'America gives absolute freedom': how an immigrant from Russia became a successful producer in the USA

“I was born and raised in Moscow,” says Voice of America film and television producer Jenny Feterovich. — When I was 13 years old, one fine day my parents came and said: “We are moving to America.” Of course, when you're 13, you don't understand or agree with these decisions. I don’t think that at that moment I was eager to leave for America. We left on a Jewish theme, through Vienna, through Italy and finally got to Detroit.

Photo: still from Voice of America video

I can’t say that in childhood I could think that I would become a television or film producer: we had three channels then, they showed the same thing, but I always loved music shows and was waiting for them with pleasure.

I was 13 years old - I didn’t feel any kind of anti-Semitism, but people always talked about it, and at school I sometimes saw it in the examples of other children. There was some layer of people who participated in anti-Semitism, but again, I was a child and just followed my family.

People came with higher education, which they could not use once in America. My mother worked in the first studio on Gorky Street, she always sewed, she was a designer - for such people it is a little easier, because you work with your hands. She got a job pretty quickly. Now she has her own business. Dad was a senior mining engineer. Of course, no one will do mining engineering in Detroit. It took him a while to get a job, but he eventually found a job at a computer company.

The most difficult thing was adapting to this country. Our family, other people. There were people who committed suicide, they lived in our apartment complex. People who couldn't stand it. You come to America - you have nothing. We had absolutely nothing, I didn’t even have a bed, I slept on the sofa, it didn’t even fold out. It is not clear what you can achieve, achieve, because at that moment you simply do not understand this country. It is impossible to be sociable.

I had a slightly complicated relationship with my parents, but then I did not understand how hard it was for them. When you are a teenager, and your parents changed the country for you, not knowing the language, but you don’t understand this, of course, there are some difficulties. I believe that adaptation was the most difficult moment, and this period of time. But if you survive it, then you can get from this country everything that you want.

I knew one phrase: “What time is it?” I could ask people what time it was - and this phrase was absolutely unnecessary, of course. English was zero.

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The first impression was terrible. Since I grew up in Moscow, I arrived and found myself in the suburbs of Detroit - two-story, rather gray. And you imagine America as you saw in the movies: big lights, beautiful sexy people... It was completely different. But when you start to join the culture, go into the shops... everything was interesting. And here I heard music that I had never heard - it was hip-hop, it was reggae. For me it was something.

At school, of course, you need some kind of assimilation - you don’t understand people absolutely. There were quite a lot of us, we arrived as a group, came in such “waves” and there were 30 Russians in the class. We assimilated slowly. At some point the next year, I went to live in California with my sister. There were no Russians there at all and I had no choice but to learn the language and immerse myself in American culture.

Photo: video frame "Voices of America"

A bit of a bad story, but I'll tell it anyway. This again concerns the Jewish topic. They took us to Cleveland to explain what Shabbat was. I will never forget this. We gathered in the room, all Russian children, and someone wanted to smoke. I said: “I know English, now I’ll read it.” It said: “No smoking allowed.” I turned and said: “You can smoke, just very quietly.” I thought that allowed is loud. When they lit a cigarette and the siren sounded, people came running to us - I immediately realized that it was an emergency situation. I didn't fully understand English at that moment.

I received my higher education at the university. This has always been very important to my parents. My parents are very practical people and they wanted me to have a practical education. I got it in IT and haven’t worked a single day in my profession. I've always been a creative person. While I was at university, I became a DJ at a fairly high world level. I was on tour a lot, traveling around the world, and finally about 10 years ago someone came to me and said, “The film industry is coming to Michigan, let’s open some business that revolves around this industry.” I agreed - I love trying new businesses.

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So 10 years ago I opened my own production company. We started with corporate clients. About 8 years ago, another friend of mine came to me and suggested that I start my own television show. Now entering its eighth season on PBC nationally, the show spotlights entrepreneurs across America and takes us on the road. This is where my career began.

Being a female DJ was very difficult. Being a female producer is also hard. It is always difficult for women in some male professions. But I don't believe in "hard". I believe in pushing and breaking through your own doors, pursuing your own goals and never giving up. People tell you no, but what does that mean? It's not a yes yet. You need to keep going towards your goal through all the “nos” - and 99 times it becomes a “yes”.

Hard? It's hard everywhere. This year, a film about the Russian Five was released in America. I released this film myself, and when I called and talked to some buyers in Hollywood, they didn’t like my technique of discussing some agreements, they said: “We’ll call your male partner now.” I laughed in their faces and said: “Do you think he makes decisions? No, you need to talk to me." You just can't give up. We must move on.

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For me, this film is a personal story. This is what I want to leave behind. There are commercial projects, and there are personal projects. This is not a Russian story in principle, it’s more a Detroit story, it’s a story about how these guys changed the way hockey is played in America. I knew all the characters personally and lived this story.

Photo: video frame "Voices of America"

Unfortunately, we didn't make it to the Oscars itself, but we qualified for the Oscars and were shortlisted. We had a premiere in Russia, and in Israel, and in London, we worked towards this for a very long time and worked a lot - the feeling, of course, was great. But for us, the bigger feeling is the feeling of the fans of the film. We were one of 10 films last year that received a Perfect Score on Rotten Tomatoes (a film and TV series rating site - editor's note). We got 100% from critics and 99% from audiences. It's practically impossible. That is, people like this film.

There are a lot of plans, we always have plans. We are now producing the eighth season of our show, developing from 7 to 9 new television projects, and I am also in the production of two new documentaries. There are always enough projects.

America gives man absolute freedom. I have been to 35 countries and I believe that this is the only country in the world where you can come with nothing, turn out to be everything, and remain a free person.

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