Festival Opening and Film Screening

FOREST, FOREST 9 min. Maria Stoianova Ukraine 2022

The film is made from home video recordings made by a Ukrainian family in 2002-2008. Like most home videos focusing on children, they convey the feeling of a beginning and perspective – but also of repetitiveness, mundanity, the hum of time. What is our ‘together’ made of? What connections keep us together? Through vernacular videos from the past, the film seeks to speak (often in baby talk and children’s riddles) about plurality, rootedness, about us.

ATTENTION DEFICIT 11 min. Yarema Holota Ukraine 2023

Stress in the backdrop of war reveals our true essence. In the case of the author and the theme of the film, it became a clear realization and diagnosis of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder).

WE WILL RESTORE THE TRUST OF KHARKIV RESIDENTS AND PROVIDE HIGH-QUALITY SERVICE TO RESIDENTIAL BUILDINGS 22 min. Maksym Khodak Ukraine 2022

Maksym Khodak invited two TikTokers to Kharkiv to participate in the rebuilding of the city and create video content on-site, under virtually constant missile and artillery shelling. In an attempt to revive the broken tradition of Ukrainian Modernism, the artist asked the TikTokers to live in the ‘Slovo’ House for several days and to speculate together about the new post-war utopian country.

ANTICIPATION 9 min. Sofiia Korotkevych Ukraine 2023

Video recording of Lviv streets fixed in a frozen state. Bags filled with sand placed all over the city tell the story of time slowed down during the war..

STORKS ALWAYS COME HOME 29 min. Halyna Koziutynska Ukraine 2023

Gala and Viktor are searching for their Heaven on earth. Even during the war. That’s why they buy an abandoned house in the Carpathian Mountains and start repairing it. It’s a place of peace and calmness, where they can grow their own food, be silent, be defenseless, and drink coffee overlooking the mountains and a stork’s nest. But winter comes, the apple tree in the yard freezes, and the War reaches Heaven.