Ukrainian Docmakers Don Flak Jackets, Keep Cameras Rolling During War

variety.com:

Jennie Punter Last week Darya Bassel, the curator of Docudays UA’s industry platform, returned to her home in Kyiv and found herself smiling “like a crazy person” to be back at work and resuming something of a daily routine. “I’m still sitting 12 hours a day with my laptop,” she said during Slava Ukraini, an early morning session that kicked off Day 2 of Hot Docs’ Industry LIVE conference.“There are just some additional tasks on my to-do list,” she continued. “I never thought that I would ever deal with ordering bulk flak vests or medical kits for filmmakers.”Docudays UA’s International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival, which usually takes place in March, may have been postponed due to the Russia-Ukraine War but its efforts to support the Ukrainian filmmaking community are ongoing—and include ensuring members of that community remain not just visible but active participants at high-profile international events.

During the Hot Docs session moderated by IDFA artistic director Orwa Nyrabia, filmmaker Alina Gorlova, whose 2020 film “This Rain Will Never Stop” won the IDFA Award for Best First Appearance among numerous accolades, said decision-making is hard right now.“My team, which is several DOPs and directors, gets many requests from different TV channels, but we have decided to create a movie from the material we are shooting, although it’s hard to know what format it should be.

We decided to stay here, to help people with humanitarian aid—but what could we do actually? I’m not a fighter, I couldn’t cook.

Probably I should film.“It’s very important to film what’s going on right now, because in the future we will need this material.”Oksana Karpovych, whose doc debut “Don’t Worry, the Doors Will Open” screened at.