Zhenya Kiperman is an award-winning filmmaker, author and the founder of Kiperfilms (www.kiperfilms.com), a production company that makes fictional and documentary films of various genres. Zhenya’s films have won multiple festival awards, appeared on television, and been released in the DVD markets of the USA, England and Spain.
Zhenya came to America from St.Petersburg, Russia, in 1989. A Columbia University Film School graduate, in 2004 he wrote, directed and co-produced I WILL AVENGE YOU, IAGO! (www.iagofilms.com), a comedy starring Giancarlo Esposito, Larry Pine, and Keith Nobbs. The film won several festival awards around the world and was acquired by Panorama Entertainment for distribution.
Zhenya has also written, directed, produced and appeared in several short films and documentaries, including CONVERSATION WITH PAUL SCHRADER, featuring the legendary screenwriter of TAXI DRIVER and RAGING BULL. The program has been broadcast several times on Drexel University’s television station DUTV (Philadelphia’s Channel 54).
In the 2000s Zhenya founded, produced and hosted The Golden Age of Cinema Film Festival; guest-speakers included Milos Forman, Tim Robbins, Steve Buscemi, Jim Jarmusch, Paul Mazursky, Marshall Brickman, Tom DiCillo, Griffin Dunne, Jake LaMotta, Isaach De Bankole, and Paul Auster. Zhenya’s festival interview with Tom DiCillo and Steve Buscemi about the making of DiCillo’s independent classic LIVING IN OBLIVION appeared as a special feature on the film’s DVD release in the USA, England and Spain.
Before joining Drexel’s Cinema & Television Department in 2006, Zhenya has taught at NYU, New School, Fordham and St.John’s Universities.
In 2010-2011 Zhenya produced and directed VOICE JOURNEY, a documentary about 2 singers who had to stop performing and go through surgeries, periods of complete silence and extensive therapy to finding their voices again. The film was made in collaboration with Dr. Robert Sataloff, the Chair of The Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery of Drexel’s College of Medicine. The production was made possible by Westphal College Synergy Grant and Medtronic Surgical Technologies Grant.
Zhenya’s publications include a book, DORMITORY, and numerous essays on film and literature that have appeared in American and Russian periodicals. He is currently developing his next film project (www.phillythriller.com).