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In person, Zak Khutoretsky radiates warmth-he smiles, he hugs, he calls his friends "brother." But he's also someone defined by struggle, a self-described hustler who had to fight for everything he has. His family emigrated to Minneapolis from St. Petersburg when he was a toddler, and his parents split up shortly after that. As a kid Khutoretsky had a good heart but a taste for trouble. He had a habit of getting kicked out of schools, and by the time he was 20 he was throwing illegal parties. Coming right at the peak of America's mid-'90s rave culture, Khutoretsky's events were legendary, and he did whatever he had to do to make them happen: forging insurance documents, lying to landlords, even selling drugs to offset costs. A run-in with the law eventually made him go legit, but he kept at it, throwing enormous raves and later opening his own club. Today he's a regular DJ at Berghain and gets booked all over the world, but he remains a cornerstone of his home city's scene.
Khutoretsky is an amazing DJ and producer, but as we see in this film, there's another quality that got him where he is today. From the beginning, he's been clever, resourceful and tenacious-devious, you might even say.
Music credits:
Black Russian - DVS1 [Klockworks, 2014]
Slim (DVS1 Four by Four Mix) - SAWF [2010]
Post-Traumatic Son (DVS1 Pessimist Remix) - James Ruskin & Karl O'Connor [Blueprint, 2011]
Leave Your Life - Borrowed Identity [Mistress, 2013]
Pressure - DVS1 [Transmat, 2010]
Balance - DVS1 [HUSH, 2014]
Clean Slate - Darko Esser [Curle Recordings, 2011]
Polyphonic Love - DVS1 [Transmat, 2010]
Submerge - DVS1 [HUSH, 2011]
Incursion - Discrete Circuit [Mistress, 2015]
Production credits:
Director / Camera - Patrick Nation
Producer - Debbie Butts
Editor - Sim Higginson (clockwisemedia.com)
Executive Producers - Ryan Keeling, Nick Sabine, Paul Clement
Graphics - Christian Olofsson
Dubbing Mixer - Guy Clarke
Colourist - Adam Clarke
Foundation photo: BBgunBilly