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are held on the Columbia
University campus, usually in one of the lecture halls at
the Department of Slavic Languages, Hamilton Hall, seventh floor.
There are also off-campus lectures/presentations in other U.S.
cities and in other countries. The UFFCU has held screenings
at Rutgers, Ohio State, and Harvard universities, the University
of Toronto as well as at non-academic venues in Philadelphia,
Edmonton, Toronto, Chicago, Hartford, CT, Yonkers, NY, and other
cities. The Club offers its film collection and expertise to
facilitate film presentations on invitation from interested
parties outside Columbia University. Inquiries should be sent
to Yuri
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| The on-campus
events usually take place every third Thursday of the month
at 7:30 PM during the regular academic year with Christmas and
summer holiday breaks. The events are announced on this website
as well as on various internet mailing lists,
Brama, in the Ukrainian Weekly and at other New York
City universities such as New York University, City University
of New York, the New School for Social Research and, of course,
Columbia. |
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New Film on Great Famine in Works
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Director Serhiy Bukovsky (right) describing the film project to Yuri Shevchuk during a meeting in Kyiv on May 13, 2008. |
The leading Ukrainian documentary film maker Serhiy Bukovsky is currently working on the film about the Great Famine (Holodomor) of 1932-33. The film, tentatively entitled the “Living” (Zhyvi), is to mark the 75th anniversary of the tragedy that by various accounts killed from three to seven million Ukrainians. This genocide of the Ukrainian people, perpetrated by the Communist regime, remains virtually unknown in the world. The film based on existing and new eye-witness accounts of the events, as well as recently found documents seeks to raise awareness of the Holodomor both in Ukraine and around the world. Its premier will take place in Kyiv on November 22, 2008. There are plans to screen the “Living” at Columbia University with the director of the film in attendance. |
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KinoLev Goes International
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from left Oles Dzyndra, KinoLev’s founding director showing Bernardengarten, one of the venues of the festival to Yuri Shevchuk. |
On August 21-24, 2008 the city of Lviv will be hosting the KinoLev (CineLion) Film Festival. Started in 2006 as a local subsidiary of the Open Night Film Festival held in Kyiv in late June and featuring the works of young and new Ukrainian filmmakers, KinoLev quickly came into its own and developed a considerable international dimension. It bills itself as a forum of a new and independent feature, documentary, and animation film with a focus on issues of human identity. KinoLev’s director Oles Dzyndra is an internationally recognized artist. His creations of glass are sold in art shops all around Europe. He founded the Museum of Ideas based in a renovated and atmospheric basement of the former St. Bernard’s Convent on Valova Street (Wall St.), Lviv, site of innovative art exhibits, theater performances and other avant-garde undertakings which showcase Galician, Ukrainian, and international participants. The KinoLev IFF will occupy practically the entire downtown of this beautiful city with its elegant café culture. Among its principal venues are: the Bernardengarten, the Square of Arts (Ploshcha Mystetstv), the Les Kurbas Theater, the National Maria Zankovetska Theater, the Lalka Jazz Club, the patio of the City Council building, the Smaller Congregation Hall of the City Council, the House of Scientists (Budynok Vchenykh) and the parking lot of the Arsen Supermarket (for a drive-in screening).
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The Ukrainian
Film Club of Columbia University (UFCCU) is a forum
of Ukrainian Cinema in New York City. It is a non-for-profit
educational and cultural initiative within the expanding
Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University. It
was organized in October 2004. Its events are free
and open to all. Its goal is to promote knowledge of
Ukrainian cinema in the world. |
The
UFCCU collection consists of the films donated by their
directors to the Club or acquired through open commercial
distribution. The films are made in Ukraine or in other
countries on Ukrainian subject matter. Films are in
DVD format with the exception of a few on VHS. Ukrainian-made
films have English subtitles. As a matter of policy
the Club neither loans nor duplicates the films in
its collection, most of which are unique copies with
English language subtitles. Instead we gladly accept
invitations to screen films at various outside venues. |
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Typically,
a UFCCU event consists of a brief introduction by Yuri
Shevchuk, the founding director of UFFCU and lecturer
of the Ukrainian language and culture at Columbia;
a screening; and a discussion with the audience participation.
Events are organized thematically, around a chosen
film either made in or related to Ukraine, or around
an individual director or group of filmmakers. Ideally
the Club would like to screen films with the participation
of their directors. We have already hosted Taras Tomenko,
Serhiy Bukovsky, and Taras Tkachenko of Kyiv, Ukraine,
and Andrea Odezynska of New York, NY. |
Parallel to film presentations
and lectures, the UFCCU runs various projects aimed at
promoting the knowledge of Ukrainian cinema and Ukraine
in the West. Among its on-going projects are:
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The International Translation Workshop
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Ukraine. A View from the West
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Ukrainian themes in Hollywood
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Ukrainian film in an International Perspective
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UFCCU exists thanks to the
institutional support of the Ukrainian Studies Program,
the Ukrainian Studies Fund, the Department of Slavic
Languages, and the Harriman Institute of Columbia University.
Financially it depends exclusively on generosity and
support of individual and institutional donors. |
The
Club's website Forum is provided for the audience
of our many events and presentations to express their
opinions and thus offer the filmmakers in Ukraine
much-needed international feedback. The Club customarily
notifies the directors whose films it will be screening
next, and they often respond to audience comments
expressed on the Forum. We actively encourage such
participation in whatever language. We appreciate
your comments both on films, film-related matters,
and on our website and how it can be improved. When
posting a comment on the Forum be sure to enter the
password letters given above the "preview message" button
into the blank space provided and then click on "post
message". |
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