanted to get farther away from family and stuff,” he said.
He applied to Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. Both schools sent acceptance letters.
“U of A was the perfect place for college life,” he said. “Big school, different place, new experience.”
His business focus started when he became a coin dealer.
When entering college, Borisenko’s resources for collecting and selling coins were limited but he managed to keep a small income and collection for himself. He dealt in foreign and American coinage but said his favorites were American silver dollars and Russian rubles.
Originally planning on majoring in business at UA, Borisenko quickly changed to media arts.
“I like making movies a lot more, and I decided to follow my passion,” he said.
Borisenko received his first camera at age 14 and has been “on and off” making movies and short amateur films with his friends in New York City and Tucson ever since.
He attended UA for the fall semester in 2008, then began attending PCC for general education courses in Spring 2009. He is currently enrolled in a digital arts class at PCC, which has sparked his interest and improved his skills.
Borisenko bought a camera for his classes that allows him to capture video and still-photo scenes.
He likes learning video editing programs such as Vegas, and is becoming more efficient on Mac computers.
Borisenko is currently working on a feature-length script for a philosophical thriller titled “The Free Man.” It will be filmed entirely in Tucson, especially around the UA campus.
He is recruiting PCC actresses and actors, but has only a partial script for now.
Former actress and assistant screenwriter Alexis Soto has worked with Borisenko on “The Free Man” for several months.
“I think the new script is brilliant because it questions society,” Soto said.
Soto restructures and sometimes rewrites the raw script material Borisenko sends her. “He’s out of the box,” she said. “He’s eccentric in a very good way.”
Borisenko likes to include subliminal messages within his script to make people think more about events and situations occurring around them. He wants his viewers to question the meaning of everything.
His fondness for religion and philosophy impacts his interpretative filmmaking style.
“It is about the observation of religion in society and finding the urge to seek meaning and purpose in their life,” Borisenko said.
Aspiring filmmaker Pavel Borisenko works on editing equipment at PCC video lab. Photo by Larry Guarano.
Aztec Press May 03, 2012
By ANDRIA CAVIGLIA
Wildcat Blogger 