The woman the film industry mourns:
The 42-year-old camerawoman Halina Hutchins, who died in an accident on the set of “Rust” yesterday, is one of the main topics in news programs around the world. She died after being shot with a props pistol by Hollywood star Alec Baldwin, and her death was announced at the University of New Mexico hospital, where she was taken by helicopter.
In 2019, Hutchins, a graduate of the American Film Institute, received the Rising Star Award from the American Filmmakers Guild. With her work on the independent films “Archenemy”, “Blindfire” and “The Mad Hatter”, as well as several short productions, she had begun to build a name in the industry. According to American media, the latest project he is working on tells the story of a 13-year-old boy living in Kansas in 1880 who fled with his grandfather (played by Baldwin) after being sentenced to death for the accidental murder of a local ranger. , would take her career to a new, even higher level.
“I think she was going to be a very famous and successful filmmaker,” director Adam Egypt Mortimer, who has worked with her in the past, told The Times. After we did Archenemy, a lot of people called me to tell me they were impressed with her skills and were thinking of hiring her for their projects. She was extremely capable, even though she was still proving herself to the world, building a reputation. “From the beginning, I was impressed by her dedication to art.”
“Historically, women filmmakers have long been kept out of genre cinema. It is extremely cruel and unfair that one of the ladies who broke into it lost her life in just such a production,” her colleague El Schneider wrote on Twitter.
Hutchins had taken an unusual journey to Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reported. According to information on her official website, she was born in 1979 in Ukraine, but because of her father, who is a soldier, she grew up in a Soviet military base located in the Arctic Circle, surrounded by nuclear submarines. Her biography states that she graduated from Kiev National University with a degree in International Journalism, then worked as an investigative journalist for British documentaries.
Inspired by filmmakers such as Christopher Doyle and Sergei Urusevsky, she decided to focus on making films and moved to Los Angeles. Initially, he worked in various positions as a production assistant and electrician, but at the same time he made short films. On the recommendation of Emmy-winning cinematographer and winner, Robert Primes, she enrolled at the American Film Institute in 2013 and completed her education two years later. Her graduation project “Hidden”, co-created with her classmate Farzad Ostovarzade, was screened at the European Camerimage Festival.
I’m in shock! I was lucky enough to work with Halina Hutchins on the movie “Archenemy.” She was an amazing talent and a wonderful person. I can’t believe this can happen these days … A shot from a prop gun life? What a terrible tragedy, “actor Joe Manganiello wrote on social media.
“Halina was a real professional who did not bother to crawl in tight spaces, looking for the strangest but original place to put the camera. She did not care what time it is and whether the budget for a film is small, for her the important thing it was to capture things in the best possible way, “Mortimer recalled.
As news of Hutchins’ death resonated with great force in the industry, many, including Mortimer, wondered how such a tragic incident could happen.
“Everyone needs to feel absolutely safe on set, even if they look like they’re doing something dangerous,” Mortimer said. “People can’t worry about dying at work. We had a lot of shootings in our film, and for most weapons we didn’t even use ammunition, they just made a popping sound and were constantly checked by the team. How something could happen. like that? ”he wonders.
