The 21st Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival took place in Kyiv on 31 May–9 June. Its main theme was Ten years of the three-day war that has lasted for three centuries. Screenings, events and exhibitions were held in the Zhovten Cinema (26 Kostiantynivska Str.), KINO42 (11B Kostiantynivska Str.), House of Cinema (6 Saksahanskoho Str.), 1818 Rooftop Bar (11 Kostiantynivska Str.), and the DOCUSPACE Online Cinema. Exclusively, after the festival closed, the audience could attend the audience days: we screened the winners of competition programmes and the festival hits again.
Despite all the challenges of wartime, we came together again to watch films, reflect, and discuss historical memory, the cyclic nature of history, the preservation and search for identity and responsibility. Together with you, we participated in an action in support of prisoners of war at the opening ceremony and raised donations for the Hurkit charity foundation by organising a fragrant flower market at the main festival location.
According to our estimates, more than 600 people participated in working on the festival: our 54 guests, 80 participants, 107 partners, 46 guests and participants of the Industry Platform, 23 regional coordinators of the Travelling Docudays UA, 78 moderators of the DOCU/CLUB Network, the festival team which included over 100 people, and 140 volunteers.
Even though it is rather difficult to reach Ukraine today, the jury members still arrived at the festival: James Berclaz-Lewis, Alexandre Marionneau, Isabel Arrate Fernandez, Wayne Jordash KC. Our 13 international participants arrived despite the difficulties as well: representatives of the Doc Alliance Festival Network René Kubášek, Wojciech Diduszko, Marko Grba Singh; filmmakers Camille Vigny, Walter Stokman; cinematographer Christopher Nunn; DOCU/SYNTHESIS participants Galo E. Rivera and Bethan Hughes; as well as DOCU/PRO experts Fabrice Puchault, Salome Jashi, Brigid O'Shea, Charlotte Tourrès, and Malcolm Dixelius.
“I work as a prosecutor and investigate Russian crimes, and I would rather not watch human rights films because I wish human rights were not violated and that there is no such concept as war. This experience of watching 10 human rights films is a difficult experience that affects us and breaks us. But these films are not just about victimhood, pain and suffering. They are also about hope: not some kind of far-reaching ideas, but hope that motivates us to act, to enact change, to grow and to establish human rights in reality.”
Wayne Jordash KC, Head of the Global Rights Compliance Foundation (GRC), prominent lawyer specialising in international human rights and humanitarian law
“I would like to thank the Docudays festival and the entire team, including the people who were running around like crazy ants somewhere along the cinema corridors, for the fact that everything worked like clockwork. I am impressed by how you’re living life, how you celebrate this life, how joyful you are. We’ve worked with you a lot, but being here, feeling this bustling life, and seeing it with your own eyes is incredible.”
Isabel Arrate Fernandez, Deputy Director of IDFA and Head of the festival’s Filmmaker Support Department
The festival film programme was made by 4 members of the Selection Council: Gennady Kofman, Darya Averchenko, Roman Bondarchuk, Yulia Kovalenko; 3 programmers: Polina Yakovleva, Oleh Melnychuk, Darya Levchenko; 5 experts: Yana Riman, Tetiana Kononenko, Olha Birzul, Serhiy Ksaverov, Anna Datsiuk; 16 pre-selection volunteers: Anastasija Nibbe, Oksana Ozarchuk, Serafima Melnychuk, Anna Yukhymets, Daria Zhuravel, Maryna Ohloblia, Olena Zashko, Anastasia Zakhilko, Oleksandra Kalinichenko, Anastasia Tsyhanok, Kateryna-Daniela Hulbytska, Vlad Holovko.
“I follow the festival every year, because I believe that it is important to raise and discuss issues that exist in society through the language of cinema and art. I am very happy that this year the festival was offline, it is a special joy for me. The festival theme really resonated with me. It sounds simple, but deep, and it contains the experiences of many Ukrainians. It is, among other things, about memory, about its age, about how we think about ourselves, what has happened to us, how we are making sense of this war. This topic is about the time which each and every one of us evaluates in the context of our own lives. At the same time, we are parts of society which is experiencing a lot of bad events, not only in the past 20 years but in the past few centuries. For me, this topic is about memory, about how important it is to recover it, preserve it and pass it on.”
Oleksandra Lozovyk, communications manager.
Our accreditation service tirelessly issued badges, packed souvenir bags with gifts from our partners Lush and DeLaMark. Starting in May, we handed about 254 festival passes to you. We gave out over 380 tickets free of charge to retirees and military members. About 3,900 film screening visits were booked with accreditations, 3,200 online tickets have been issued by our service. It was convenient to check the festival schedule in the ArtWizard app.
During the festival, we cooperated with 21 Ukrainian national media. 100 journalists got accredited to prepare materials, reviews, and articles.
We processed 3,514 audience voting forms.
Just within the period of the festival and the audience days, our online community grew by 1,152 social media followers (and that is without the users of X, formerly known as Twitter).
The events of the Rights Now! Human Rights Programme, Ukraine War Archive, Coffee with Partners, and the Living Library — 22 events in total — were attended by 545 people. The Ukraine War Archive Viewing Room was visited by about 50 guests. The premiere of Witnesses. Captivity Kills, a documentary based on Ukraine War Archive media materials, was attended by about 95 audience members. Around 100 people attended the special screening of AFU Media Centre & Ukraine War Archive: Films from the Frontline.
“Today, during the full-scale war, I realise what enormous work is done by Docudays to advocate for our stories. The festival works to make people hear us. So it is very important for me to be here. The festival theme has many levels. I apply it to my own life. I am 29, and the war began when I was 19. The war has been going on for my entire adult life. I grew up in this time and got involved in different processes in different ways. This concerns me personally in my own life and our country, all of us. I believe that Witnesses. Captivity Kills is an incredibly important film, because we need to hear people who have been through this. It is very important for us to create publicity, give voice to the people fighting for their loved ones and trying to raise awareness about this.”
