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Profile of a Filmmaker:
Ihor Podolchak >>> |
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Yuri Shevchuk
on
Why Ukrainian Film
Is Absent from
World Film History.
The idea of this chapter emerged from a close reading of the texts written in Ukrainian,
Russian, and English that, in their entirety or part, dealt with Ukrainian filmmaking,
starting with the late nineteenth century up until today.
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“Never Try to Make the Audience Like You.”
Malcolm McDowell in Conversation with Yuri Shevchuk
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To say that there are not many British film actors whose career is somehow connected to Ukraine is a bit of an understatement. Whether it is due to inertia of an imperial world view, or simply ignorance, but Ukraine still very much remains in the British mind solidly fixed in the shadow of its former metropolis Russia. Therefore, to hear the legendary Malcolm McDowell say in an interview that Ukrainians are basically the same as Russians was little surprising to me.  |
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| 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 UFCCU 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. |
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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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As its April 2012 home event the Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University will mark the 27th anniversary of the Chornobyl nuclear power plant catastrophe by screening and discussing feature documentary
CHORNOBYL. THE INVISIBLE THIEF
director Christoph Boekel, Germany, 2006
The story of Chornobyl is told from the director's personal perspective and that of the people who witnessed the tragedy immediately after the nuclear explosion and for years after. Among them are a poet, painter, army officer, newspaper editor, and documentary filmmaker. The film is a gripping tale of human drama, self-sacrifice of ones, combined with indifference and ingratitude of others.
When: April 17, 2013, Wednesday, 7:30 PM
Where: 702 Hamilton Hall, Columbia University
Yuri Shevchuk will introduce the film and lead the post-screening discussion. German and Russian with English subtitles, free, and open to the public.
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TheOneWhoHasn'tQuiteGottenAllTheWayThroughTheFire
December 11, 2012, New York, N.Y.
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| Ali Kinsella, Columbia University |
Mykhaylo Illienko's 2012 The Firecrosser takes a larger-than-life true story and retells it through the accepted conventions of a blockbuster to create a truly larger-than-life motion picture. The Ukrainian movie, which was filmed over five years, stars Kyivite Dmytro Linartovych in the role of Ivan Dodoka and accomplished Ukrainian actor, Vitaliy Linetskyi, as his friend-turned-adversary, Stepan Shulika. Olha Hryshyna plays Liubov Karimova, a military nurse from a Tatar family in Siberia and love interest of Ivan. Despite its remarkable budget of $2 million, this movie encountered numerous technical challenges and almost wasn't completed. Filming was stopped multiple times, the longest stoppage being a year and a half around the 2010 Ukrainian presidential elections. An unwanted eighteen-month break can sound the knell, so the project is lucky to have survived; indeed not only its protagonist, Ivan, but the movie itself seems to be "the one who has passed through the fire." |
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Yuri Shevchuk in Conversation with Mykhailo Illienko
November 14, 2012
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| Mykhailo Illienko. |
This year, after almost a decade of hiatus, Ukraine offered a feature narrative film for the Oscar consideration in the best foreign language film category. The film is "The Fire-Crosser" (ToiKhtoProishovKrizVohon), directed by Mykhailo Illienko. Mr. Illienko is one of the best-known Ukrainian filmmakers today. He was born in Moscow, Russia, in 1947. He graduated from the All-Union State Institute for Cinema (VGIK), atelier of Mikhail Romm and since 1973 has worked as film director for the Oleksander Dovzhenko Film Studio, Kyiv, Ukraine. Since 2000, Mr. Illienko has been Dean of the Film School of the Kyiv Ivan Karpenko-Kary National University for Theater, Film, and TV. His previous feature narrative film Fudzhou, 1993, is now unavailable for international and Ukrainian viewers.
Mykhailo Illienko has been instrumental in promoting a Ukrainian national cinema, that would address nationally specific issues, employ Ukrainian talent, be made in the Ukrainian language, and with the Ukrainian viewer in mind. Since 1997 he has organized the Open Night Film Festival to showcase the most talented young Ukrainian filmmakers. As professor, public figure, and founding director of the Open Night FF Mykhailo Illienko has consistently promoted the idea that Ukraine needs it own national cinema, something that has gotten a rather cold reception from the Ukrainian government and the oligarch-dominated TV corporations in Ukraine. "The Fire-Crosser" is perhaps the first chance since 1993 Illienko got to translate his vision of Ukrainian national cinema art onto the silver screen. The film has had an enthusiastic viewers' reception and unprecedented box-office despite its rather limited national distribution. |
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Viewer's Film Review. Valentyn Vasianovych's Business as Usual
November 5, 2012. New York, NY
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| Tolik (right) in search for the absent sense of his life. |
Valentyn Vasianovych's 2012 debut, Business as Usual, is in some ways a story of a very usual occurrence: a man reaches the middle of his life only to realize that he's not entirely sure what he's done with it. Tolik (Taras Denysenko) is, by most measures, a rather ordinary person. He kept postponing taking charge of his life and pursuing his dreams, for he somehow kept thinking his best years were yet to come. Suddenly he realizes, however, that he will die if he doesn't make serious changes. Although the story is in some ways familiar, Vasianovych ties together his exploration of human desires, shortcomings, pain, and enthusiasms in an unconventional way using despair, humor, and yes, even poetry. |
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Ukrainian Film Discussed in Columbus, OH.
September 28, 2012, Columbus, Ohio.
