Background
She was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Street St. Petersburg, Russia).
She was born in Leningrad, Soviet Union (now Street St. Petersburg, Russia).
Loktev attended McGill University in Montreal and received an Master of Fine Arts in film from New York University.
Julia immigrated to the United States with her family at the age of 9. Loktev came across Tom Bishell"s book of short stories God Lives in Saint St. Petersburg and read it because she had been born in Saint St. Petersburg. She decided to adapt the short story Expensive Trips Nowhere into the film The Loneliest Planet transporting the setting from Kazakhstan to Georgia.
Loktev was resident at Eyebeam in 2005.
In 2015, Richard Brody called her one of the best woman movie directors. Loktev is Jewish. In 1989, when she was 19, her father was severely injured in an automobile accident.
The event was the subject of her 1998 documentary Moment of Impact. Rough House, Brooklyn Museum of Art’s “Global Feminisms” show.