Boris Berman is a Russian journalist, TV presenter, and TEFI prize winner. Together with his colleague Ildar Zhandarev, he created and led the television programs “Passage”, “Kiss on the Diaphragm”, “Interesting Cinema”, “Without a Protocol”, “Watching at Night”. Despite the impressive list of projects, the themes of Boris Berman's professional activities have always remained cinema, art and creative personalities.
Biography and career before television
Boris Isaakovich Berman was born on August 15, 1948 in Moscow. In 1971 he graduated with honors from the television department at the Faculty of Journalism of Moscow State University.
Berman began his career by working at the Novosti Press Agency, the largest news agency in the USSR. In the late 80s, he became deputy editor-in-chief of the weekly print publication Screen and Scene. In parallel, in 1986-1989, the journalist continued to work with the News Agency, advising on cinema issues and reviewing this topic.
In 1991, Berman got a job on Russian state television. In 2006, on the air of the Difiramb program, which aired on the Ekho Moskvy radio station, he spoke about the circumstances of his arrival on the TV screen. Leonid Parfyonov and his wife Elena Chekalova helped him in this. They met when they worked for Berman as freelance writers at the news agency.
According to Boris Isaakovich, due to hard work in the newspaper “Screen and Stage”, he began to have health problems. And Elena Chekalova invited him to try her hand at television. So Berman met with Anatoly Grigoryevich Lysenko - at that time the General Director of VGTRK. At first he worked at the K-2 studio, eventually becoming one of its founders.
While still working in the newspaper “Screen and Stage”, Boris Berman met Ildar Zhandarev. He worked here as a correspondent and editor. When the need for a reliable team arose in television activities, Berman invited Zhandarev to join her.
Television career
The first joint project of Boris Berman and Ildar Zhandarev was the program “Kiss into the diaphragm”, then the programs “Passage” and “Plot” followed. In 1995, the creative tandem of Berman and Zhandarev received the TEFI award in the nomination "The Best Art Program". Such a high praise was given to their program dedicated to the film "The White Sun of the Desert." In addition to creative tasks, Berman headed the RTR-film directorate at VGTRK.
However, his collaboration with the VGTRK media holding ended in 1999, when Boris Isaakovich switched to the young and promising NTV channel. At a new place of work, he and Ildar Zhandarev began to release a series of films called “Interesting Cinema”. They continued to shoot “simple human stories on the example of very complicated people” on the TV-6 channel, where they settled in 2001 after the well-known events with the change of ownership on NTV.
On TV-6, Boris Berman also created an interactive program, “No Protocol.” When the TV-6 channel was removed from the air, its employees continued their activities on the new TVS channel, which lasted until 2003.
Since 2003, Berman came to work on Channel One. At first, he focused on filming new episodes of the Interesting Cinema series. As part of this project, in 2004-2014, the TV presenter annually shot the program "Interesting Cinema in Berlin", dedicated to the Berlin Film Festival. He also participated in the festival life of the Moscow film screening: in 2004-2013 he led the opening and closing ceremonies of the Moscow Film Festival.
In 2006, Zhandarev and Berman created the program "Looking at Night." In format, it was somewhat similar to another brainchild of the presenters - “Without a protocol”. Famous actors, musicians, and cultural figures were invited to the studio, as before. The program went live. The changes, compared to the “Without Protocol” program, affected only the political sphere. A ban was imposed on politics on Channel One. The name “Watching at Night” was due to the airing time - around midnight.
The first guest of the new TV show was director Nikita Mikhalkov. The program is currently out. Here are just a small part of the stars invited to it:
- Zurab Sotkilava;
- Lyudmila Gurchenko;
- Vladimir Vasiliev;
- Valentin Yudashkin;
- Oleg Tabakov;
- Fedor Bondarchuk;
- Edward Radzinsky;
- Inna Churikova;
- Galina Volchek and many others.
In just over a ten-year history, the program “Looking at Night” was attended by over two hundred famous personalities from the world of sports, show business, cinema, literature. Conversation of the hosts with the guest is usually based on the separation of the two points of view. Zhandarev is responsible for a romantic vision of the world, and Berman is more prone to sound skepticism. In all interviews, the tandem of facilitators emphasizes that they will never ask their guests offensive or tactless questions. Both stand for intelligent communication.
The program “Looking at Night” in 2008 and 2009 became the winner of the TEFI award in the Interviewer nomination.
In an interview published in the Izvestia newspaper in 2001, Boris Berman spoke about his understanding of the television profession: “Not a single work of art gives answers, it poses questions. And even more so television. True, the biggest mistake of people working on television is to assume that they are creating art. Art is created by other laws, and television is technological production. It creates an array of the most reliable information for future historians. ”
Participation in public organizations and associations:
- Union of Cinematographers of the Russian Federation;
- Union of Journalists of Russia;
- Academy of Motion Picture Arts "Nika";
- The Academy of Russian Television Foundation;
- Public Council of the Russian Jewish Congress.
