Pushkin House continues our series of charity screenings aimed at raising funds for Ukrainian filmmakers who are now suffering from the military aggression of the Russian state. This programme is focused on female artists who work in a variety of genres, raising issues of gender, sexuality, violence and the impact of war on people's lives.
If you would prefer to watch this screening online, please see the online version of this event on Friday 15 April.
DISCLAIMER. The films in this programme are not suitable for viewers younger than 18 years old.
TW: nudity, blood, self-harm, combat footage.
All proceeds from the ticket sales will go to the filmmakers involved whose goal is to support the Ukrainian film community.
The Wonderful Years
Svitlana Shymko, Galina Yarmanova
Ukraine. 2018. 8 min.
The Wonderful Years is a found footage film that explores the lives of queer women in Ukraine in the late Soviet Union. It is based on the archival video materials and reconstructed sociological interviews conveying personal stories of emancipation and struggle in the patriarchal environment.
Sex Encounters
Oksana Kazmina
Ukraine. 2018. 4 min.
This music video for the Ukrainian band Lyudska Podoba is an exercise in the visual representation of queer sexuality and the transgender body.
Lucid Skin
AntiGonna (in collaboration with Nikita Kadan)
Ukraine. 2019. 16 min.
The protagonist is an artist who re-evaluates his identity. In order to punish his ‘masculinity’, he goes through instances of self-harming action. At first, he escapes into a fantasy of safety and freedom with the help of drag and nightlife culture but eventually and abruptly he is brought back to reality as the phantasm of masochism takes shape.
Enter the War
AntiGonna
Ukraine. 2017. 4 min.
This surrealist video is a part of the project Endless story of diseases. Kyiv Porn Horrors that depicts the community of underground artists from Kyiv. ‘War lives deep under the Earth. People themselves let it in. The war asks to enter.’
Territory of Empty Windows
Zoya Laktionova
Ukraine. 2020. 10 min.
In this personal documentary, Zoya Laktionova addresses the history of her mother's family, who moved to Mariupol because of World War II and the local plant. The war with Russia and the environmental consequences of the plant's operation play a key role in her life.
Letter to a Turtledove
Dana Kavelina
Ukraine. 2020. 21 min.
A film-poem, compiled from videos found on social media, archival newsreels, personal notes, and animation fragments created by the artist, Letter to a Turtledove offers a feminist take on the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Dana Kavelina addresses her cinematic letter to an unnamed female resident of the war zone, whose body she likens to the suffering land.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
Svitlana Shymko is an independent director from Ukraine, and a graduate of the DocNomads international MA program in documentary film directing. Her thesis film The Doctor Leaves Last was shown at numerous international festivals and received a special mention award at Docudays UA in 2015. Svitlana is working on developing political, social, and feminist topics in documentary cinema.
Galina Yarmanova is an independent researcher, and graduate of an international MA program in Gender Studies at the Central European University (Budapest, Hungary). She has taught courses on gender, sexuality, and feminism at the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. Galina’s research interests include topics such as reproduction and sexual rights, moral panics of sexuality, and the influence of nationalism and imperialism on current sexual politics in Ukraine.
Oksana Kazmina is a Ukrainian filmmaker, media artist and performer whose approach is based on intersectional feminism and post-humanism. She is currently an MFA candidate at Syracuse University, Syracuse, USA.
AntiGonna (Oksana Andreieva) is a Ukrainian independent filmmaker, queer-artist, actress and trash model. In her artistic practice, she explores the problems of fears, violence, death and new vision of sexuality. She works in such genres as video art, experimental documentary, music video, virtual reality, photography.
Zoya Laktionova is a Ukrainian independent artist and documentary filmmaker born in Mariupol. In her films, she touches on issues of war, memory and personal stories. In 2018, she made her first short film Diorama that participated in numerous European film festivals and was released in cinemas in Ukraine. In 2021, she premiered her new short Territory of Empty Windows that received a Special Award from the Ji.hlava IDFF at the Obirok 2021 festival and the Main Award at the documentary competition of the French-Ukrainian festival MIST 2021.
Dana Kavelina is a Ukrainian artist and filmmaker born in Melitopol. She works primarily with animation and video, but also installation, painting and graphics. Her works often thematise military violence and war, seen from a gender perspective. She graduated from the Department of Graphic Arts of the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute. In 2017, she shot her first film Mark Tulip, who spoke with flowers, which received the Special Jury Prize at the Odessa Film Festival and the Grand Prix of the KROK festival. Her works have been exhibited at the Kristianstad Kunsthalle (Sweden), Kmytiv Museum (Kmytiv), Closer Art Center (Kyiv), and the Voloshyn Gallery (Kyiv).