This screening is a charity event in support of Ukrainian cultural workers and their families during the Russian military aggression in Ukraine.
The filmmakers participating in this programme explore the creative power of labour which allows people to transform the world. Whether it is Ukrainian miners or members of an independent art community in Kyiv, the people depicted in these films have the freedom to imagine their future and strive to build it.
Still from Landslide. Courtesy of the filmmaker.
This is the online screening of Labour, Creativity and Freedom. Please be aware that the films will be available from 6pm Friday 20 May until 6pm Saturday 21 May. If you wish to attend in-person, please see the in-person screening on Thursday 19 May.
All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the filmmakers involved whose goal is to support the Ukrainian film community.
Still from Miners’ Stories. Courtesy of the filmmaker.
Miners' Stories
Piotr Armianovski
Ukraine. 2016. 43 min.
Victor and Oleksandr live in the mining towns of two geographically remote regions of Ukraine. While their lives and the lives of their relatives revolve around mines, there is another side to them. Who are they really? What makes them go underground every day? Through memories and glimpses into the daily life of these mining towns we take a closer look at our main characters, understand how similar and different they are, and see how the crisis of the mining industry and events in eastern Ukraine are impacting their lives.
Still from Thoughts about Freedom and Work. Courtesy of the filmmaker.
Thoughts about Freedom and Work
Piotr Armianovski
Ukraine. 2020. 10 min.
A video essay about architecture and work. It is an attempt to look at both phenomena not only as traces of the past, but also as visions of the future.
Still from Landslide. Courtesy of the filmmaker.
Landslide
Oleksiy Radynski
Ukraine. 2017. 28 min
Landslide depicts an attempt to build a radically different community in post-revolutionary Ukraine. This experiment took place in the centre of Kyiv in a former garage complex in an area reclaimed from the city by the forces of nature. The landslide caused the abandonment of this area in the 1990s and it was subsequently repopulated by countercultural artists, musicians, anarchists, and queer people. They got the opportunity to realise "utopia here and now" and coexist outside the pressures of authorities, ideological opponents and dysfunctional social structures.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Piotr Armianovski is a Ukrainian artist, performer and director who was born in Donetsk. In his works Armianovski explores the themes of memory, loss, and the social and symbolic constructs of everyday life. Piotr works with video, performance art and virtual reality. He studied theatre and performance art in Kyiv, Lviv and Moscow including courses on the School of Performance by Janusz Bałdyga and Artist is Present by Marina Abramović. He has participated in international exhibitions at the Pasinger Fabrik in Munich, the Ludwig Museum in Budapest, the Visual Culture Research Centre in Kyiv and others.
Oleksiy Radynski is a filmmaker and writer based in Kyiv. His films have been screened at International Film Festival Rotterdam, Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen, Docudays IFF, the Institute of Contemporary Arts (London), and S A V V Y Contemporary (Berlin), among others, and have received a number of festival awards. After graduating from Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, he studied at the Home Workspace Program (Ashkal Alwan, Beirut). In 2008, he co-founded the Visual Culture Research Centre, an initiative for art, knowledge, and politics in Kyiv. His texts have been published in Proxy Politics: Power and Subversion in a Networked Age (Archive Books, 2017), Art and Theory of Post-1989 Central and East Europe: A Critical Anthology (MoMA, 2018), Being Together Precedes Being (Archive Books, 2019), and e-flux journal.