Since the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine in 2014, practically every Ukrainian documentary filmmaker has joined the process of cultural diplomacy in one way or another. In the past nine years, many powerful films about the war have been made which were successful at international festivals. But has that helped us secure the broad support of other countries?
The Civil Pitch project was organised for the first time in 2019 under the slogan ‘films that change’. In 2022, when the new stage of the war began, the slogan was changed to ‘films that bring victory closer’. Is it really possible? and if so, how exactly? Do documentary films work as a tool for change — in public opinions, policies, narratives — within our society and in the wider world? We discuss it with the authors of Civil Pitch films from both editions of the project.
Participants:
Halyna Lavrynets, director of the Civil Pitch 2.0 film Guests from Kharkiv (2023).
Lesia Diak, director of the Civil Pitch 2.0 film Under the Wing of the Night (2023).
Pavlo Dorohoi, director of the Civil Pitch 2.0 film 89 Days (2023).
Anastasia Tykha, director of the Civil Pitch 2.0 film Our Robo Family (2023).
Moderator:
Oleksandra Kravchenko, Civil Pitch 2.0 project coordinator, producer
Halyna Lavrynets is a director, cultural manager and producer. She has been a member of the Ukrainian Directors Guild and the Ukrainian Film Academy since 2019, and of the #BABYLON'13 creative association of Ukrainian documentary filmmakers since 2015.
Lesia Diak is a graduate of Serhiy Bukovsky’s Documentary Directing Workshop. Since 2021, she has been studying at the DocNomads international master’s programme for documentary filmmaking. She mostly explores the subjects of the consequences of war on mental health, and the experiences of recovery from mental trauma.
Pavlo Dorohoi is a documentary photographer and documentary filmmaker. He has studied documentary photography and photojournalism, post-documentary photography and other media at the DOCDOCDOC contemporary photography school (Saint-Petersburg).
Anastasiia Tykha graduated from the Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema and Television, and the Documentary Film Department. In 2018, Anastasiia became a fellow of the Gaude Polonia scholarship programm. She has been working in the Ukrainian film industry as a script supervisor and 2nd AD. Since 2019, Anastasiia has been a program director of KINOKO, the first Ukrainian cinematography film festival. She is also a part of the Babylon’13 film collective.
Oleksandra Kravchenko was born in Kherson in 1983. She graduated from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy with a degree in Cultural Studies. Since 2011 she has been working in film production as a communications director (Arthouse Traffic, Odesa International Film Festival), as a lead marketing manager (Animagrad / FILM.UA Group), and as a freelance producer (DGTL RLGN, Albatros Communicos, Moon Man).
