Docudays UA continues promoting Ukrainian documentary filmmaking abroad. Apart from the Ukrainian films represented in the official festival programme, Docudays UA will also bring forth a selection of the most prominent recent projects as part of the DOK Leipzig Film Market.
Labelled “Ukrainian Docs by Docudays UA,” it presents films and filmmakers with an outstanding opportunity to get in touch with a film market that annually brings together thousands of filmmaking professionals from around the world. This year’s selection features “Home Games” dir. by Alisa Kovalenko, “The Cacophony of the Donbas” dir. by Igor Minaiev and “My Father is My Mother's Brother” dir. by Vadym Ilkov. The platform offers each of them yet another chance to draw the attention of festival curators and forge new partnerships with distributors and sales agents.
“After we received an award at Visions du Réel in Nyon, we started getting numerous requests from other film festivals. We’ve also signed a deal with an international sales agent not too long ago,” says director Vadym Ilkov.
“We’ve been able to screen the film beyond Europe, visiting Hot Docs in Canada and receiving an award in Camden, USA. We’re also going to Australia in October. We have made the decision not to have the film screened in Russia, so we are turning down any requests from there. We only agreed to a screening at Artdocfest in Riga. The film gets met warmly wherever we go, judging by the questions and comments coming from the viewers. It’s a great deal that people send greetings to the movie’s protagonists and inquire about the aspects of their lives that didn’t make it into the film. It comes across as a film dedicated to love and loyalty for some, a story of us all being different and having to respect each other regardless of looks and behaviours, while some feel it’s a statement of the difference that exists between the images we create and who we actually are,” says director Vadym Ilkov.
DOK Leipzig annually forms a video library for film industry professionals, including the newest and most relevant films. It remains available to viewers for six months following the conclusion of the festival.
Apart from our contribution to the video library, Docudays UA is also going to present the Ukrainian Documentary Films Catalogue. It has become a traditional publication distributed among international festival curators.
The Catalogue’s fourth edition will be available for download from our website in a couple of days.
The header photo: “My Father is My Mother's Brother ” dir. by Vadym Ilkov
