Club at Crossroads of Europe, Poland

April 22-26, 2009

As a sign of recognition for the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University and the work it has done promoting Ukrainian film internationally and building contacts between Ukrainian filmmakers and their colleagues worldwide, Yuri Shevchuk, the Club’s founding director was invited to serve as member of the Jury at the International Documentary Film Festival Crossroads of Europe in the city of Lublin, Poland, April 22-26, 2009.

This relatively small but ambitious film forum holds competition in two genres: feature documentary and documentary shorts. Over the years since its inception in 1999, it has gained popularity in Poland, Europe, and beyond. This year the participating films were from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, Estonia, the Czech Republic, Germany, Israel, Spain, and other countries. The mission of the Crossroads of Europe (in Polish Rozstaje Europy) to promote intercultural dialog in Europe through film, harmonizes with the mandate of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University. On many occasions the Festival has included Ukrainian film in its programs and served as a much needed European forum for it. Retrospectives of Ukrainian film were held in the passed years. Jerzy Hoffman’s four-part documentary “Ukraine. The Birth of a Nation” got a special screening here in 2008.

The Fest cooperates with the incipient KinoLev International Film Festival in the Ukrainian city of Lviv as it seeks to find its place on the cinematographic map of Europe. Yuri Shevchuk was invited to decide with two other jury members on the winners in the feature documentary competition. Other members of this jury were: the patriarch of Polish documentary film Marcel Lozinski and the general manager of the Slovak Film Institute Peter Dubecky.

During the Crossroads of Europe, Yuri Shevchuk actively discussed possibilities of promoting Ukrainian film at both competitive and non-competitive festivals with colleagues from a number of European countries, filmmakers, festival organizers, TV producers. Even though Ukrainian film production in all genres has been at a minimum, interest among Ukraine’s neighbors to its film is growing.