Wild Honey

WILD HONEY
Documentary Feature Film, 2019. Directed, produced, filmed, and edited by Ava Porter and Farhad Akhmetov.

A rapturous ethnographic look at traditional folk music, ‘Wild Honey’ presents the ethnic communities of five regions across Russia: the Bashkirs of the Ural Mountains, the Cossacks of the Caucasus, the Molokans of the Southern Steppe, the Ashkenazim and Krymchaks of the Black Sea, and the Altaians of Central Siberia. While on the surface these groups appear to differ, varying in location, religion, and language, they are united through their connection to music — for all of them, song is an expression of everyday life, each note a trace of the ancestral past, each beat a conduit to the future. 

Available on SoulDefinition.net

Screenings & Awards

Nominated Best Documentary Budapest Independent Film Festival 2022

WINNER Best Sound Festival Images de Sons Lyon 2021

Official Selection Ethnografilm Paris 2021

Official Selection Maykop International Film Festival 2021

Official Selection Nadym International Film Festival 2021

Official Selection Votkinsk International Film Festival 2021

WINNER Interdoc Film Festival Moscow 2021

Nominated Best Documentary and Best Editing NewFilmmakers LA: DocuSlate 2020

Official Selection, Special Program: Music Film FIDBA Buenos Aires International Documentary Film Festival 2020

Official Selection WOMEX (Worldwide Music Expo) 2020

Official Selection International Festival of Folk and People Arts and Cultures 2020

Official Selection Constanta International Film Festival 2020

Official Selection Ierapetra International Film Festival 2020

Official Selection Oregon State International Film Festival 2020

Selected for inclusion in the Agora Doc Market 2020 | 22nd Thessalonki Documentary Film Festival 2020 

WINNER Best Documentary Score Golden State Film Festival 2020

Screening at the SOAS University of London, 22 February 2020

Official Selection Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival 2019

Official Selection Premio Felix Festival of Cinema Russo 2019

Official Selection Eurasia International Film Festival 2019

Selected for inclusion in the Media Library 2019 | Visions du Réel Festival International de Cinéma Nyon 2019