Vladislav Alex Kozlov is an award-winning director. At the age of three, he began stuttering so heavily that he could barely speak. Vladislav's parents, concerned about his speech impairment, wanted their son to have a quiet career as an office lawyer, who would work with papers and wouldn't have to talk to people much. But Vladislav, an artist at heart, secretly started taking theater acting and directing lessons. Miraculously, the acting lessons considerably improved Vladislav's speech. Vladislav left for Hollywood to pursue his dreams.
After several years of working as an extra in Hollywood, and being inspired by watching the biggest directors and actors at work, Vladislav decided to make his own movie. His strong resemblance to the silent screen idol, Rudolph Valentino, fascination with Old Hollywood, and his speech problem resulted in a conception of a silent film about his childhood idol Rudolph Valentino. In 2006 Vladislav directed, co-wrote, and produced a 17-minute silent B/W short film "Daydreams of Rudolph Valentino", where he also starred as Rudolph Valentino. The project was funded and supported by Hollywood Forever Cemetery, where Rudolph Valentino is buried. Vladislav also showed considerable producing talent as he convinced a number of vendors and industry professionals to donate their equipment, locations, and services to the project.
In 2009 Vladislav decided to expand his short film project about Rudolph Valentino and over a period of 10 years, it grew into a feature film "Silent Life" starring Terry Moore, Isabella Rossellini, Franco Nero, Sherilyn Fenn, Paul Rodriguez, and Monte Markham. The project is currently in post-production and will be released in 2022. Vladislav was an apprentice of Hollywood veteran editor Frank Morriss ("Duel"by Stephen Spielberg, "Romancing the Stone" by Robert Zemeckis, "Blue Thunder" by John Badham). Frank was teaching Vladislav how to edit for over 5 years using the old Hollywood technique.
In August 2019 Vladislav won First Prize for Best Director at Rhode Island International Film Festival for his Neo-Noir short film about cryonics "The Killers". Said Shawn M. Quirk, Program Director, Flickers' Rhode Island International Film Festival: "Vladislav Kozlov has made something exceptional with his film "The Killers". Through merging the macabre, science fiction, and neo-realism, he has dared to bring an unbelievable tale about the human condition to light and has redefined the cinematic experience in the process."
Vladislav is working on several other projects - a Hybrid "American Superman" about a man who has been dressing up as Superman to work on the Walk of Fame as a costume character for 25 years and his down spiral into homelessness.
