Jordan Todorov (; born May 29, 1980) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria, officially the Republic of Bulgaria, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern portion of the Balkans directly south of the Danube river and west of the Black Sea. Bulgaria is bordered by Greece and Turkey t ...

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker,

screenwriter A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...

, producer, and

journalist A journalist is a person who gathers information in the form of text, audio or pictures, processes it into a newsworthy form and disseminates it to the public. This is called journalism. Roles Journalists can work in broadcast, print, advertis ...

. He graduated with an MA in

Film Studies Film studies is an academic discipline that deals with various film theory, theoretical, history of film, historical, and film criticism, critical approaches to film, cinema as an art form and a medium. It is sometimes subsumed within media stud ...

from the

Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts The Krastyo Sarafov National Academy for Theatre and Film Arts (commonly referred to as NATFIZ) is a performing, cinematic and media arts institution of higher education based in Sofia. It is the first Bulgarian university in the field of thea ...

Sofia Sofia is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain, in the western part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, Bulgaria in 2003.

Career

Filmmaking

Todorov made his writing and directing debut with '' Concrete Pharaohs'' (

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

), a picturesque documentary about the

Kalderash The Kalderash are a subgroup of the Romani people. They were traditionally coppersmiths and metal workers and speak a number of Romani dialects grouped together under the term Kalderash Romani, a sub-group of Vlax Romani. The Kalderash of the ...

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

– a closed community of no more than 1 million people all over the world. The film was produced by the Bulgarian company

AGITPROP Agitprop (; from , portmanteau of ''agitatsiya'', "agitation" and ''propaganda'', "propaganda") refers to an intentional, vigorous promulgation of ideas. The term originated in the Soviet Union where it referred to popular media, such as literatu ...

and became the first Bulgarian documentary commissioned by

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. The film was shortlisted for the Japan Prize 2011 - the International Contest for Educational Media. Todorov served as a researcher for '' The Boy Who Was a King'' - a documentary that tells the story of

Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha Simeon Borisov Saxe-Coburg-Gotha (, ; born 16 June 1937) is a Bulgarian politician who reigned as the last Tsar of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, Tsardom of Bulgaria as Simeon II from 1943 until 1946. In 1946, the monarchy was abolished by a 1946 Bu ...

, who at the age of six became the Tsar of Bulgaria. In 2011 Todorov has been commissioned by the

Bulgarian National Television The Bulgarian National Television ( Bulgarian: Българска национална телевизия, ''Balgarska natsionalna televizia'') or BNT (БНТ), stylized as ·Б·Н·Т· since 2018, is a public television broadcaster of Bulgaria ...

to direct the

Twilight Twilight is daylight illumination produced by diffuse sky radiation when the Sun is below the horizon as sunlight from the upper atmosphere is scattered in a way that illuminates both the Earth's lower atmosphere and also the Earth's surf ...

segment of the Bulgarian version of

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

Big Read The Big Read was a survey on books that was carried out by the BBC in the United Kingdom in 2003, when over three-quarters of a million votes were received from the British public to find the nation's best-loved novel. The year-long survey was th ...

survey. In 2011 Todorov wrote and directed the documentary '' Dad Made Dirty Movies'' (

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

), that tells the story of the late American

sexploitation A sexploitation film (or sex-exploitation film) is a class of independently produced, Low-budget film, low-budget feature film that is generally associated with the 1960s and early 1970s, and that serves largely as a vehicle for the exhibition o ...

producer and director Stephen C. Apostolof. The idea of the documentary dawned on Todorov in 2005, when he received an odd email from a friend: "Look who filmed the erotic scripts by Ed Wood!". The film is produced by

in association with Filmtank (Hamburg),

ZDF ZDF (), short for (; ), is a German public-service television broadcaster based in Mainz, Rhineland-Palatinate. Launched on 1 April 1963, it is run as an independent nonprofit institution, and was founded by all federal states of Germany ( ...

and

Arte Arte (, , ; ' ('), sometimes stylised in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European Union, European public service Television channel, channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based Europea ...

. Principal photography began in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in December 2009, and continued in

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

and

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in May 2010. '' Dad Made Dirty Movies'' features interviews with Apostolof's children and his third wife Shelley, stars from his films, cult filmmakers, film critics and film historians. '' Dad Made Dirty Movies'' premiered at

Visions du Réel Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

International Film Festival, East European Picks at Visions du Réel and played at more than thirty festivals around the world, including Sydney Underground Film Festival, Transilvania International Film Festival, Trieste Film Festival and Mumbai International Film Festival, among others. The film has been sold in more than thirty territories worldwide. '' Dad Made Dirty Movies'' will air on HBO in the autumn of 2012. In 2013 Todorov helped produce the short documentary film '' Plamen'', which features the story of Plamen Goranov, who became a symbol of the Bulgarian social protest movement and a catalyst for nationwide protests and government resignations when on 20 February 2013 he set himself on fire in front of the Varna municipal building. In 2014 Todorov was awarded the MEDIA funded Nipkow Programm fellowship to develop his next documentary film in Berlin - a portrait of the iconic photographer Will McBride.

