We were lucky to catch up with Margulan Zhunisbek recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Margulan thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

My journey into filmmaking, oddly enough, began with narrative video games. Around 2016, while studying the script structure of video games like The Last of Us and Firewatch, I smoothly moved on to studying my favorite films and their emotional impact on me. Taking the family camera and learning the basics of filmmaking, I began practicing all aspects of filmmaking on my own.

Over time, I entered the Kazakh National Academy of Arts for a bachelor’s degree in film directing. Looking back, I clearly see that I lacked practice at my university. Even though we were making our own films, I never knew exactly how to approach filming. Having entered the New York Film Academy, I received a ton of knowledge about how each stage of filmmaking should be structured according to Hollywood standards, which could not but please me.

Margulan, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Director, Screenwriter, Cinematographer.
Currently, I’m studying in Los Angeles pursuing my MFA degree in Filmmaking at New York Film Academy.

I was born in Astana, Kazakhstan, I’ve been making films since 2016 when I was still in high school. I learned the basics of film production from screenwriting to cinematography by myself. I made my first films together with my classmates, who were my actors. Although the quality left much to be desired, the foundation was laid. In April 2017, I participated in the international competition Infomatrix in the Short Film category, where I won a gold medal, which gave me confidence in my abilities as a filmmaker. At that moment I realized that I wanted to continue making films.

By the end of high school, I decided to make a special video for our graduation. I had an idea to recreate a scene from La La Land within the walls of the school. Having gathered like-minded people, we came up with the lyrics, after which I recorded the vocals. Having gathered 30+ graduating students and rehearsed all the dance sequences, I filmed it in a one continous shot with only one cut, just like in the original scene. Although at the moment this video looks amateurish, at that time for me it was a big challenge, the result of which I am still proud of.

Also in 2017, I entered the Kazakh National University of Arts to major in film directing. In my first year, my film “Who Am I?” won the “Best Director” nomination at the “Ushkyn” (Sparkle, 2018) student film festival. It was a long 5-year training where I honed my skills as a director. Our group created practice for ourselves, participating in each other’s film sets, and at some point I realized that I needed more practice with a clear structure of how a film set should operate by Hollywood standards. Subsequently, I was thinking about radically changing my field of activity, because I was no longer seeing clear prospects in this direction.

In some ways, these urges to change my major were beneficial to me, as I began to explore other fields of activity, such as IT, game development, and management. Although it was mostly superficial, I began to draw knowledge from more than one source and began to look at things from different angles. Applying for other programs led me to the Czech Republic, where I studied Czech for free for a month in 2019. Although I intended to win a year-long course that would allow me to study for free at local universities, this month threw me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to explore other countries and cultures.

Around this time, I got into my university’s mobile exchange program, thanks to which I was able to study Filmmaking at the Portuguese university – Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias (Lisbon). I was able to have hands on practice at a school with good technical equipment for production and post-production. In addition, I managed to find myself in a season when the university hosted international film festival (Lisbon & Sintra Film Festival 2019) and workshops (XXII Semana Internacional do Audiovisual e Multimédia 2019; CINE Video Expo Lisbon 2019) in various media sectors – film production, video game development, music. This journey gave me a new practical perspective on how to approach art, not to mention the opportunity to travel around Europe.

I completed with my undergraduate degree in 2022 and immediately applied to the MFA program at the New York Film Academy. While I was waiting for results, I managed to work in the field of management, seemingly unrelated to cinema, but there I gained experience and developed business communication skills. After only a month of working there, I was sent on business trips to neighboring cities to conduct events for government officials and national companies. By the end of 2022, I received the news that I had been accepted into NYFA through the Bolashak state scholarship program, which I had applied for.

In April 2023, I flew to Los Angeles and began my studies in Filmmaking, where we had practice in all film production positions and for me it became a second wind. Having caught the momentum, I began to absorb all the knowledge I could and started going to film sets with a clear production standard. I began to enjoy going on film sets not only as a director, but also as a cinematographer, first assistant director, producer, first assistant camera, key grip, gaffer.

After a one and half year here, I managed to participate in numerous projects and wrote, produced and directed my film “Permission to Live,” which will soon be in its film festival run. It’s the story about second chances, when sometimes you need to take a step back in order to become a better person.

After 8 years of experience in filmmaking, I am more ready than ever to continue progressing in the industry, both in the US and Kazakhstan. Right now I’m in the pre-production for my Thesis project of my MFA program.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Filmmaking in general may not always be a stable way of life. There will always be uncertainties along the way, which can be scary. There is no clear, well-trodden path to success. Everyone has their own. But each stage of filmmaking is always a new challenge, which brings a storm of emotions. Since filmmaking combines many arts together, you meet very interesting people along the way and build connections all over the world.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Telling stories that make you think.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/themargulis/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/themargulis/

Image Credits

Uma Poonguzhali
Surya Nikhil