Ukraine
Igor Parfenov is Head and Founder of STEPS IFF, annual festival on Human Rights, Animal Rights and Environmental protection; He is a film director and producer of feature, documentary and short films.
Igor was born on March 8th, 1962. Since his school days, he has been fond of philosophy and reading, and always had a genuine concern for animal welfare.
Igor received his M.S. from Kharkiv Physical Training Institute, Ukraine, and he is a master of sports in Judo. Apart from being a professional sportsman, Igor is also keen on extreme tourism. He has travelled around Altai, running through mountains and rivers in a raft.
He has organized over 200 different events to support initiation of acts on human and animal rights in Ukraine. 1995 – 2005 he has created and published remedial and philosophic non-commercial “Kryk” magazine (human rights, animal protection). In 2000, Igor nominated “Environmentalist of the year” and awarded “Man of the year – Man of the millennium” (Kyiv, Ukraine). 2004 – Present time he created STEPS film studio and started directing feature and short films. To the present time, he has directed 10 feature films, a number of documentaries and short films, was a nominee and a winner in more than 60 international film festivals. 2005 – 2010 he was publishing a social newspaper “Time to protect the animals”. 2007 – Created STEPS IFF, annual festival on Human Rights, Animal Rights and Environmental protection, that has over 50 participating countries from all over the world. The films aimed at promoting animal welfare, environmental protection and human rights defense, as well as films of spiritual and philosophical orientation. Since 2011, Igor Parfenov is a member of Filmmakers’ Union of Ukraine. He is a strong vegetarian.
Currently residing in Kharkov, Ukraine, Igor shot the political thriller “Assassins of the President.” A prophetic feature film about the conspiracy and assassination attempt on Donald Trump, in both a full-length version and short film version.
The film was made by a human rights organization on a volunteer basis, and filming took place in countries such as the USA, Austria, Switzerland, France and Ukraine.
“Filmmaking is our guerilla warfare, where every shot fired is a blow against the forces of tyranny.”
– Igor Parfenov
In his home country, Igor wages an underground rallying cry against oppression through his films, where he believes that filmmaking is his form of guerilla warfare, where every shot fired is a blow against the forces of tyranny.
