FACEBOOK EVENT

Four months ago, Russia invaded Ukraine and started a war in Europe. Immediately there were large waves of solidarity towards people in Ukraine. There were also immediate calls, open letters or discussions about boycotting Russian culture, including cinema. No matter whether you are for a complete boycott or stand somewhere in between, we all have to make a stand that reflects in our everyday work

How such conflicts influence film industry practice and what needs to be done if we really want to highlight filmmakers and film works from the former-Soviet region? Are there any similarities between the war in ex-Yugoslavia in terms of giving voices to all the countries? These and other topics will be discussed.

Speakers:
Daria Badior - a freelance critic, editor, and journalist from Ukraine. She is a co-curator of the Kyiv Critics' Week film festival, which takes place annually at the end of October. In 2021, she co-founded an NGO Coalition for Culture that analyzes culture policies in Ukraine. In the spring of 2022, she was a non-residential fellow at IWM,  maintaining a media project Unwinding Empire, along with her colleagues. During three months, there were 14 articles produced, written by Ukrainian scholars, critics, and intellectuals, issued in international media.

Kumjana Novakova - in 2006 she co-founded the Pravo Ljudski Film Festival in Sarajevo, and acts as its chief curator and director. She was also leading the Film Department of the Museum of Contemporary Arts in Skopje from 2018 to 2021. As an author, her research lies between cinema and contemporary video art, often exploring how moving images address identities, memories and the collective self. Her work has been shown at film festivals across the world (Leipzig, Sarajevo Film Festival, PlayDoc, Museum of the Moving Image, NY, DokuFest, La Inesperada Barcelona). Currently she is an associated professor at Master of Film of the Netherlands Film Academy, while pursuing her PhD in Contemporary Arts and Media in Belgrade.

Volia Chajkouskaya - a Belarusian filmmaker, founder and program director of Northern Lights Film Festival in Belarus and of the company Volia Films. She first established herself in the industry as a producer, her producer's debut The Road Movie, premiered at IDFA and distributed in the US and the world. She moved to Estonia in 2018 and started producing at Allfi lm in Tallinn. In 2020, she takes the leap into directing her short debut Common Language, an intimate family drama, premiered at Ji.hlava IDFF. In August 2020, encouraged by political events in her home country, Volia started to direct her first feature documentary.

Srdjan Keča - a filmmaker, visual artist and educator. Keča's documentary films have consistently screened at leading festivals: IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Full Frame, Jihlava IDFF, etc., winning multiple awards and critical acclaim. Flotel Europa, a found-footage essay film he edited and co-produced, premiered at the 2015 Berlinale, winning the Tagesspiegel Jury Award. His feature-length documentary Museum of the Revolution was awarded at the East Doc Platform 2019 and had a World Premiere at IDFA 2021 In 2015 Keča joined the faculty at Stanford University Department of Art & Art History as Assistant Professor, teaching in the MFA Documentary Film & Video program..

Moderator: 
Dîna Iordanova - a notable specialist in world cinema, with special expertise in the cinema of the Balkans, Eastern Europe, and Europe in general. Her research approaches cinema on a meta-national level and focuses on the dynamics of transnational film; she has special interest in issues related to cinema at the periphery and in alternative historiography. She has published extensively on international and transnational film art and film industry, and convenes research networks on film festivals and on the dynamics of global cinema. She has been credited with creating the Film Studies programme at the University of St. Andrews. She also founded the Centre for Film Studies, which she currently directs.

Organized by the Institute of Documentary Film in cooperation with DocuDays UA. 

With kind support from Creative Europe MEDIA, Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Czech Film Fund, Prague City Hall and APA - Audiovisual Producers' Association.