May 8, 2026
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Nilsson Not Slowing
by Michael McWay
Scene from 'The Steppes', (left) lead actress Irit Levi with Nancy Bower. photo: courtesy R. NIlssonAs a filmmaker Rob Nilsson has always been concerned with the concreteness of human experience as lived in the here-and-now. Carrying on in the spirit of John Cassavetes, Nilsson struggles in each film to get to something close to the truth of human experience, or "the way things seem to be," as he often says.
Nilsson also comes off as distinctly American, his films giving expression to emotions and activities mostly left out of today's popular entertainment, arguably a more accurate version of the "American experience." After all, our lives are lived in the here and now, not in the abstractions presented by Hollywood.
Always evolving as an artist, Nilsson turned his attention to Russian history, inspired by his participation in a socialist cinema collective in the 1970s. This led to his two most recent films, “The Steppes”, a narrative feature, and “What Happened Here” a documentary about Trotsky. “The Steppes” features a haunting score by Al Nelson and editing by Michael MacBroom and Karen Kinghan of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and concerns an elderly Ukranian hotel owner in San Francisco's Tenderloin. In a bravura performance by Irit Levi, who also produced, we see her as a recluse haunted by memories of her mother—a survivor of Stalin’s Holodomor famine (a man-made famine in the Ukraine 1932-33)—starving to death after fleeing to Germany at the end of World War II.
Also 'The Steppes': Ms. Levi and the late David Hess (1936–2011), a Nilsson regular who started as a '60s pop star and became a Hollywood villian after debuting in Craven's 'Last House on the Left' (1972), see CineSource article. photo: courtesy R. NIlssonAlthough Nilsson writes and uses scripts, his preferred method is Direct Action, a system emphasizing backstory improvisation, for much of the filming. Mickey Freeman, his Director of Photography and a longtime Nilsson collaborator, does some of his best work, working as beautifully with color as he did with the rough black-and-white of the "9@Night" Films and the award-winning "Presque Isle".
When the Moscow International Film Festival did a retrospective of Nilsson's work in June of 2011, they featured “The Steppes” in their Perspectives Competition. This high profile honor marked a significant event in Nilsson's career and Nilsson, Irit Levi, actress Liz Taylor, and Mickey Freeman all traveled to Russia to attend.
In November, "The Steppes" was featured in the Russia Abroad Film Festival and was awarded the Moscow Press Prize, which took place at the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center in Moscow, an institute which rediscovers and collects Russian culture lost after the Bolsheviks took power. While there, Nilsson was taken on a tour of the legendary Donskoi Monastery where Solzhenitsyn, author of "Gulag Archipeligo" is buried.
Following "The Steppes," Nilsson took on "What Happened Here", produced by David and Carol Richards, which features a spectacular score by Daniel David Feinsmith and editing by Melody Miller and Arthur Vibert (who was also the CGI artist). A film of personal discovery and opinion, it begins with a search for the birthplace of Leon Trotsky in the Ukrainian steppes. Inspired by reading of Trotsky's autobiography, "My Life", 25 years ago, Nilsson was struck with Trotsky’s descriptions of Koloniya Gromokley and Yanovka, the agricultural villages his father had helped to found in the 19th Century.
Russell Murphy, ex- principal dancer from the San Francisco Ballet, plays the lead in 'Collapse', 'a dance movie for troubled times,' according to Nilsson. photo: courtesy R. NilssonIn the summer of 2009 Nilsson decided to make a personal pilgrimage to the area accompanied by Ukrainian producer Olga Zhurzhenko only to discover that both towns had disappeared. A local farmer led them through a field of sunflowers where he discovered the grave of Trotsky’s mother broken in three pieces, which inspired him to piece together the story of the villages' disappearance. In November of 2009, he returned to Ukraine with Zhurzhenko and DP Freeman to interview local farmers about Trotsky (born Lev Davidovich Bronstein), the 1941 Nazi pogrom, and Stalin’s Holodomor.
“What Happened Here” is also a film about the slipperiness of what we usually call history with a style more akin to Chris Marker’s work than anything that might air on PBS. "History may rule the academy," says Nilsson in the film, "but opinion rules the world." History is personal, and the film is, once again, a search by the filmmaker for the “way things seem to be.”
After those trips, Nilsson spent a year searching archives, talking to historians and other experts and researching the fate of Koloniya Gromokley. Then, aided by Bay Area documentary filmmaker and friend Micha Peled ("China Blue", "Bitter Seeds"), he discovered a report written in 1994 and filed in the Yad Vashem archives of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC by a man named Mikhael Derenkovski. It outlined the murder of 16 members of his family in Koloniya Gromokley in 1941 during the Nazi Holocaust.
