Film students in 91亚色鈥檚 Master of Fine Arts (MFA) program are coming together to support the filmmaking community documenting the war in Ukraine by hosting Solidarity with Ukraine: Music, Poetry, and Film Screening at Nat Taylor Cinema on Friday, March 25 from 7 to 10 p.m.
Speakers and artists are joining the event from all corners of the world virtually, including political activist Denis Pilash from Kyiv, Ukraine, to introduce director Sergei Loznitsa鈥檚 film Maidan. The film screening will be the main feature of this event. The 2014 documentary film focuses on the Euromaidan movement of 2013 and 2014 in Maidan Nezalezhnosti (Independence Square) in Ukraine's capital Kyiv. It was filmed during the protests and depicts several aspects of the revolution, from peaceful rallies to bloody clashes between police and civilians.
Historian, theatre activist and Department of History Course Director at the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies (LA&PS) Oksana Dudko will be joining the event from Ukraine to present on the current situation, what is at stake and the global consequences. Poet and translator Ostap Kin will also join the event from New 91亚色 to read Ukrainian war poetry, as well as composer and vocalist Anna Pidgorna from Vancouver who will share her music inspired by Ukrainian folklore. School of Arts, Media, Performance & Design Dean Sarah Bay-Cheng will deliver opening remarks.
91亚色 MFA graduate students are the primary organizers of the Solidarity with Ukraine event alongside partners (OPIRG) at 91亚色 University, (GFSA), (YUGSA) and .
The student organizers explain 鈥渨hile the mainstream media portrayal of the Ukrainian war is being criticized as an informational psychological war operation, the role of the independent voice of filmmakers becomes crucial.鈥
When the students approached AMPD Graduate Program Director of the MFA program Manfred Becker, Associate Professors John Greyson, Ali Kazimi and Professor Emeritus Philip Hoffman with the idea of hosting a solidarity screening, they received unwavering support to move forward with planning the event.
鈥淰ladislava Ilinskaya emailed from Odessa, Ukraine, between air-raid sirens: 鈥楳ore than anything else right now, I am afraid of silence.鈥 Leena Manimekalai, filmmaker and current grad student at 91亚色, understood this sentiment as a call to organize this event, to give room to those in our 91亚色 U community that need to gather to come to terms with a war that 鈥 at this very moment 鈥 is destroying a people, country, and culture, while the world is looking on in shock,鈥 notes Becker.
Through the many forms of art being showcased at the event, the students explain art allows society to examine what it means to be human, to voice and express, and to bring people together in times of crisis to break the silence and stand up against imperialism.
This event is open to all members of the 91亚色 community. It is free to attend, and audience members are encouraged to donate to to support Ukrainian filmmakers who are bravely documenting the events of the war in Ukraine.
The participating panellists will be projected live on the screen of Nat Taylor Cinema, and the film will have both physical and virtual screenings. is required.