Please join us for a screening of Oleg Sentsov’s award-winning film Gamer. The screening will be followed by a Q&A via Skype with Sentsov’s cousin, Natalia Kaplan, who remains his key supporter and has followed his every step throughout the trial.
The event will be attended by prominent UK cultural figures, including the Young Vic’s Artistic Director, David Lan; the Founding Director of Open City Documentary Festival, Michael Stewart; and the Deputy Chairman European Film Academy, Mike Downey. Additional guests will be announced soon.
Prior to the screening, Kolonist wine company will be kindly providing Ukrainian wine for all attendees. We invite you to help us raise awareness of Sentsov’s plight, and to raise funds for his young family. Sentsov is a single parent to two children who are now cared for by their aunt and grandmother. The family remain strong and resolute, but having lost the main breadwinner there is no doubt that they will need as much support as possible. The admission fee to this event is £25.00, all of which will be donated to Sentsov’s Fund. If you cannot attend the event but would like to donate, please click on this link for bank details.
Below is a message from Oleg’s lawyer, Dimitri Dintze:
We ask that you do not give up and continue to rally in support of Oleg. Approximately 70% of the money coming in from your European side had gone to legal fees (legal fees, numerous trips to Moscow to the Crimea, and, of course, to Rostov-on-Don, as well as things like notarised translations of documents), approximately 30% went to the family and kids.
And once again letters in prison are very important to Oleg – he has almost nothing to do and without letters can only stare at the coffee grindings, and imagine what happens outside. Do not forget to attach the envelope to the response. 344082, Rostov-na-Donu, p.o. box 2710, Sencovu Oleg Gennadyevichu, born 1976.
Thanks again for the support, everything you do is very important.
Details of Sentsov’s case:
In May 2014, Oleg Sentsov was accused of planning terrorist acts, then arrested and put on trial after attending a protest against the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. In June of that year, a number of prominent European filmmakers, including Ken Loach, Agnieszka Holland, Pedro Almodóvar and Wim Wenders, signed an open letter to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, calling for Sentsov’s release.
On 25 August 2015, the Russian Court convicted the filmmaker and his co-defendant, Alexander Kolchenko, following a trial which was described by Amnesty International as “redolent of Stalinist-era show trials.” Sentsov was sentenced to 20 years in prison, despite reports of the defendants being tortured and after the main witness retracted testimony given under duress.
The Russian penitentiary system can be brutal, and in some instances (such as the case of Sergei Magnitsky) lethal. It is therefore all the more important to ensure that Sentsov’s name remains in the headlines, to remind the Russian government that his case will not be ignored or forgotten.
Oleg Sentsov and his crew, courtesy of Natalia Kaplan
Photo credits: Sergey Pivovarov/Reuters; Yekaterina Chesnakova/RIA Novosti
This event will be held in partnership with
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The festival is divided into two halves: ‘Documenting Ukraine: Theatre’ (14–15 May 2015) features two live performances at GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design, before ‘Documenting Ukraine: Cinema’ (16–17 May 2015) sees a full program of contemporary Ukrainian documentary films at Frontline Club.
Documenting Ukraine, two days of cinema and debate presents nine film screenings with Q&A discussions and special panels exploring the realities of modern Ukraine and the depth of Ukrainian cinema.
Day passes are available for £14, as well as full weekend passes for £22. Booking through this page reserves you a ticket for Sunday’s events.
Sunday May 17 programme:
14:00 UK Premiere: The Donetsk People’s Republic, Or The Curious Tale of the Handmade Country (53’) plus discussion
This is an unfiltered, fly-on-the-wall account of how the Donetsk People’s Republic came into being, filmed with astonishing access from May to April 2014, followed by a discussion with Anthony Butts, Nataliya Gumenyuk, Andrew Wilson, and Orysia Lutsevych.
16:30 UK Premiere: Crepuscule + Q&A
Screening followed by Q&A with director Valentyn Vasyanovych.
Valentyn Vasyanovych joins us to present his acclaimed documentary about a mother and son living in a remote province of Ukraine.
18.30 The Eleventh Year with international premiere of live score by Anton Baibakov
Dziga Vertov’s silent documentary, digitally remastered with a live score performed by Anton Baibakov including the UK premiere of the film’s recently discovered animation trailer.
@OpenCityDocs
Documenting Ukraine is a four-day umbrella festival organised by Open City Docs, Frontline Club and GRAD, bringing Ukraine’s leading names in documentary cinema and theatre to London this May.
The festival is divided into two halves: ‘Documenting Ukraine: Theatre’ (14–15 May 2015) features two live performances at GRAD: Gallery for Russian Arts and Design, and ‘Documenting Ukraine: Cinema’ (16–17 May 2015) sees a full program of contemporary Ukrainian documentary films at Frontline Club.
Documenting Ukraine: Two Days of Cinema and Debate presents nine film screenings with Q&A discussions and special panels exploring the realities of modern Ukraine and the depth of Ukrainian cinema.