Nilsson with Mikhael Derenkovski, whose Holocaust chronicle helped him with 'What Happened Here', at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, where it showed. photo: Victoria YakubovIn February, 2012 the film had the distinction of being presented in Israel at the cinematheques of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Haifa. Nimrod Zin and Victoria Yakubov, young Israeli filmmakers who, aided by Peled, had discovered Mikhael and helped Nilsson do an interview with him at his home in the Golan Heights in 2010, now brought Derenkovski down to Tel Aviv to see the film for the first time. After the screening Derenkovski, a farmer and a barber his whole life, addressed the audience in what Nilsson described as a deeply moving speech. “He spoke with such humility and power, it was as if he’d been speaking before the public his whole life. It brought everything full circle. An event I’ll never forget.”
In Jerusalem Nilsson had the pleasure of meeting Lia Van Leer, founder and president of the Jerusalem and Haifa cinematheques at a dinner in the Cinematheque's restaurant which has a spectacular view of the old city. Before ordering she said she’d like to see 10 minutes of the film. Nilsson waited but she didn’t return. As the credits rolled, Nilsson entered the screening room to find Van Leer still watching, captivated. During the Q & A an imposing figure raised his hand and said he was very moved by the film and would put it in the ranks of "Shoah", (arguably the definitive documentary on the Holocaust). Nilsson fought to compose himself and later spoke with this man in person. It turned out he was a former Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union during Perestroika times.
With the screenings in Israel in 2012 and the film festivals in Russia in 2011, Rob Nilsson seems to be somewhere close to his prime as a filmmaker. Certainly it has been an exciting year. "Maelstrom", a collaboration between Nilsson's Citizen Cinema Players Ensemble and Marshall Spight's Meets the Eye Productions, featuring Samantha Vansteen and Deniz Demirer, and edited by Demirer and Alan Reitsch with a score by Kit Walker and cinematography by Adam Wilt has just been finished. And there is "Collapse", a collaboration with present and former members of the San Francisco Ballet, featuring cinematography by Deniz Demirer and editing by Stuart Sloan and Arthur Vibert who is also providing special CGI effects.
Rob Nilsson on a hilltop above Haifa, Israel, where he came to shoot 'What Happened Here' and then show it to enthusiastic audiences. photo: Victoria YabukovNilsson is currently fundraising for "Woman 1", to be produced by Marshall Spight, Michelle Anton Allen and John Stout about two years in the life of painter Willem de Kooning, featuring a stellar cast including Thure Lindhardt, Hani Furstenberg, Ron Perlman, Stacy Keach, Finnoula Flanagan, Maria Gracia Cucinotta, Derrick O’Connor, and Tom Bower. Keach also had the lead role in Nilsson's "Imbued", which premiered at the Mill Valley Film Festival, showed at the Kansas City Film Festival in 2010 and went on to a theatrical run in a Kansas City theater.
Another film on the drawing board is a collaboration with Celik Kayalar’s Film Acting Bay Area and Nilsson’s Citizen Cinema. "Lost Art" with a Babel-esque structure depicting the Byzantine world of modern art will feature Carl Lumbly, known for his early theater work with Danny Glover, current bravura performances under the directorship of Bill English, and as a cast member on "Battlestar Glactica".
Over the last 12 years or so, Rob Nilsson has become the very definition of a prolific artist, creating some of his best work. He is passionate about what he does, fiercely independent yet deeply concerned with creating community (see the "15,000" section on his website), and he shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
Posted on Apr 26, 2012 - 02:06 AM
by Michael McWay
Scene from 'The Steppes', (left) lead actress Irit Levi with Nancy Bower. photo: courtesy R. NIlssonNilsson also comes off as distinctly American, his films giving expression to emotions and activities mostly left out of today's popular entertainment, arguably a more accurate version of the "American experience." After all, our lives are lived in the here and now, not in the abstractions presented by Hollywood.
Always evolving as an artist, Nilsson turned his attention to Russian history, inspired by his participation in a socialist cinema collective in the 1970s. This led to his two most recent films, “The Steppes”, a narrative feature, and “What Happened Here” a documentary about Trotsky. “The Steppes” features a haunting score by Al Nelson and editing by Michael MacBroom and Karen Kinghan of Belfast, Northern Ireland, and concerns an elderly Ukranian hotel owner in San Francisco's Tenderloin. In a bravura performance by Irit Levi, who also produced, we see her as a recluse haunted by memories of her mother—a survivor of Stalin’s Holodomor famine (a man-made famine in the Ukraine 1932-33)—starving to death after fleeing to Germany at the end of World War II.
