Eastern Ukrainian Dialogue

Three stories of interconnection and internegation between creativity and work in modern Ukraine.

In the spring of 2022, the Ukrainian city of Mariupol was surrounded by Russian troops. They were using the weapons of mass destruction against the civilian population every day. In mid-March volunteers started evacuating people from Mariupol to Zaporizhzhia. They gathered after each trip to exchange the information, support each other, and talk about their traumatic experiences.

Mockumentary on the post-industrial future of Mariupol. The authors imagine what the city would be like with the developed culture of the Azov Greeks, the ethnic population of the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia regions. The plot develops in 2068 in Mariupol, where a musician from Rotterdam arrives. They participates in an art residency organized by a local institution such as the Center for Industrial Heritage (CIS).

Far right radicalism cannot be innate, it is always a result of socio-economic frustrations. We asked our friends to try on the uniform of the National Corps and think about the far right political identity from inside.

Ajahi is the poorest district of Mariupol. An ideal place for meditations on poverty; a place where you won't see anything that is supposed to be shown; place, to share the void with a friend.

A music film about Taras Fedirko, William Nought, heart, feet, skirt, and bagels. Impro vs impro, superimpo vs superimpo, oh-my-god vs aliens' idioms, sound propagating happiness vs a soldering iron in a demagog's arse.

The film is based on Riasni Drova’s interpretation of John Jacob Niles’ Child Ballad #95.

The film consists of 14 fragments, which focus on intersections of dramatic events in the history of Ukraine in 2014-2016, and specifically in the history of the city of Mariupol, and personal experiences of the filmmaker. The beginning. Water. Music. Jokes. Monuments. Events. Buenos Aires. A tree. Talking to God. Film. A trap for nearly everyone. Walls of Joy. All I think is fire. The end.

Life of Mariupol vandals in 29 arborglyphs (graffiti on the bark of the trees).

A day in the life of a working man. Gathering the wires for scrap. Feeding the stray dogs. Chopping wood and lighting a furnace. Opening the gate for more important people. Channel zapping and simple food.

Ihor works from home in a taxi answering service. He seems to be imprisoned in his room in a depressing apartment block opposite the pompous Orthodox cathedral. To escape the hopelessness, Ihor tries to interpret his precarious daily life as creatively as possible. Growing sunflowers on his balcony and creating rotoscoping animation on an out-of-date black&white printer become important rituals of resistance.

An abandoned house on the seacoast near Mariupol, an overcast sky and a camera shared by three friends.

The film is edited, the audio description of the forgotten sound of the film is recorded. Half a year (I thought to myself that it should be) I check potential festivals. Is this a movie about the love of mountains or not? Is it virtual reality about the feeling of freedom or not? Is this a film about cross-border friendship of Central European peoples or not? Is this a movie-musical about finding yourself or not? Is this a film about the problems of the lgbt community in the Carpathian region named after Andy Warhol, or not? Is this a film that promotes silent film values ​​or not? Is this a short experimental debut film of a young director about challenging stereotypes or not? Is it an innovative film that does not fit into the box and will be shown at six festivals and fairs in the most beautiful places of the wine tourism region or not? After an extremely successful development, pre-production, production, post-production and festival history, the film is posted online.

An auto-fictional essay about a gay community that makes use of a communication network consisting of amateur radio and grassroot hook-up apps. While the air is constantly interrupted by homophobic messages made of the intercepted military ciphers used by the Russian army, networks of love, empathy, and support become ever stronger. Produced as a close observation of everyday media practices and the social life of love relations, “The Film of Sand“ takes a close look at the interrelations of war and intimacy, threat and empathy, fiction and documentation.

The film crew of the Creative East project is travelling around the Eastern Ukrainian cities researching abandoned areas and buildings. The people they meet offer different perspectives on the problem. Apart from revitalizing abandoned buildings (skate-park Druzhba in Lysychansk), you can also use them for temporarty art interventions (rave parties in the former industrial park in Kostyantynivka) or just leave them as they are (Soviet summer camps on the Azov coast).

The first film, "Artels of Fintiktikova's Followers," 2006-2007.