The events 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 Shevchuk.
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.
 

New Film on Great Famine in Works

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.

KinoLev Goes International

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). >>>

 
 
 

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. >>>

 
 

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:

  • The International Translation Workshop

  • Ukraine. A View from the West

  • Ukrainian themes in Hollywood

  • Ukrainian film in an International Perspective >>>
 
 

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". >>>

Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University© 2008. For more information please contact Yuri Shevchuk