Youth of the North
Documentary Short in Post Production. 4K.
About
In the face of world war, political oppression, geographic isolation, and rapidly melting permafrost, a collective of young Siberians turn to punk rock to assert their Sakha identity in the coldest city on Earth.
This intimate coming-of-age documentary highlights the art collective known as Youth of the North; a group of indigenous Russian young people from Yakutsk. Caught between the interconnected experimentation of Gen Z, but living under Putin’s regime, the Youth of the North are more determined than ever to have their voices heard through their music. Forged in this crucible, the Youth of the North use music and community as a means to express their identity, frustration, and isolation.
With global Russophobia on the rise in reaction to the war on Ukraine, “Youth of the North” aims to put a face to the generation caught in the crosshairs–the progressive radical youth.
Youth of the North
We are currently in post-production. Work sample available upon request.
Filmmakers
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Sara Crow
CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Sara Crow is a filmmaker based in New York. She is especially passionate about telling stories of subcultures, misfits, and those who operate on the fringes of society.
As a documentarian, Sara has produced nonfiction work for HBO, Disney+, CNN, MSNBC, Quibi, truTV, Viceland, and Showtime. In 2016, she released her directorial debut, the feature documentary, Never Get Tired about beloved cult musician Jeff Rosenstock, which, eight years after its release, continues to screen in independent theaters and music venues around the world. She is a member of the Brooklyn Filmmaker’s Collective and the Video Consortium.
Her debut narrative short film “Bluebird” was awarded the Black Family Film Prize at NYU’s Graduate Film program, where she is currently a thesis student and a Maurice Kanbar Scholarship recipient.
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Svetlana Romanova
CO-DIRECTOR/PRODUCER
Svetlana Romanova was born in Yakutsk, Russia and studied visual arts in Los Angeles. She has received her BFA at Otis College of Art and Design, and MFA in California Institute of the Arts. From 2009 to 2014, she studied, lived and worked in arts education in California.
After returning to Siberia in 2015, she started working on several film projects about her hometown and regions around it. Her video practice is an investigation of two local indigenous groups that she belongs to - Sakha and Even.
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Nona Catusanu
CINEMATOGRAPHER
Born in Romania and raised in NYC, Nona Catusanu-Popp is a cinematographer, visual artist and director. She graduated from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Bachelor’s degree in Film and TV and went on to study in the Cinematography Master’s Program at The Film and TV School of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU) in the Czech Republic. She is a recipient of the ASC Vision Mentorship Award.
She is a member of Illium Pictures, an independent production company based out of Brooklyn, NY and The Hexagon Initiative collective, a community of artists based in NYC, and currently serves on the advisory board for the NYC Women Filmmakers group.