Varvara, IT company manager.
The DOCU/CLUB Network has turned 10. During the festival, the team prepared a collection of stories about the work of the moderators, the impact of film clubs on community life; they shared information about their own distribution network which has been growing successfully all this time in 450 film clubs. On the International Children’s Day, the DOCU/CLUB Network and NGO Magnolia announced a joint information campaign against sexual abuse of children on the internet. The three promo events of the film club network were attended by 50 guests, and 78 moderators from across Ukraine attended a conference that took place during the festival.
As part of the DOCU/SYNTHESIS Interdisciplinary Art Programme, there were collaborations with the Ukho Agency and the Berlin initiative SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA, and a new series of artworks based on Ukraine War Archive materials was created. Over 200 guests visited the House of Cinema to see the audiovisual installation programme. Two offline discussions of the DOCU/SYNTHESIS Interdisciplinary Art Programme were attended by approximately 60 participants. The films from the SİNEMA TRANSTOPIA. Fragments collection were watched and discussed by over 100 viewers at two exclusive screenings. And installations by Volodymyr Kuznetsov titled the Anthology of Ukrainian Cuisine 2022–2024 were available to watch and listen to for all visitors of the main festival venue, the Zhovten Cinema.
“I’ve been attending Docudays for over 10 years in a row and it is my favourite festival. Docudays has had many adventures: the snowy March when people were unable to reach the venue, and COVID when the festival was online. But I attend every year. Docudays has different programmes every year, and I keep discovering new topics which I may have never found on my own. It reveals very deep meanings from the perspective of cinema. This is why I love Docucudays so much. love documentaries, every film is a special story, a tale of a person or an event. It can be much more interesting than feature films, because it is the skill of conveying a story without staging.”
Anastasia Bordun, employee of the Embassy of Canada in Ukraine.
The Industry Accreditation was obtained by 194 people. As part of DOCU/PRO, there were 13 very powerful discussions, masterclasses, and networking meetings for the industry (3 of which were open to everyone). In total, DOCU/PRO events, both online and offline, were attended by about 433 people. For the first time, the DOCU/PRO platform hosted the RAW DOC programme, created for filmmakers working on the rough cuts of their films who want to hold test screenings for international industry experts and to receive professional feedback. During the closed screenings, the participants had an opportunity to talk to potential partners, including representatives of European public broadcasters, sales agents, and festivals.
9,218 photos were made by the photo service, which included Stas Kartashov, Herman Kriger, Anna Soli, Polina Polikarpova, Nazar Furyk, and Serhiy Khandusenko.
“I think it’s very important to track that every war is different, every armed conflict is different. And although they can have something in common, still, we need to take into account different contexts, realise that this is not a universal story. And we probably should be more sensitive both to ourselves and to others. I believe that due to this sensitivity to other countries, which are also in this risk zone, through these films, through other cultural projects, we can build a certain alliance which is built not only on the position of a victim or a war, but actually on something truly shared. I believe that documentary films and art are always relevant. I have attended every Docudays since 2016, and it really helps me understand certain contexts, and makes me interested in some things which I did not used to be interested in. But for me specifically, Docudays helps to be more empathetic and treat various issues with understanding, whatever my attitude to them is, aggressive or not very aggressive.”
Fedir Khorkov, artist.
We presented 62 films from 34 countries: from Chile to Taiwan. The programme included 19 Ukrainian films: 10 national premieres and 9 world premieres.
The festival ended with three audience days on 7–9 June, with the winners of competition programmes and festival hits. During the audience days, we showed 13 films on DOCUSPACE: our audience watched the platform’s online selection 573 times. Almost all of the films had descriptive subtitles, and 14 films had audio descriptions and were accessible to people with visual impairments.
At the end of the festival, we awarded 7 Main Prizes and 6 Special Mentions, including the Andriy Matrosov Prize, the Student Jury Award and the Audience Award; one honorary diploma from the Union of Ukrainian Film Critics; and three awards from Doc Alliance.
We also streamed 15 events, including the press conference and the festival closing ceremony, on our Facebook pages (including 6 events at the festival venue), and recorded 31 events in total (as part of Rights Now!, Ukraine War Archive, Coffee with Partners, Living Library, as well as DOCU/CLUB, DOCU/CLASS and DOCU/SYNTHESIS events).
“Docudays allows us to hear about the topics we’ve never thought about and lets us see the topics we’re familiar with from a new angle. At the very least, it allows us to explore ourselves and feel solidarity with others. Also, maybe, unite around certain topics not only in our thoughts but also in action.”
Ira Shostak, filmmaker, communications lead at Linza Agency.
We are grateful to the Armed Forces of Ukraine for the opportunity to continue making the festival during the war. It is a major challenge for all of us, but your warm feedback inspires and motivates us. We realise the importance of our work, so we will start planning the 22nd Docudays UA after a brief break. Stay with the festival virtually: we’ve collected all the recordings of this year’s discussions in our online cinema on docuspace.org.
Comments were gathered by: Marfa Bihdash, Katia Bulava and Ksenia Oprya.
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The 21st Docudays UA is held with the support of the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the US Embassy in Ukraine, International Media Support, the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Ukraine, the Embassy of Estonia in Ukraine, the Polish Institute in Kyiv, Institut français d'Ukraine, Danish Cultural Institute, the Czech Centre in Kyiv, and the Embassy of Hungary in Kyiv. The opinions, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or organisations of these countries. Responsibility for the content of the publication lies exclusively on its authors.
