Today we’d like to introduce you to Margulan Zhunisbek
Hi Margulan, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I am a Director, Screenwriter, Cinematographer.
Currently, I’m studying in Los Angeles pursuing my MFA degree in Filmmaking at New York Film Academy.
I was born in Astana, Kazakhstan, I’ve been making films since 2016 when I was still in high school. I learned the basics of film production from screenwriting to cinematography by myself. One interesting thing is that I started studying filmmaking after I was fascinated by narrative video games. I made my first films together with my classmates, who were my actors. Although the quality left much to be desired, the foundation was laid. In April 2017, I participated in the international competition Infomatrix in the Short Film category, where I won a gold medal, which gave me confidence in my abilities as a filmmaker. At that moment I realized that I wanted to continue making films.
By the end of high school, I decided to make a special video for our graduation. I had an idea to recreate a scene from La La Land within the walls of the school. Having gathered like-minded people, we came up with the lyrics, after which I recorded the vocals. Having gathered 30+ graduating students and rehearsed all the dance sequences, I filmed it in a one continous shot with only one cut, just like in the original scene. Although at the moment this video looks amateurish, at that time for me it was a big challenge, the result of which I am still proud of.
Also in 2017, I entered the Kazakh National University of Arts to major in film directing. It was a long 5-year training where I honed my skills as a director. Our group created practice for ourselves, participating in each other’s film sets, and at some point I realized that I needed more practice with a clear structure of how a film set should operate by Hollywood standards. Subsequently, I was thinking about radically changing my field of activity, because I was no longer seeing clear prospects in this direction.
In some ways, these urges to change my major were beneficial to me, as I began to explore other fields of activity, such as IT, game development, and management. Although it was mostly superficial, I began to draw knowledge from more than one source and began to look at things from different angles. Applying for other programs led me to the Czech Republic, where I studied Czech for free for a month in 2019. Although I intended to win a year-long course that would allow me to study for free at local universities, this month threw me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to explore other countries and cultures.
Around this time, I got into my university’s mobile exchange program, thanks to which I was able to study Filmmaking at the Portuguese university – Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (Lisbon). I was able to have hands on practice at a school with good technical equipment for production and post-production. In addition, I managed to find myself in a season when the university hosted international film festival (Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival 2019) and workshops (XXII Semana Internacional do Audiovisual e Multimédia
2019; CINE Video Expo Lisbon 2019) in various media sectors – film production, video game development, music. This journey gave me a new practical perspective on how to approach art, not to mention the opportunity to travel around Europe.
I completed with my undergraduate degree in 2022 and immediately applied to the MFA program at the New York Film Academy. While I was waiting for results, I managed to work in the field of management, seemingly unrelated to cinema, but there I gained experience and developed business communication skills. After only a month of working there, I was sent on business trips to neighboring cities to conduct events for government officials and national companies. By the end of 2022, I received the news that I had been accepted into NYFA through the Bolashak state scholarship program, which I had applied for.
In April 2023, I flew to Los Angeles and began my studies in Filmmaking, where we had practice in all film production positions and for me it became a second wind. Having caught the momentum, I began to absorb all the knowledge I could and started going to film sets with a clear production standard. I began to enjoy going on film sets not only as a director, but also as a cinematographer, first assistant director, producer, first assistant camera, key grip, gaffer.
After a year here, I managed to participate in numerous projects and wrote, produced and directed my film “Permission to Live,” which will soon be in its film festival run. It’s the story about second chances, when sometimes you need to take a step back in order to become a better person.
After 8 years of experience in filmmaking, I am more ready than ever to continue progressing in the industry, both in the US and Kazakhstan.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As I said before, at some point I stopped seeing the prospects in filmmaking and started looking for alternatives. This brought internal difficulties, because by that time I thought that I had already found my way, but when my “can” and “want to” gradually ceased to be on the same line, I had to study and reassemble myself again. Then the thought often came to me that I needed to try to enter a foreign university. But at the same time, I needed to do this with the help of scholarships, because I did not want to burden my parents with large tuition fees. When I managed to get into a foreign university in Lisbon, I began to see different ways of making films, which gave me an impetus and a new outlook on the world. Fort Minor’s lyrics “On the right track, but on the wrong train” began to spin in my head.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Although I started studying film directing in 2017, I feel like most production positions are comfortable and interesting to me now. First Assistant Director, First Assistant Camera, Key Grip, and Gaffer are all positions that I find interesting to work in when I’m crewing. I am also open to projects where I can show myself as a Cinematographer. Since the film industry is built on collaboration, going on set as a crew provides a wide network of very talented people to work with.
Film festivals are also a great place to network in the film industry, and my film “Permission to Live”, which I wrote, directed, and produced, will be going to its festival run very soon. This is a project around which talented collaborators gathered and contributed to every detail of the film. Before my eyes, the film gained color thanks to the efforts of the entire team. How a film can contain pieces of all the arts still amazes me.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themargulis/
Image Credits
Surya Nikhil