Also 'The Steppes': Ms. Levi and the late David Hess (1936–2011), a Nilsson regular who started as a '60s pop star and became a Hollywood villian after debuting in Craven's 'Last House on the Left' (1972), see CineSource article. photo: courtesy R. NIlssonWhen the Moscow International Film Festival did a retrospective of Nilsson's work in June of 2011, they featured “The Steppes” in their Perspectives Competition. This high profile honor marked a significant event in Nilsson's career and Nilsson, Irit Levi, actress Liz Taylor, and Mickey Freeman all traveled to Russia to attend.
In November, "The Steppes" was featured in the Russia Abroad Film Festival and was awarded the Moscow Press Prize, which took place at the Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn Center in Moscow, an institute which rediscovers and collects Russian culture lost after the Bolsheviks took power. While there, Nilsson was taken on a tour of the legendary Donskoi Monastery where Solzhenitsyn, author of "Gulag Archipeligo" is buried.
Following "The Steppes," Nilsson took on "What Happened Here", produced by David and Carol Richards, which features a spectacular score by Daniel David Feinsmith and editing by Melody Miller and Arthur Vibert (who was also the CGI artist). A film of personal discovery and opinion, it begins with a search for the birthplace of Leon Trotsky in the Ukrainian steppes. Inspired by reading of Trotsky's autobiography, "My Life", 25 years ago, Nilsson was struck with Trotsky’s descriptions of Koloniya Gromokley and Yanovka, the agricultural villages his father had helped to found in the 19th Century.
Russell Murphy, ex- principal dancer from the San Francisco Ballet, plays the lead in 'Collapse', 'a dance movie for troubled times,' according to Nilsson. photo: courtesy R. Nilsson“What Happened Here” is also a film about the slipperiness of what we usually call history with a style more akin to Chris Marker’s work than anything that might air on PBS. "History may rule the academy," says Nilsson in the film, "but opinion rules the world." History is personal, and the film is, once again, a search by the filmmaker for the “way things seem to be.”
After those trips, Nilsson spent a year searching archives, talking to historians and other experts and researching the fate of Koloniya Gromokley. Then, aided by Bay Area documentary filmmaker and friend Micha Peled ("China Blue", "Bitter Seeds"), he discovered a report written in 1994 and filed in the Yad Vashem archives of the Holocaust Museum in Washington, DC by a man named Mikhael Derenkovski. It outlined the murder of 16 members of his family in Koloniya Gromokley in 1941 during the Nazi Holocaust.
Nilsson with Mikhael Derenkovski, whose Holocaust chronicle helped him with 'What Happened Here', at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque, where it showed. photo: Victoria YakubovIn Jerusalem Nilsson had the pleasure of meeting Lia Van Leer, founder and president of the Jerusalem and Haifa cinematheques at a dinner in the Cinematheque's restaurant which has a spectacular view of the old city. Before ordering she said she’d like to see 10 minutes of the film. Nilsson waited but she didn’t return. As the credits rolled, Nilsson entered the screening room to find Van Leer still watching, captivated. During the Q & A an imposing figure raised his hand and said he was very moved by the film and would put it in the ranks of "Shoah", (arguably the definitive documentary on the Holocaust). Nilsson fought to compose himself and later spoke with this man in person. It turned out he was a former Israeli ambassador to the Soviet Union during Perestroika times.
With the screenings in Israel in 2012 and the film festivals in Russia in 2011, Rob Nilsson seems to be somewhere close to his prime as a filmmaker. Certainly it has been an exciting year. "Maelstrom", a collaboration between Nilsson's Citizen Cinema Players Ensemble and Marshall Spight's Meets the Eye Productions, featuring Samantha Vansteen and Deniz Demirer, and edited by Demirer and Alan Reitsch with a score by Kit Walker and cinematography by Adam Wilt has just been finished. And there is "Collapse", a collaboration with present and former members of the San Francisco Ballet, featuring cinematography by Deniz Demirer and editing by Stuart Sloan and Arthur Vibert who is also providing special CGI effects.
Rob Nilsson on a hilltop above Haifa, Israel, where he came to shoot 'What Happened Here' and then show it to enthusiastic audiences. photo: Victoria YabukovAnother film on the drawing board is a collaboration with Celik Kayalar’s Film Acting Bay Area and Nilsson’s Citizen Cinema. "Lost Art" with a Babel-esque structure depicting the Byzantine world of modern art will feature Carl Lumbly, known for his early theater work with Danny Glover, current bravura performances under the directorship of Bill English, and as a cast member on "Battlestar Glactica".
Over the last 12 years or so, Rob Nilsson has become the very definition of a prolific artist, creating some of his best work. He is passionate about what he does, fiercely independent yet deeply concerned with creating community (see the "15,000" section on his website), and he shows no signs of stopping any time soon.
Posted on Apr 26, 2012 - 02:06 AM
