Chicago-made ‘Trained’ rolls into 33 million homes

Yuri Rutman and Jenny Diamico in 'Trained'

Yuri Rutman and Jenny Diamico in ‘Trained’

Yuri Rutman’s
guerilla-filmed,
psychoerotic short
begins streaming
tomorrow
on ShortsTV

Kiev-born, Chicago-raised, LA-based filmmaker Yuri Rutman endured 48 hours of the Windy City winter to make a film that becomes available for streaming in 33 million homes tomorrow.

His 18-minute short, Trained, is a love story like no other. Offering a glimpse into the lives of lovers Emma (Jenny Diamico) and Jake (Rutman), it rises to a level of intensity that Medium writer Don Shanahan describes as “sizzling,” “intoxicated,” and “endlessly interesting.”

Yuri Rutman and Jenny Diamico
Yuri Rutman and Jenny Diamico

Besides being attracted to one another, the couple is compelled and controlled by Emma’s siderodromophilia, a condition that prevents her from getting aroused unless she is on or around moving trains in Chicago. In scenes shot on location throughout the Windy City — including several on the elevated line — Trained shows how they struggle to “normalize” things.

According to Rutman, who also wrote and directed, the story explores “gender roles, sexuality, mental health, and consciousness awakenings” along the way.

Trained becomes available tomorrow on ShortsTV, the world’s only Short Film Channel and official distributor of the Oscar-nominated Short Films that reaches an estimated 33 million homes.

YURI RUTMAN
TRAINED | TRAILER

 
 
A guerilla filmmaking mission
“No one believes we made the film in two days,” says Rutman. “We were like Navy Seals on a mission doing some serious guerilla filmmaking all over Chicago. Plus, our DP/co-producer Scott Drucker had a horrible flu, so it’s just amazing what the final film looks like.”

In addition to Drucker’s resilience, Rutman’s experience also helped get it done. His previous achievements include starring in a national television commercial for Letgo.com directed by Craig Gillespie (I Tonya, The Finest Hours, Fright Night, Million Dollar Arm) and EP and director responsibilities for several indies and docuseries.

After submitting Trained to ShortsTV for consideration, they offered Rutman a deal for a US and EMEA broadcast.

 
About Yuri Rutman
Born to Holocaust survivors in Kiev, Ukraine, Yuri Rutman moved to Israel when he was nine-months-old and lived there until he was three. After relocating with his family to the Chicago suburb of Skokie, IL, he grew up surrounded by doctors, engineers, and economists who “thought there was something wrong with me wanting to make movies.” He began writing scripts at 10-years-old, performed in numerous high school theater productions, and studied at Second City. In addition to Trained, his other projects include a Chicago-based Russian Jewish crime epic currently in development. Rutman speaks fluent Russian with a heavy American accent, and English with no Russian accent.

 
About ShortsTV
ShortsTV is the world’s first and only 24/7 HD channel dedicated to short movies. It is available across the US on DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, US Sonet, CenturyLink, Frontier Communications, Google Fiber, and numerous NCTC member companies. The channel also offers hundreds of independent shorts for download in 92 iTunes stores across the globe as well as on Amazon Instant Video, Google Play, Verizon, and Frontier. ShortsTV is operated by Shorts International, the world’s leading short movie entertainment company with the world’s largest movie catalogue dedicated to short movies.

 
Send your indie news to Reel Chicago Editor Dan Patton, dan@reelchicago.com.