Andrei
Severny

Synopsis

Buried Seeds is a timeless and true story of human passion, willpower and resolve in the face of adversity. The film follows Michelin-star chef Vikas Khanna on his journey as an immigrant.

Born with clubbed feet in Amritsar, Vikas is bullied by his classmates. He takes refuge in his grandmother's kitchen and discovers his passion for the vivid traditions of Indian cuisine.

At the age of 29, Vikas moves to New York with nothing in his pocket and ends up in a homeless shelter. Through years of struggle and hard work, he opens his first Indian restaurant in Manhattan.

Vikas Khanna grows to become one of the most influential chefs in the world and a cultural ambassador of his nation. While wealth and glory may be transient, what truly defines him is the will to create himself every single day.

Cast & Crew

Directed by

Andrei Severny

Featuring

Vikas Khanna

Editors

Andrei Severny, Stephen Cardone

Director of Photography

Andrei Severny, Antonio Pacheco

Additional Photography

Rohit Gaonkar, Stephen Cardone, Lourdes Severny

Sound Mixer

Per Østerby

Re-Recording Mixer

Eli Cohn

Co-Producer

Jitendra Mishra

Distributor

FilmKaravan

Awards & Screenings

• The film's trailer premiered at the 70th Cannes Film Festival.
• Released internationally by National Geographic; available to stream in six languages across India and Southeast Asia.

Synopsis

Gravitation is a synergy of dance and cinema. It features Diana Vishneva, principal dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet and the American Ballet Theater.

The film is the story of creation, inner struggle and transformation. Calligraphic black-and-white images are rich in metaphors exploring the notions of time and space, movement and light.

Filmed with Phantom Flex 4K cameras at the Alvin Ailey Theater in New York.

Cast & Crew

Director, Editor

Andrei Severny

Principal Dancer

Diana Vishneva

Choreographer

Mauro Bigonzetti

Writer, Executive Producer

Rem Khass

Director of Photography

Steve Romano

Editor

Sam Neave

Awards & Screenings

• Selected to screen at the Walter Reade Theater, Film Society of Lincoln Center.
• Official selection: Marfa Film Festival, Roma CinemaDOC, Montelupo Film Festival, and a CINESPACE finalist at the Houston Cinema Arts Festival.

Synopsis

Inside Risk: Shadows of Medellín is a feature-length interactive film that immerses the viewer in a true story of trust and decision-making under extreme pressure, blending cinematic storytelling with real-time choice.

The project has since grown into InsideRisk — a behavioral-intelligence platform that uses highly immersive, cinematic experiences to reveal and strengthen leadership behavior. It is used today by some of the most demanding organizations in the world for assessment, training and leadership development.

Cast & Crew

Directed by

Andrei Severny

Format

Interactive cinematic experience

Awards & Screenings

• Praised by Bruno Giussani, Michael Rey (60 Minutes) and Bertrand Piccard as a singular moment of introspection.

Synopsis

Condition is a 2011 science-fiction film, directed by Andrei Severny and produced by Amir Naderi — a meditative psychological drama set in an apocalyptic atmosphere.

The story is a sensory battle between two women: the sound therapist Mary Taggert and her patient, a young disturbed woman, Alaska. The doctor evacuates with her patient, driving away from the city toward an unspecified northern territory near the border. Having run out of gas, the two are stranded in a mysterious, rough and rocky wilderness by the ocean, where it becomes a battle for survival and a struggle with inner wounds — and salvation through sound and nature.

The psychologically complex, slow narrative relies on sequences of abstract images one might expect to see in a museum or gallery. No musical instruments were used in any of the sounds heard in the film.

Condition was shot on location in New York City and along the northern shoreline of Maine.

From the Director

A voice, a few notes, or waves rolling on the shoreline can trigger profound emotions. For many years scientists have tried to understand the power of sound, which to this day remains a mystery. A handful of researchers use sound waves to address various illnesses — practices not yet embraced by mainstream medicine. I hope Condition will broaden the dialogue on this subject.

The psychological impact of catastrophic events, intentionally left undefined, forms an important theme of the film. Anywhere in today's world we are subject to stresses caused by man-made disasters. This environment creates a certain condition in all of us; in this sense, we are all prone to some form of post-traumatic stress.

Another meaning of condition, prominent in the Russian language, is a certain emotional state — non-verbal and transcendent. A good part of the film explores this realm, a space in which, absent words and dialogue, a more spiritual meaning emerges. Here, narrative is secondary to feeling and atmosphere, expressed in a way possible only in cinema.

