As interaction in the contemporary world becomes more fragile, traditional methods of communication, discussion and film screening mutate. In search of new ways of exchange, this spring, the 18th Docudays UA will be held in a hybrid format for the first time. The offline centre of the festival will be Podil, where all locations of this year’s Docudays UA will be situated: Zhovten and KINO42 Cinemas, IZONE Creative Space, and Dymchuk Gallery. In addition, without leaving their homes, the audience will have a chance to join film screenings and events in the DOCUSPACE Online Cinema.
“Docudays UA is 18 now. I want to congratulate it with becoming an adult,” says Viktoria Leshchenko, the festival’s programme director. “One of the most interesting parts of our work this year is the complete upgrade and expansion of the DOCUSPACE online cinema. We discuss a lot and deliberate how to make it as interactive and user-friendly as possible. Without giving up too much, I’ll just say for now that DOCUSPACE will work as a VoD service and as a streaming platform.
“And, of course, this year we will reach the big screens of our favorite Zhovten Cinema in Kyiv, where we plan to host the whole competition and non-competition programmes of the festival. The main event of each evening will be the evening screening and the discussion after it, which will take place in Zhovten and on DOCUSPACE at the same time. We want to combine both audiences and expand communication opportunities despite the current quarantine restrictions.”
The events that will be held offline:
І. Screenings of the competition and non-competition programmes and conversations with Ukrainian directors of the festival films at Zhovten and KINO42 Cinemas.
ІІ. Exhibitions and the animation retrospective as a part of the Intersectoral Programme at Zhovten Cinema, Dymchuk Gallery and IZONE Creative Space.
The events that will be held online:
І. Screenings of the competition and non-competition programmes as well as animation retrospectives of the Intersectoral Programme in the DOCUSPACE online cinema (docuspace.org).
II. Public online live streams of human rights discussions in the RIGHTS NOW! programme, DOCU/CLASS lectures and meetings, Tête-à-tête discussions with filmmakers of the festival films, and discussions with the artists of the Intersectoral Programme in the DOCUSPACE online cinema.
III. Exclusive events for the holders of DOCU/PRO Industry Accreditation. Including: Ukrainian Doc Preview, a presentation of relevant Ukrainian documentaries at the stage of production to film industry professionals, implemented in partnership with the Ukrainian Institute; and DOCU/PRO Talks, a series of lectures and and masterclasses on professional topics: from project development to sales strategy planning.
ІV. The audience will also have a chance to join remote conversations with the “books” in the Living Library. Teenagers from all over Ukraine will be offered to participate in the Online Documentary Studio, where, under the mentorship of documentary filmmakers, they will create their own documentaries at the DOCU/CAMP.
The festival will keep all of its competition programmes: DOCU/WORLD, DOCU/UKRAINE and DOCU/SHORT. Traditionally, the programmes will be evaluated by the jury which will include international and Ukrainian experts, documentary filmmakers, human rights defenders. One of the ten nominated films will receive the RIGHTS NOW! award. It will be awarded to a creative documentary film which explores the modern world and makes a significant contribution to the discussion of human dignity, freedom and equality.
We will share more details about each of the programmes soon. Follow the updates on our website.
As a reminder, the 18th Docudays UA is dedicated to the human right to health. We offer you to dive deeper in the processes of phenomena which are new to us and to evaluate the scale of the global change that has happened since the beginning of the pandemic.
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18th Docudays UA is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and the Ukrainian State Film Agency.