Journalism

Todorov began his career as a journalist in 2002, working for the weekly newspaper '' 168 Hours'', where he spent several years writing feature stories, interviews and news. Through the years he has earned a reputation for writing about offbeat subjects and characters in a humorous and somewhat surreal way. As a freelance journalist Todorov has written on a wide range of subjects for a number of publications as diverse as ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' (stylized in all caps) is an American men's Lifestyle journalism, lifestyle and entertainment magazine, available both online and in print. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, funded in part by a $ ...

'', ''

Esquire Esquire (, ; abbreviated Esq.) is usually a courtesy title. In the United Kingdom, ''esquire'' historically was a title of respect accorded to men of higher social rank, particularly members of the landed gentry above the rank of gentleman ...

'', '' Fotogeschichte'',''

L'Europeo was a prominent Italian weekly news magazine launched on 4 November 1945, by the founder-editors Gianni Mazzocchi and Arrigo Benedetti.Vice A vice is a practice, behaviour, Habit (psychology), habit or item generally considered morally wrong in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character trait, a defect, an infirmity, or a bad or unhe ...

'', ''

Capital Capital and its variations may refer to: Common uses * Capital city, a municipality of primary status ** Capital region, a metropolitan region containing the capital ** List of national capitals * Capital letter, an upper-case letter Econom ...

'', '' Amica'', ''

Expresso Expresso may refer to: * Espresso, a coffee beverage * eXpresso, a hosted workspace for Microsoft Office communities * Expresso (Donkey Kong), a character in the ''Donkey Kong Country'' series * ''Expresso'' (newspaper), based in Lisbon, Portug ...

'', '' Brava Casa'' and ''

Abitare ''Abitare (which translates to "live" or "dwell")'', published monthly in Milan, Italy, is a design magazine. It was first published in 1961. History and profile ''Abitare'' was launched in Milan in 1961 by Piera Peroni. It was devoted to archit ...

''. He worked as staff editor for the Bulgarian edition of ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' until the magazine's closure in September 2011. Todorov has interviewed an array of prominent international figures. His feature interview subjects have included Dita Von Teese,

Forrest J Ackerman Forrest James Ackerman (November 24, 1916 – December 4, 2008) was an American magazine editor; science fiction writer, and literary agent; a founder of science fiction fandom; a leading expert on science fiction, horror, and fantasy films; a ...

Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski Scott Alexander (born June 16, 1963) and Larry Karaszewski (; born November 20, 1961) are an American screenwriting duo, recognized for their unique approach to biopics. They introduced the term "anti-biopic" to describe their distinctive styl ...

Kevin Warwick Kevin Warwick (born 9 February 1954) is an English engineer and Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) at Coventry University. He is known for his studies on direct interfaces between computer systems and the human nervous system, and has also done ...

Amos Oz Amos Oz (; born Amos Klausner (); 4 May 1939 – 28 December 2018) was an Israeli writer, novelist, journalist, and intellectual. He was also a professor of Hebrew literature at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. From 1967 onwards, Oz was a pro ...

Isabel Allende Isabel Angélica Allende Llona (; born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean-American writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the magical realism genre, is known for novels such as '' The House of the Spirits'' (''La casa de los espír ...

Aubrey De Grey Aubrey David Nicholas Jasper de Grey (; born 20 April 1963) is an English biomedical gerontologist. He is the author of ''The Mitochondrial Free Radical Theory of Aging'' (1999) and co-author of '' Ending Aging'' (2007). De Grey is known for ...

Alison Goldfrapp Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp (born 13 May 1966) is an English musician and record producer, known as the vocalist of English electronic music duo Goldfrapp. Early life and education Alison Elizabeth Margaret Goldfrapp was born on 13 Ma ...

Richard Kern Richard Kern (born 1954) is an American underground filmmaker, writer and photographer. He first came to prominence as part of the cultural explosion in the East Village of New York City in the 1980s, with erotic and experimental films like ' ...

George Lois George Lois (June 26, 1931 – November 18, 2022) was an American art director, designer, and author. Lois was perhaps best known for over 92 covers he designed for ''Esquire'' magazine from 1962 to 1973. Background Lois was born in New York Ci ...

Mark Benecke Mark Benecke (born 26 August 1970) is a German forensic biologist. Career Science Benecke has worked on the identification of Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun's dental remains in Moscow (as well as a skull fragment claimed to be Hitler's). Notab ...

Alain de Botton Alain de Botton (; born 20 December 1969) is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker. His books discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasizing philosophy's relevance to everyday life. He published ''Essays in Love'' (1993) ...

, Bunny Yeager, and

Georgina Spelvin Shelley Bob Graham (born March 1, 1936), known professionally as Georgina Spelvin, is an American former actress and pornographic performer, best known as the star of the classic 1973 pornographic film ''The Devil in Miss Jones'', released duri ...

among others. He authored a

biography A biography, or simply bio, is a detailed description of a person's life. It involves more than just basic facts like education, work, relationships, and death; it portrays a person's experience of these life events. Unlike a profile or curri ...

of Stephen C. Apostolof due to be published in mid-2012 as a

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, website, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original proper ...

to his most recent documentary '' Dad Made Dirty Movies''. Todorov was a

managing editor A managing editor (ME) is a senior member of a publication's management team. Typically, the managing editor reports directly to the editor-in-chief and oversees all aspects of the publication. United States In the United States, a managing edi ...

of the Bulgarian edition of ''

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

''. He writes for

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...