Cast

Antonella Lentini

Alaska

Jessica Kaye

Dr. Mary Taggert

Steve Moshier

Fisherman

Cast & Crew

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Andrei Severny

Producer

Amir Naderi

Sound Constructions

Richard Garet

Assistant Director

Chris Federico

Associate Producers

Dar Meshi, Irene del Campo

2nd Assistant Director

Zack Kimmel

Re-Recording Mixer

Eli Cohn

Awards & Screenings

• Premiered at the 29th Torino Film Festival, where it received a special mention from the Gandhi Glasses Award alongside Werner Herzog's “Into the Abyss.”
• Sound by Richard Garet (b. Montevideo) — excerpts from “Winter,” “Subtracted” and “For Shimpei Takeda.” His work has shown at SFMOMA and MACBA, Barcelona.

Synopsis

Teaching to See is an educational documentary about graphic design and the teaching of Inge Druckrey, told through her students and colleagues. The film covers the principles of seeing, analyzing and executing — offering insights into graphic design, typography, composition, form and visual-arts education.

Cast & Crew

Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Andrei Severny

Executive Producer

Edward Tufte

Press

“This is about patient and dedicated teaching, about learning to look and visualize in order to design. There are simple phrases that give insight into complex matters — for example, that letterforms are “memories of motion.””Matthew Carter, type designer, 2010 MacArthur Fellow

Synopsis

Tom is an astronaut who, in 2049, goes on the second mission to Mars. Just days before launch he meets the love of his life — Maria. Travelling farther from Earth on his complex and risky voyage, Tom begins to experience serious psychological difficulties. Confinement, isolation and the inability to stay in touch with Maria make him shut down communications with mission control. The enduring test does not cease even upon his return from a 70-million-mile journey.

The story is based on real-life cases of dangerous psychological challenges experienced by astronauts during long space assignments, and by researchers stationed in remote areas such as Antarctica.

Cast & Crew

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Andrei Severny

Crew

Zack Kimmel, Alberto D'Allara, Jodie Taylor, Anthony Laura

Cast

Laila Lemhadden, Russel Smith

Voice Over

Peter DuPre

Awards & Screenings

• Premiered at the IFP Buzz Cuts, Pioneer Theater, New York, May 10, 2005. Selected as a top-ten finalist in the Esquire Celluloid film competition.
• Screened at the Festival of Cinema & Technology (USA), FILMSTOCK International (UK), Red Shift (USA), West Chester Short Film Festival (USA), the International Science Film Festival (Hungary) and Festival der Nationen (Austria).

Synopsis

A five-minute experimental short shot on 16mm and digital, screened internationally from Milan and Avignon to Barcelona, Winnipeg and Kolkata.

Cast & Crew

Writer, Director, Cinematographer, Editor

Andrei Severny

Crew

YoungJi Nam, Heiko Nemmert, Alex Wang

Cast

Rawle Roberts

Voice Over

Julie Arrue, Andrei Severny

Awards & Screenings

• Milano Film Festival (2005, 2013), Avignon Film Festival (2005), MECAL Film Festival, Spain (2005), Winnipeg Film Festival (2005) and Kolkata Film Festival (2006).

About

CityAction is a venue-specific video installation made for the ultra-wide 27 × 5-foot (9 × 1.5-metre) screen at the Made In NY Media Center in New York.

It shows a mosaic compilation of moving shots of the city, capturing the energy and feeling of New York as one living urban organism. Its elements break the rules of perspective and gravity to create impossible spaces; the composition constantly moves, evolves and unravels new layers and depth, using every pixel of the resolution.

Cast & Crew

Created by

Andrei Severny

Venue

Made In NY Media Center, New York

About

Intravertigo is a multiple-screen rear-projection video installation with sound, showing colourful, fast-moving images generated by video feedback — pointing a camera into a screen to create an infinite loop of mostly abstract imagery. It is a digital equivalent of looking into yourself and getting in touch with an urgent, inexplicable and infinite mystery of your immediate presence.

Artist's Note

Since early childhood I enjoyed looking at the world, observing reality — but sometimes I couldn't help peeking inside myself. The idea of being in this world at this particular moment gave me shivers: a strange, strong, biting sensation of being thrown out of everyday role-playing into a fast hyper-reality and superior truth that, in my mind, felt almost tangible. It was a shock of electricity, something infinite echoing and shaking my consciousness. I have always wanted to translate this feeling into film.

Cast & Crew

Created by

Andrei Severny

Awards & Screenings

• Rear-projection video installation — exhibited at Nuit Blanche, New York (2011).

About

Abstract, colourful and mysterious images move slowly in the dark, sometimes taking the shapes of Japanese calligraphy. The installation captures sequences of light reflections off the surface of water — no computer graphics were involved. The name Minamo means, in Japanese, the water surface, or the face of the water.

Artist's Note

In ancient mythology water represented the subconscious — the ever-changing, transcendental stream beyond time and space. I am deeply intrigued by the realm outside human culture, the non-verbal and primal around us that we often feel but can never explain.

Cast & Crew

Created by

Andrei Severny

Awards & Screenings

• Video installation on multiple screens, 2009–2010. Shown at SET Gallery, NY Aquarium, Nuit Blanche and Webster Hall, New York.