Looking For Sly

 About

Winner of Best Short Documentary at SXSW Best Documentary at LA International Short Winner at the Tortured Artist Film Fest First Place Documentary at New Arts Program Shown on Public Television

Before Glasnost and the opening of the former Soviet Union, Gagik had never heard of Sylvester Stallone. But in "Looking for Sly," he leaves behind his wife, child, and a struggling career as a monument sculptor to pursue his new found dream of meeting the hero he resembles.

"A stunning portrait of a soul in the media centrifuge."

— Arne Johnson, San Francisco Bay Guardian

"[An] unlikely odyssey without judgment or ridicule, giving us a portrait of a thoughtful, gentle spirit realizing an American Dream."

— Robert Faires, Austin Chronicle

The look at how one Armenian man's life is changed once he discovers his resemblance to Sylvester Stallone offers damning commentary on the American dream factory.

— Filmmaker Magazine

 Back Story

After graduating from college in the US, Eve Conant lived in Russia, working in a Mexican Restaurant half a block from the Kremlin. When she came home she told her high school friend Kia Simon all about her experiences, whereupon Kia said: "That's a movie."

A year later, they and their friend Jonathan Crosby decided to get off their asses and make that movie. Once in Moscow, Russia they looked around for the stories that could encapsulate the modern Moscow. They interviewed a Mary Kay saleswoman, a Russian businessman (read mafioso), an American entreprenuer with a million schemes. And yet everywhere they went to shoot b-roll, they would see Gagik.

They had footage of him at a rave, on Arbat street where a picture with him was about two dollars, and then they decided to ask him some questions. And what they found was that this one man embodied the changes in the former Soviet Union that they wanted to capture.

He stole the show and the film became "Looking for Sly."

 Credits

Produced & Directed by	Kia Simon Eve Conant Jonathan Crosby
Associate Producers Director of Videography Videographers Additional Videography by Sound Engineer Boom Operators Offline Editors	Jacob Bricca, Bryan Boyce Alexander Calzatt Alexander Calzatti Vartan Aganissyan Jacob Bricca Matthew Talesfore Bryan Boyce, Jonathan Crosby Jonathan Crosby Kia Simon, Lara Kaufman Jonathan Crosby Kia Simon Bryan Boyce
Online Editor Additional Editing by Production Assistants Interpreters	Bryan Boyce Jacob Bricca Lara Kaufman, Gaia Melkumova Lara Kaufman, Alexander Calzatti, Tereza Malakian, Garry Oganesian
Russian Translator Additional Russian Translations by Armenian Translators	Lara Kaufman Eve Conant Janna Lipshitz Sonia Russel Patrick Masihi Dork Alohydoian Dzovag Minassian
Grantwriting Consultant Graphics Consultants Theory Wrangler Music & Sound Design	Esther Eidinow Kione Ebalaroza, Josh Feldman Uriel Grezemkovsky BeatHaven Productions