Famous Ukrainian Filmmakers Will Take Part in a Discussion to Be Held by the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation in the United States

In the framework of the DC/DOX Documentary Film Festival in Washington, D.C., the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation will present a panel discussion on the topic Documenting People’s Wartime Experience: Archiving Civilian Stories During the Russian Invasion of Ukraine.

The list of participants of the event, which will be held on 16 June, includes:

— Yulian Ulybin, film director and co-producer of the documentary Dram about the shelter of the Drama Theatre in Mariupol, produced together with the Museum

— Volodymyr Yatsenko, producer and co-founder of the Ukrainian film company ForeFilms, which released the films Wild Field, Atlantis, Going Home, and Luxembourg, Luxembourg

— Joseph Dresen, a senior program associate at the Woodrow Wilson Centre’s Kennan Institute

— Anna Zaitseva, the hero of one of the Museum’s stories: the wife of a POW and Azov soldier who spent 65 days in the Azovstal bomb shelter with her small child

— Oleksiy Sukhanov, Ambassador of the Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation, TV presenter and journalist

— Yuriy Svyrydov, representative of the Museum.

The participants will discuss the role of documentaries in filing and cataloguing people’s wartime experiences, the importance of preserving the stories of civilians about their experiences during the war. The guests of the event will hear live stories of civilians and will be able to join the discussion by putting their questions to the participants.

The Museum of Civilian Voices of the Rinat Akhmetov Foundation has been collecting stories of Ukrainian victims of Russian aggression since 2014. Currently, the Museum hosts the world’s largest online archive of such stories — more than 70,000 entries. They can be found on the Museum’s portal at https://civilvoicesmuseum.org.

In addition, the Museum is a source of first-hand stories for filmmakers and documentarians who are interested in preserving historical memory, showing people’s experience, and ensuring transparency in conveying such stories to the world.