Dimitri Devyatkin


Dimitri Devyatkin is an American director, producer, screenwriter, video artist, and journalist. Devyatkin uses elements of humor, art and new technology in his work. He is known as one of the first video makers to combine abstract synthesized imagery with camera footage. His programs have been broadcast domestically and internationally on ABC, PBS, Channel 4, WDR, France 3, TF1 and Channel One Russia. His works consist of digital media, computer art, broadcast news and feature filmmaking. His activities in the creation of new independent US filmmaking have been documented by Jonas Mekas in "Birth of a Nation".

Early life

Devyatkin grew up in Manhattan, New York. During his childhood, he was neighbors with young Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Devyatkin attended New York City public schools, including the Bronx High School of Science. He studied Classics at St. John's College.
Devyatkin studied classical violin from the age of twelve at the Greenwich House Music School. While in high school, he played violin with youth orchestras in Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Devyatkin studied modern music composition with Grammy-winning composer Joan Tower. In California, aged 17, he spent a summer playing electric violin with the legendary jazz saxophonist Rahsaan Roland Kirk.
Devyatkin is of Russian heritage.

Video making

Early works

In 1971, he began experimenting with abstract video art, while living in Santa Barbara, California. That year, Devyatkin met Nam June Paik, who advised him to visit the newly organized theater The Kitchen in New York. Upon meeting the founders, Steina and Woody Vasulka, he became the video director between 1971–1973, organizing video and electronic art performances nearly every day for two years. He organized video shows in the United States and Europe. These include a US Department of State sponsored tour of Amerika Haus centers in six German cities and shows at the American Cultural Centers in Paris and London.

Film studies in Russia

In 1973, Devyatkin went to Moscow as an exchange student, studying Russian at Moscow State University and documentary film making under Russian director Roman Karmen at VGIK, the Gerasimov Institute of Cinematography. He met and worked with many other famous Russian filmmakers and participated in several popular feature films. Devyatkin videotaped performances by the Taganka Theatre, including Hamlet starring Russian actor Vladimir Vysotsky, and the play Ten Days That Shook the World based on the book of the same name.

Digital video art

Devyatkin organized an international Computer Arts Festival at The Kitchen, which was held successfully for four years. At the 1973 festival, Devyatkin introduced early examples of computer generated film, video, graphics and music from around the world. Devyatkin presented "a remarkably beautiful series of color alterations and shape distortions." Devyatkin’s video piece The Sordid Affair is an outstanding example of political video art, a full expression of free speech.

Hidden human potential

Thanks to his friendship with visionary Joseph Goldin, Devyatkin documented experiments and demonstrations of hidden mental abilities. He videotaped music and light psychotherapy experiments conducted by Natalia Bekhtereva and psychological teaching methods such as Suggestopedia. Devyatkin's work is mentioned in Psychic Discoveries Behind the Iron Curtain. Devyatkin’s 1974 documentary Suggestopedia: A Science of Learning was shown widely.] In his ongoing coverage of hidden human potential, Devyatkin recorded Porfiry Ivanov, origins of the Lamaze technique and experiments in teaching newborn babies to swim.]

Video art in New York

In 1978, Devyatkin collaborated with Nam June Paik to produce a light hearted comparison of life in the two cities, Media Shuttle: New York-Moscow on WNET. The video is held in museum collections around the world.
He documented the marriage of two Fluxus pioneers, George Maciunas and Billie Hutching in a series of Fluxus style performances in SoHo, Manhattan.
In 1978, he assisted the artist Charlotte Moorman to organize the Annual Avant Garde Festival of New York held that year on the Staten Island Ferry. He spent time with John Lennon and invited him to teach a course the next day at the alternative high school where he was teaching, Elizabeth Cleaners Street School.

Renowned solo productions

Video from Russia: The People Speak

In 1983, Devyatkin directed Video From Russia: The People Speak, which was narrated by Margot Kidder. It was aired on KABC-TV four times, WABC-TV, France 3 and Channel 4. It was nominated for an Emmy in Los Angeles. The program was described as "a rare opportunity to hear spontaneous comments from people who are lumped together in political rhetoric as our enemy." It was awarded the Gold Medal at the New York International Video Festival in 1984.

El Salvador: Names of War

Throughout the 1980s, Devyatkin produced independent films and videos in New York City. After the success of Video From Russia, he spent 6 weeks in El Salvador covering the civil war in areas controlled by the FMLN. The 1986 program, El Salvador: Names of War, shows the human face of the war. He worked with cameraman Eddie Becker and translator Berta Silva in the mountains of El Salvador to shoot battles and everyday life.

Verkola: A Village in Northern Russia

Devyatkin directed Verkola: A Village in Northern Russia in 1986. It was sponsored by TPT, PBS, Channel 4, and France 2. The program is a portrait of life in a tiny village near Arkhangelsk.

Other work

As a producer

He started working for CBS News in 1988 to cover the Moscow Summit between US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for the CBS Evening News and CBS News Sunday Morning.
He was also a producer for Worldwide Television News, where he covered the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Armenian earthquake in Spitak and the Ecologists' Movement in the Baltic States.
During the Glasnost period, Devyatkin was the American co-director on Soviet television for the program titled "Come Together." The Soviet-American co-production documentary followed a peace march of 500 American and Russian activists from St. Petersburg to Moscow. It was one of the first times that dissidents were able to speak on Russian television due to Dimitri.
Devyatkin produced a series of interviews for MGM with Heroes of the Soviet Union. Those who were interviewed include the liberator of Auschwitz, General Arkady Petrenko and the discoverer of Hitler's corpse, Elena Rzhevskaya.
In 1992, Devyatkin was the line-producer on the Weather Is Good on Deribasovskaya, It Rains Again on Brighton Beach fiction movie. In 2014, it was named one of the 100 Best Russian Films by Afisha Magazine and Devyatkin was interviewed for the article. During this period, Devyatkin was line producer for five other feature films for Mosfilm, including The House Under the Starry Sky directed by Sergei Solovyov.
Devyatkin worked with Metromedia as a Director of Special Projects based in Moscow. he introduced the television channels Eurosport and Nickelodeon to Russia between 1994–1999. He was also General Director of a dubbing studio in the Mosfilm lot. Between 1999–2000, Devyatkin worked with Streamedia Communications Inc. as their Vice President, Europe in Amsterdam and New York, where he created six content channels on the Internet.

As a teacher and public speaker

In the early 2000s, Devyatkin was a professor teaching the Digital Video Production course at New York University, SUNY Purchase and Ramapo College. Devyatkin has worked extensively as a public speaker at universities, represented by the Jodi Solomon Speakers Bureau in Boston.

Video exhibitions and presentations