Ukraine

Fresh Memories: The Look

Volodymyr Kolbasa is a filmmaker and media artist with a background in classical cinema and immersive XR and media art. He also graduated as a cinematographer from the master's course in digital narratives at the international film school in Cologne and from the Viewfinder Erasmus Mundus master's course, within the latter program he also studied at the National Film School @ IADT, Ireland, SZFE, Hungary and the Baltic Film School, Tallinn. In addition to his film work, he also contributes to the development of AR projects for museum spaces and VR interactive films.

Ondřej Morávec is an independent director, screenwriter, and producer. He closely collaborates with Brainz Studios independent creative group. Since 2014 he has worked as an independent dramaturgist for multiple Czech film festivals. He curates VR movie categories at Anifilm, Letní filmová škola, Febiofest, and Zlín film fest festivals and he is the co-founder of Art*VR Festival in Prague (CZ). The world premiere of his first VR project ‘Darkening’ was held at the Venice Film Festival in 2022. Later, it was nominated for the Czech Lion Award in the animated movie category. His new project Fresh Memories: The Look premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) festival this year.

20 Days in Mariupol

Mstyslav Chernov is a Pulitzer Prize-winning video journalist at the Associated Press, and president of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. Since joining AP in 2014, he has covered major conflicts, social issues, and environmental crises across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Most recently, Chernov documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together with longtime colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, Chernov recorded the siege of Mariupol, giving the world eyewitness accounts of the Russian attacks on the city. Chernov’s courageous reporting in Mariupol earned him the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was named Camera Operator of the Year in 2016 and Young Talent of the Year in 2015 by the UK’s Royal Television Society.

Motherland

Alexander Mihalkovich is Belarusian-Ukrainian director and producer. He graduated with a PhD in library science, and holds an MA in film directing from DocNomads. He focuses on long-term projects with which he feels a close personal relationship. He produces experimental and creative documentaries with beautiful cinematography and a clear director’s vision. After creating several short documentary and experimental films, he made his debut feature film, My Granny from Mars. It had a successful theatrical release in Ukraine, and has been selected for numerous international film festivals (DOK.fest München 2019, Beldocs Belgrade 2019, Sarajevo IFF DocuTalents Award 2018, Jihlava IDFF 2018, Eastern Neighbours Film Festival 2019 – as the opening night film – among many others).

Hanna Badziaka is a filmmaker with a background in journalism. She graduated with a master’s degree in philology from the Belarusian State University in 2010. She began her career as a video journalist for independent online media, and later worked for the only independent TV channel in Belarus. As a journalist, she focused on social issues and topics related to everyday life. After gaining extensive experience in creating in-depth video reports, she became interested in documentary filmmaking. She then participated in creating several documentaries, and worked as a director and scriptwriter for TV projects focused on short documentaries. Motherland, which she co-directs, is her feature documentary debut.

We Will Not Fade Away

Born in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, in 1987, Alisa Kovalenko studied documentary filmmaking at the Karpenko-Kary University in Kyiv, and at the Wajda School in Warsaw, Poland. Her first feature-length documentary Alisa in Warland premiered at IDFA in 2015. Home Games screened at over 100 festivals and won numerous awards. She is the programmer for the international documentary competition of the Molodist film festival in Kyiv. After the launch of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Alisa left the editing room of We Will Not Fade Away, and joined a volunteer unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU), where she fought on the frontline in the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions. She fought in the trenches for four months before returning to finish We Will Not Fade Away, which premiered at Berlinale Generation 2023. Meanwhile, as the war in Ukraine continued, Alisa presented a project supported by Chicken & Egg Pictures and Netflix, based on footage filmed during her time in combat, at the IDFA Forum 2022.

Legyőzni a sötétséget

Kinodopomoha Collective

Overcoming the Darkness

Kinodopomoha Collective

Mariupolis

Mantas Kvedaravičius (1976-2022) litván származású filmkészítő volt, aki a Cambridge Egyetemen szerzett diplomát szociálantropológiából. Első filmje, a Barzakh, számos fesztiválon szerepelt és többek között olyan díjakat is nyert, mint a Amnesty International díj vagy a 2011-es Berlinale Ecumenical zsűri díja. Következő két filmjét, a 2016-os Mariupolis címűt a Berlinale, a 2019-es Parthenon című filmet pedig a Venice International Critics’ Week válogatta be. Mantas Kvedaravičiust 2022 márciusának végén az orosz csapatok Mariupolban megölték, miközben az orosz megszállásról forgatott.

Hegyek között a mennyország

Dmytro Hreshko Kárpátalján született, 2019 óta tanul dokumentumfilmezést és készít dokumentumfilmeket. Még ugyanabban az évben az ungvári Skalka 2019 filmiskola nyári egyetemén rendezést tanult, valamint Lyubov Durakova és Alisa Kovalenko kurátorok vezetése alatt a kharkivi Vizuális Művészeti Akadémia (AVA) dokumentumfilmes képzését végezte el. 2020-ben Dmytro Tyazhlov és Ella Shtyka mentorálásával részt vett a kijevi Dokumentumfilm Iskola Indie Lab 2020 programjában. A kárpátaljai filmművészet fejlesztése érdekében Dmytro aktív szerepet vállal a Kárpátaljai Film Bizottság megszervezésében, valamint az ungvári Kárpátok Nemzetközi Filmfesztivál (CMIFF) társalapítójaként és programszervezőjeként is dolgozik.

Törékeny emlékezet

Igor Ivanko 1992-ben született Odesszában. 2016-ban szerzett MA fokozatot operatőrként a Kijevi Nemzeti I. Karpenko-Kary Színház-, Film és Televízióművészeti Egyetemen. 2014 óta a BABYLON’13 dokumentumfilm-készítő kollektívával dolgozik közösen, akikkel a Maidan téri tüntetések és az orosz-ukrán háború eseményeit is filmezték. A Törékeny emlékezet az első egész estés dokumentumfilmje.

Florian szerint a végtelen

Oleksiy Radynski 1984-ben, Ukrajnában született filmkészítő és író, aki jelenleg Kijevben él és dolgozik. Filmelméleti tanulmányai után több, filmművészeti oktatási kísérletezésben is részt vett, mint például a beiruti Home Workspace Programban és Harun Farocki and Antje Ehmann Labor in a Single Shotjában. Díjnyertes rövidfilmjeit az Oberhausen Nemzetközi Rövidfilm Fesztivál, a Docudays IFF, a DOK Leipzig, a Kurzfilmtage Winterthur, a londoni Institue of Contemporary Arts, a new york-i e-flux, a berlini S A V V Y Contemporary, a new york-i International Studio & Curatorial Program is bemutatta. A Florian szerint a végtelen az első egész estés filmje.

Pages

Subscribe to Ukraine