Elena Pogrebizhskaya

Elena Vladimirovna Pogrebizhskaya (Russian: Елена Владимировна Погреби́жская; 1 October 1972 in Kamenka) is a journalist, director and screenwriter of documentary film, rock singer and musician.

In the middle of the 1990s Elena Pogrebizhskaya worked as news reporter at a national Russian TV station - Channel 1. Elena covered events in the Kremlin and interviewed President Boris Eltsin. When war broke out in the Balkans, Elena and her news crew were present on both sides of the conflict, in Albania and in Serbia. Elena reported on the war in Chechnya, including from refugee camps. After Putin became President, Elena left the news field because she decided that that work became too muddied. Elena then decided to become a rock star and her rock group recorded 4 albums, selling one hundred thousand discs. Now, Elena Pogrebizhskaya is working on making documentary films. Her films "Blood Trader" and "Doctor Liza" received the TEFI award in 2008 and 2009 for Best Russian Documentary Film.

Yelena is the irreplaceable presenter of the Tolerance Centre's Cinema Club, whose full title is thus “Cinema Club with Elena Pogrebizhskaya”. This is one of the most interesting work formats in the Centre, attended by senior schoolchildren, students and adults. In one of her interviews, Yelena stated that: “Film is the surest means of conveying emotions. Through cinema, the problems of another become fully understandable to anyone who sits in the audience. This is better than any speech or exhortation.” And the discussions that Yelena holds after the film showings strengthen this effect manifold. As one of the Cinema Club participants once said: “This has given a serious jolt to my social responsibility.”