An image from Days of Yakutia in Toronto, Canada.

What a great news! Sardana Savvina let me know that two Yakutian films are going to participate at The Imagine Native Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Canada. They will be screened at Bell Light BOX Movie Theater on October 22nd and 23rd, 2011.

If by any chance you appeared to be in Toronto on those days, don’t miss the chance to visit the film festival and watch Yakutian movies. You won’t regret ever! Check the screening schedule.

Further, find films description and get energized by the While the Wind Blows movie trailer with a song performed by the famous Yakut rock band “103″ and Varya Maksimova.

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Evgenia Arbugaeva, a Yakutian photographer, keeps stunning us all the time. In September – October, she is exhibiting her pictures from the project “Tiksi In Winter” in Toronto, Canada. Her photo exhibit will be a part of so-called Days of Sakha-Yakutia at Bezpala Brown Gallery.

Days of Sakha-Yakutia at Bezpala Brown Gallery
Sept. 30-Oct. 9; Oct. 15-30, 17 Church St., Toronto; bezpalabrown.com

If you are in Toronto, don’t miss a chance to see her images of the Russian Arctic seaport of Tiksi located in Yakutia in the area of the Lena Delta.

Some of Evgenia’s photographs you might see right now.

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Wildfires in Yakutia, North-Eastern Siberia, Russia

Just to let you know what’s going on in Yakutia, Siberia / Russia. The summer 2011 appeared to be extremely hot. Last three weeks we had temperatures much above +30C. There were days with +42C. As a result, our precious forest (taiga) got set on fire immediately. Taiga is vulnerable.

Here is what yesterday YSIA News Agency informed. Note: the text was translated by Sayyna Gogoleva and published without proof-reading.

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Another Yakutia Airlines’ Boeing 737-700 NG has arrived at Yakutsk’s airport. The aircraft has performed flight directly from Budapest Franz Liszt International Airport, where it has been undergoing a preliminary maintenance at Aeroplex base, the airline’s press-service reports.

“The plane landed in Yakutsk on Monday on a direct flight from the airport of Budapest, where he was on a special basis of preparation is a form of maintenance”, – said the agency interlocutor. According to her, the aircraft will be used for interregional and international flights. “The first flight will make a brand new Boeing for 8 June to route Yakutsk to Moscow”, – explained Samsonov.

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This is the video from the Live Music of the Silent Film event arranged by Kostas Danilov for cine amateurs in EPL’s Diamond House Cafe in Yakutsk (Yakutia / Russia) a couple of weeks ago.

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The Mirninsky Region Toponomy website screenshot, the winner of the first school kids online project contest held in Yakutia, Russia, in 2011.

It’s getting really interesting. It seems the eYakutia – English blog is getting popular in my hometown, Yakutsk. Here is the news I was asked to share with you. I like it much, because it is about what I love, actually. It is about motivating school kids to promote their lovely regions with the means of Internet.

A week ago, the Republic’s Complementary Educational Center (SakhaEdu.Ru) successfully finished the 1st “My Homeland” Internet projects contest among high schools in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), Siberia / Russia.

The contest mission was simple. Children were assigned to create websites dedicated to their homelands, i.e. regions, towns or villages. As a result, 19 schools from 10 Yakutian regions submitted their online projects for the republic competition.

So, who are the winners? See the list below.

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Yakutsk Virtual Tour Demo at VisitYakutia.com

The beginning of this week is amazingly full of interesting startups. On Monday, I wrote about YakutiArt’s Yakutia Wild Life comic strip project.

This time I am proud to announce the appearance of the new project called Yakutia Virtual Travel Guide. Check it at VisitYakutia.com.

On that resource, you will be able to see Yakutsk, the administrative center of Russia’s Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), and walk across the city virtually.

Use arrows “<" and ">” to turn around. Choose places to view in the navigation bar located at the right top or on the map at the left top. You can also click on the white sphere you see in a image and teleport into that spot. Enjoy!

It’s only the demo. The virtualization of Yakutia is just started and it will be intigrated in the bilingual Yakutia Travel Guide website VisitYakutia.com. We need your support. Please, share the news!

By the way, the project is done in cooperation with Egor Fedorov, the almighty Yakutsk-based website developer and founder of PicaRus Studio.

PS. Yesterday, we installed the analytics… and, you know what, more than 1100 unique visitors from 35 nations for one day!

Yakutia Wild Life, a new comic strip project done in English. P.S. Click the photo to see in the origin size.

A friend of mine, Arsen Tomsky, initiated the new project called Yakutia’s Wild Life. It is the series of black-and-white comic strips about living in the coldest Siberian region. Done in English and in the way of positive jokes. Read the rest of this entry…

Near Yakutsk ice on the Lena River is already passing, reached the settlement of Kangalassy in the North, and everything was fine in Lensk in South Yakutia.

Ice float on the Lena River is like a big event in Yakutia, Russia’s Siberian & Far-Eastern Republic. People are happy about it and worry at the same time.

Happy as it means the spring culmination, the start of constant warm weather and a good reason to go out for shashlik (Russian BBQ), gather snowdrops and admire the beauty of ice drifting along the mighty Lena River. An awesome nature show, indeed!

Worry as spring ice melting and floating might bring the devastating flooding. You might be heard of Lensk that drown totally in 2001 and reconstructed lately by the Russian Emergency Ministry.

Last spring was full of waters and some destructions. Read the rest of this entry…

A polar bear in the Arctic seashore of Yakutia, Siberia, Russia. Photo by Boris Gorokhov.

Polar bear population in Yakutia increased over twice as much. The experts believe that the bears may migrate because of the climate changes, informs vladivostoktimes.com. They are coming to Yakutia’s Arctic seashore regularly and it is not an extraordinary event anymore.

The experts who took part in the action “Spring Tracks” on counting of the polar bears’ dens in Yakutia registered that the beast population in the area increased over twice as much, RIA Novosti reports with the reference to the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) Ministry of Nature Preservation Biological Resources Department.

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