When the full-scale Russian invasion began, documentary filmmaking, which is usually on the outskirts of the industry because it rarely ends up at the top of audience wishlists and mostly deals with difficult subjects and small budgets, suddenly became the only active branch of the Ukrainian film industry. Documentary filmmakers, who usually have the skills required to work in war conditions, were able to adapt their filmmaking processes to new realities quickly.
In addition, the tragedy of war has drawn more attention from international partners to Ukrainian culture and generally increased the demand for Ukrainian film products about the relevant events. On the other hand, the relative stabilisation of the military situation has coincided with stagnation in the domestic market: the lack of government support, the falling numbers of cinema screens, exhaustion, and burnout within the community.
We invited active participants of the documentary sphere and representatives of the state institutions to continue the conversation, which is already happening in the corridors, but now within a broader circle. What was this year like for us? What do we want the next year to be like?
Speakers: Yelizaveta Smith, Eugene Rachkovsky, Mariia Ponomarova, Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych, Olha Beskhmelnytsina, Andrii Kotliar, Natalia Movshovych
Moderator: Illia Gladshtein
Yelizaveta Smith holds a degree in film directing. In 2014, she co-founded the Tabor film production company. After the Ukrainian revolution, she started volunteer work with children in the town of Mykolaivka in the Donetsk area. Her experience there led to the documentary School Number 3, which was co-directed by George Genoux and won Grand Prix of the Berlinale Generation 14+ competition. Her debut short fiction Solitude was selected to the Odesa IFF and Raindance in 2019 and was nominated for Best Short Film at the Ukrainian Film Academy Awards 2020. Yelizaveta was a participant at Berlinale Talents. She is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and the European Film Academy. She is currently working on the development of the film Vacuum, as well as the documentaries Listening To The World and The Days I Would Like To Forget.
Eugene Rachkovsky is a film producer based in Kyiv, Ukraine. He is Chief Commercial Officer and producer at Tabor Production and focuses mainly on creative documentaries. He completed Terrarium Producer’s intensive workshop in 2020 and is alumni of EURODOC22.
Mariia Ponomarova (1991, Kyiv) is a film director, screenwriter and creative producer based in Amsterdam. Mariia studied film directing at the Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, and graduated from the Master of Film programme of the Netherlands Film Academy. In 2021 Mariia was selected to be part of IDFAcademy. She is a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy and the Documentary Association of Europe.
Zhanna Maksymenko-Dovhych is a freelance film director and producer from Kyiv, Ukraine. Following her graduation from the Institute of Journalism of Kyiv State University in 2000, she worked mostly in media and television where she started her career as a journalist and a scriptwriter. As a producer she has taken part in launching MTV in Ukraine, and also in managing various Ukrainian TV projects. Today, Zhanna mostly works in the documentary field. Her new project, Peace For Nina (which is at the production stage) won the main award on Geneva Impact Days at FIFDH 2022 and won the European Documentary Association Prize at Beldocs in Progress 2021.
Olha Beskhmelnytsina is a Ukrainian producer with more than ten years’ experience in film production. She is a co-founder of the women-led 2Brave Productions company.Her credits include award-winning movies such as Stop-Zemlia by Kateryna Gornostai (Crystal Bear Generation 14+ at Berlinale 2021), Anna (2019) by Dekel Berenson (Best Short Award at BIFA 2019, BAFTA shortlisted), The Living Fire (Hot Docs winner 2015), and Collapse. How the Ukrainians ruined the Empire of Evil (2021 Documentary Series for Ukrainian National Channel). She is an alumna of the Ex Oriente and Eurodoc training programmes, and chairwoman of the board of the Ukrainian Film Academy.
Andrii Kotliar is a Ukrainian cinematographer and producer, and a a member of the Babylon’13 film collective
He is executive director of Kinoko, a Ukrainian film festival of the art of cinematography, and a member of the Ukrainian Film Academy. He holds a master’s degree in Cinematography from the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi University of Theatre,
Cinema and Television. His key works as a producer and cinematographer include: War Note (2019, dir. Roman Liubiy), Between the Frames (2020, dir. Anastasiia Tykha), Iron Butterflies (2023, dir. Roman Liubiy), and Ukrainian Independence. As It Is (in postproduction, dir. Volodymyr Tykhyi).