- an online compendium of "The World's Wonders, Curiosities, and Esoterica”.

Other

In 2011 he was a member of the

FIPRESCI The International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI, short for ''Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique'') is an association of national organizations of professional film critics and film journalists from around the wor ...

jury at the 15th

Sofia International Film Festival Sofia International Film Festival (SIFF) (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: ''Международен София Филм Фест, София Филм Фест''), also known as Sofia Film Fest, is an annual film festival in Sofia, capital city of ...

. The next year he was a member of the jury at the 10th In the Palace International Short Film Festival. In October 2013, Todorov curated "Bunny's Pin-up Girls" - an exhibition of photos by the American photographer Bunny Yeager in Sofia, Bulgaria. In 2016 he translated into Bulgarian the New York Times bestseller ''Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art'' - a non-fiction book about the mysterious disappearance of Michael Rockefeller in New Guinea in 1961. Todorov also translated into Bulgarian ''River of the Sacred Monkey'' (1970) – a travelogue detailing the adventures of Dimitar Krustev (1920-2013), a Bulgarian-born artist and adventurer, who in 1968 became the first person to successfully navigate the Usumacinta River on the border of Mexico and Guatemala.

Filmography

* '' The Queen of Crypto'' (2024)(Field Producer) * '' Plamen'' (2015)(Producer) * '' Dad Made Dirty Movies'' (2011)(Director/Writer) * '' The Boy Who Was a King'' (2011)(Researcher) * '' Concrete Pharaohs'' (2010)(Director/Writer)

Bibliography

*''Пришълците: Фаланги'' (original title ''Aliens: Phalanx'') (Erove) *''Как STAR WARS покориха вселената. Миналото, настоящето и бъдещето на франчайза, който спечели милиарди'' (original title ''How Star Wars Conquered the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of a Multibillion Dollar Franchise'') (Erove) *''Крадецът на соколи. Истинска история за приключения, предателство и лова на перфектната птица'' (original title ''The Falcon Thief: A True Tale of Adventure, Treachery, and the Hunt for the Perfect Bird'') (Erove) *''Дръзките контрабандисти от Тимбукту и тяхната надпревара да спасят най-ценните ръкописи на света от ръцете на Ал Кайда'' (original title ''The Bad-Ass Librarians of Timbuktu: And Their Race to Save the World's Most Precious Manuscripts'') (Erove) *''Dad Made Dirty Movies: The Erotic World of Stephen C. Apostolof'' (McFarland) *''Реката на свещената маймуна'' (original title ''River of the Sacred Monkey'') (Erove) *''Дивашка'' ''жътва'' (original title ''Savage Harvest: A Tale of Cannibals, Colonialism, and Michael Rockefeller’s Tragic Quest for Primitive Art'') (Erove) *''Atlas Obscura Explorer's Journal'' (Workman Publishing Company) *''Bulgarian cinema. Encyclopedia'' (Titra)

Awards and honors

* 2014: Nipkow Fellowship awarded by Nipkow Programm - Berlin * 2012: Bulgarian Film Academy Award for Best Television Documentary for "Dad Made Dirty Movies" * 2012: The 16th Sofia International Film Fest Young Jury Award for Best Documentary for "Dad Made Dirty Movies" * 2011: Bulgarian Film Academy Award for Best Debut Film for "Concrete Pharaohs" * 2011: Japan Prize shortlist - "Concrete Pharaohs" * 2011: The 15th International Festival of Documentary Films in Jihlava, Czech Republic, Silver Eye Award Nomination for Best Mid-Length Documentary for "Dad Made Dirty Movies" * 2010: Golden Rhyton Festival of Non-Feature Film Award for Best Debut Film for "Concrete Pharaohs" * 2010: The 14th International Festival of Documentary Films in Jihlava, Czech Republic, Silver Eye Award Nomination for Best Mid-Length Documentary for "Concrete Pharaohs" * 2010: The 14th International Festival of Documentary Films in Jihlava, Czech Republic, Silver Eye Award Nomination for Best Central and Eastern European Documentary for "Concrete Pharaohs" * 2008: Best journalist story/campaign/publication nomination at the 6th Right to Know Awards, organized by Freedom of Information Advocates Network

References

External links

*
Official website

An interview with Jordan Todorov

The Bulgarian, who broke Hollywood taboos

"The most successful Bulgarian in Hollywood, we’ve never heard of"

“Papá hace películas obscenas”, la historia del búlgaro con mayor éxito en Hollywood

Jordan Todorov Interview
about the making of "Dad Made Dirty Movies"(in Bulgarian) {{DEFAULTSORT:Todorov, Jordan 1980 births Living people Bulgarian documentary film directors Bulgarian film directors Bulgarian screenwriters Bulgarian male screenwriters Bulgarian journalists