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| Yuri Shevchuk introduces Mykhailo Illienko's film Fire-Crosser. |
On September 28 and 29, 2012 Yuri Shevchuk, the director of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University visited the city of Columbus, OH, on the joint invitation of the Department of History of Art at the Ohio State University and the local Ukrainian Cultural Association. The program of his stay included two lecture presentations. The first one, "Ukrainian Cinema Today," took place at the Wexner Center for the Arts of the OSU, a venue that by its design and technological capabilities would surely satisfy the most discerning cinephile. The talk, which was organized for students, faculty, and the larger community, was followed by the screening of The Fire-Crosser, the latest feature narrative drama from Mykhailo Illienko. The film is Ukraine’s entry for the 2012 Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Language Film. Despite the fact that the event took place during normal working hours, an audience of some forty people gathered and engaged the presenter in an interesting and stimulating Q-and-A session after the film. |
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Liza Kliuzko Gets Enthusiastic Reception in the Big Apple
September 19, 2012, New York, N.Y.
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| Liza Kliuzko and Dmytro Ibraimov at Columbia University |
The Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University opened its ninth season on Wednesday, September 19th, screening two works by the young Ukrainian director Liza Kliuzko. The film club was very fortunate to have Ms. Kliuzko and her sound director-cum-producer Dmytro Ibraimov present at the screening. Ms. Kliuzko is a recent graduate of the National Ivan Karpenko-Kary University for Theater, Film and Television in Kyiv. The screening showcased two of her short films, both of which she had created as a component of her university coursework. The school requires that all students’ work be produced in Ukrainian, not in Russian, and these films were no exception. Both films were inspired by the short stories of Guy de Maupassant. The first film “The Wardrobe” (2010) focused on a young woman who has turned to prostitution to support her family. The second film “Mykola’s Field” explored two contrasting stories of first love. This screening marked the first time that “Mykola’s Field” has been shown in North America. |
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New Films in Our Collection
September 4, 2012. New York, NY
 Over the last few months the collection of the Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University, already one of the biggest such resources outside Ukraine, has considerably expanded. New full-length feature films with English subtitles include: Mykhailo Illienko's The Firecrosser, 2012, Valentyn Vasianovych's directorial debut in this genre Business as Usual, 2012. Whereas the former can already be acquired on DVD in specialized stores in Ukraine and, through the Internet, elsewhere, the latter is to be only theatrically released in the fall of 2012 and has not yet been issued on DVD. The Club will shortly announce the New York and possibly USA premier of Business as Usual.
We have also acquired a host of newly restored and digitally re-mastered films: “Ukrainian Re-Vision,” a six-DVD set, issued by the Oleksander Dovzhenko National Cinematheque. It is made up of Dovzhenko‘s Zvenyhora, 1928, Ivan Kavaleridze's Perekop 1930, Heorhii Stabovyi’s Two Days, 1927 and Heorhii Tasin's The Night Coachman, 1928, both internationally acclaimed and now little-known psychological dramas, documentaries Dzyga Vertov's Man with a Movie Camera, 1930 and Mikhailo Kaufman's In Spring, 1930. |
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Treasure Trove from Volyn Studio
August 17, 2012. Lutsk, Ukraine, New York, N.Y.
 Despite the lack of interest in Ukrainian national cinema on the part of the consecutive governments in Kyiv since 1991, independent filmmaking in that country persists and takes ever more creative forms, often in places least expected. My recent trip to Ukraine revealed that films are being made not only in Kyiv, Odesa or Lviv, but in locations that have not been known as having much to do with cinema. The ancient city of Lutsk, capital of the historical land of Volyn, turned out to be one such unlikely location.
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Mykhailo Illienko's New Film Box-Office Success
May 18, 2012
 After years of creative hiatus, director Mykailo Illienko finished his much anticipated feature narrative The Firecrosser (Ukr. ToiKhtoProishovKrizVohon). Theatrically released on January 19, 2012, the film became a bit of a sensation as the first Ukrainian-made picture to enjoy a wide popularity with the viewer since independence. In the first few months, it garnered an unprecedented million hryvnias at the box-office, proving that national filmmakers can successfully compete with Russian and Hollywood productions. The Firecrosser had its US premier at the KinoFest Film Festival, New York, NY, on May 6, and in addition was screened, either as official selection or outside the competition, at the Kyiv International Film Festival (2011), Odessa IFF (2012), Zolotoy Vitiaz IFF, Russia (2012), Golden Apricot IFF, Armenia (2012). It was released on DVD in May, 2012.
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Valentyn Vasianovych Debuts with "Business as Usual"
April 3, 2012. Kyiv - New York
 In early 2012 after six years of work, the director Valentyn Vasianovych finished his narrative feature film “Business as Usual” (Zvychaina sprava). Mr. Vasianovych is often mentioned among the most talented and promising of the post-Soviet generation of Ukrainian filmmakers. Having won the Special Jury Prize at the 7th International Short Film Festival at Clermont-Ferrand (February 2005), France, for his short Against the Sun (Proty Sontsia), he has been largely unemployed, incapable of securing financing for his projects. When studying at the Andrzej Wajda Film School in Poland, he developed a film idea that would be translated into his debut narrative feature after long years of on-again-off-again production.
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Ukrainian Cinema Gets Warm Reception in Puerto Rico
March 21-28, 2012, San Juan, Puerto Rico
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From left: Sonia Fritz, Yuri Shevchuk, Camille Vandenbunder, and Sophia Sushailo. |
The Ukrainian Film Club at Columbia University presented a program of Ukrainian shorts at the Hecho en Europa International Film Festival in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This is a new and rapidly growing in scale and popularity festival, organized by the Alliance Française, to introduce to the Puerto-Rican film-going public the best and the most interesting of European cinema. Says Mr. Cyril Anis, the executive director of AF office in San Juan, “We would like to serve as a platform also for lesser known European cultures and cinemas.” |
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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. |
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