In collaboration with our partners, Open Democracy Russia and DocudaysUA, we are delighted to give audiences the chance to see a rich programme of Ukrainian documentaries rarely presented in UK cinemas, from a live performance of Dziga Vertov’s silent 1928 documentary The Eleventh Year, to a work-in-progress screening of Askold Kurov’s urgent film about the imprisonment of Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov.
The weekend’s events bring together Ukrainian and British filmmakers and experts to explore the intersection of cinema, culture and politics in Ukraine, with films and discussions examining the Maidan protests that brought about the downfall of President Yanukovych’s regime in 2014 and recent conflict in Donbass, as well as reflecting on Ukraine’s longer history and relationship with the Soviet Union.
We are extremely grateful to the O’NEILL CONSULTANCY for their generous support which has made this event possible.
Day passes are available for £14 as well as full weekend passes for £22. The festival is free for Frontline Club members.
Booking through this page reserves you a full weekend pass. See the links below for the programmes by day.
@OpenCityDocs
Day passes are available for £14, as well as full weekend passes for £22. Booking through this page reserves you a ticket for Saturday’s events.
Saturday May 16 Programme:
12:00 UK Premiere – Ukraine: When the Countdown Began (90’)
A complex and comprehensively sourced documentary about the emergence of an independent Ukraine from the ruins of the USSR in 1991 with interviews with all the major players including Leonid Kravchuk, Zbigniew Brzezinski, Gennadiy Burbulis, Levko Lukyanenko & James Baker.
14:00 Preview Screening: The Bright Future of Oleg Sentsov + Discussion with Agnieszka Holland & Askold Kurov
We’re delighted to present a rough cut of material from Askold Kurov’s ongoing documentary about the plight of the Ukrainian filmmaker, plus a discussion with Oscar-nominated filmmaker Agnieszka Holland.
Sometimes the borders of political events come so close to the borders of your own creative freedom that you have no other choice but to participate. That’s what happened to Oleg Sentsov, who was arrested by the Russian Federal Security Service on suspicion of plotting terrorist acts and could now face 20 years in jail. Sentsov’s debut film Gámer premiered in 2011 to critical acclaim, but his second feature was put on hold when protests broke out in Ukraine. Sentsov supported the Euromaidan movement in Kiev and participated in the rallies against Russian occupation in Crimea. Despite protests against his arrest, international condemnation and a campaign by filmmakers Pedro Almodovar, Wim Wenders, Mike Leigh, Krzysztof Zanussi, Andrzej Wajda and Bela Tarr, the Russian authorities have refused to consider his release.
15:00 Double-bill: Tomorrow is a Holiday (26’) & UK PREMIERE of Mum Died on Saturday in the Kitchen (52’) + Q&A exploring Ukrainian cinema since 1986 with Raisa Sidenova, Serhiy Bukovsky, and Maxym Vasyanovych
Serhiy Bukovsky’s subversive 1987 documentary about a Soviet factory, followed by Maxym Vasyanovych’s tender portrait of his family in the Ukrainian SSR.
17:45-19:30 Maidan Shorts (26’) + Discussion
A special screening of shorts and clips reflecting on the Euromaidan movement in Ukraine, followed by a discussion with filmmakers and academics. For the discussion we will be joined by Roman Bondarchuk, Natalia Gumenyuk, Serhiy Buchovsky, Rory Finnin & Olesya Khromeychuk
19:30 Reception and sale of photographic prints by Aleksandr Glyadelov
A selection of compelling photographs by Aleksandr Glyadelov from Maidan last year and from the fighting in the east of Ukraine in 2015.
Yulia Serdukova from DocudaysUA writes:
Glyadyelov still takes pictures the old way, in black-and-white on an analog cameras with manual focus, a mechanical shutter system and no burst mode. It seems as if these details are strictly technical, but this makes his work conceptually different from the stream of images we see every day. It is almost impossible to film like that in the middle of a fight. That is why the cameraman has to scan what is going on during pauses. In other words, he films not death, but life. Then he develops his films and makes photographic prints manually; that takes time. You cannot shoot news broadcasts this way – that’s why the cameraman has to gaze at non-transitory things.
One of my friends who has been visiting the war zone as a journalist all this time called the trees split by artillery shells the scariest things of the war. This picture tells me a hundred times more about shell attacks than burning Grad warheads or even destroyed houses (which are eventually seen on TV).
Gazing into the faces of the people hiding from a shell attack or peacefully napping soldiers I see the same broken trees. Many of those people are already gone. But the anxiety and hope from their eyes spreads through these pictures like the force wave from an explosion, meeting practically no resistance.
In a recent interview Glyadyelov himself said: “We are unfortunately too accustomed to statistical reports: The day before yesterday 3 people were killed and 7 injured. Well, I give another way of looking. When you know people directly, you can’t forget what is really going on. The sharpness cones back. And yes, when I’m there, I try to photograph the people because then you will not forget what is happening.”
@OpenCityDocs
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