Kristina Mikhailova is a director and producer from Kazakhstan. Being the one of rare representatives of Kazakhstan in the international documentary industry, she attended Berlinale Talents, IDFAcademy, East-West Talent Lab, CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator, Docs by the Sea and more. Despite many challenges as an independent filmmaker with a strong artistic approach against the extremely conservative conditions of the art industry in Kazakhstan, Kristina firmly engages in her unique hybrid form, also trying to push the completely underdeveloped local documentary industry. She founded “Women make docs” grassroots initiative for documentary filmmakers of Central Asia to make hidden and unique Kazakh and Central Asian voices heard. Her dream is to break the cinema form's stagnation in the region, legitimize the diversity of documentary genres and to prove the very existence of the doc scene in Central Asia. She made some award-winning shorts and international collaborative documentaries, while producing emerging talents, building community and fighting for equal representation.
