Documentary filmmakers — directors, editors, cinematographers — are among the least supported workers in trauma-adjacent fields. Repeated exposure to difficult material, the pressure of festival cycles, and the particular weight of filming inside your own country's tragedy all carry a psychological cost that the industry rarely names. This session brings together filmmakers and mental health professionals to examine that cost honestly: what retraumatization actually looks like in post-production, what protective practices exist, and what it means to do this work sustainably in the Ukrainian context.
Speakers:
Tetiana Symon, Oleksandr Bilous, Mykola Nosok, Alina Gorlova
Moderator:
Darya Levchenko
Darya Levchenko is a cultural manager and film programmer. Since 2023, she has been the curator of the New Talents programme within the PÖFF Shorts section of the Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. She also served as Programme Coordinator of the Docudays UA International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival from 2022 to 2024 and developed film programmes for the American Film Institute Center in Silver Spring, USA. Currently, Dariia coordinates projects related to the preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage, support for economic sustainability in the cultural sector, and the expansion of international cooperation in her role as National Specialist in Culture at the UNESCO Office in Ukraine.
Tetiana Symon is a Ukrainian film director, acting coach, casting director, and 1AD. She studied directing at the Ivan Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television and directed her debut short film, Junk, in 2015. She has worked on the films Volcano, Atlantis, Klondike, Reflection, and The Editorial Office. Tetiana leads the witness interviewing unit of the Ukraine War Archive project, created in 2022 by the teams of Docudays UA and Infoscope. Under her leadership, the team has collected more than 970 unique testimonies about the Russian-Ukrainian war. These materials became the basis for the documentary series Witnesses, directed by Tetiana, including Witnesses. North of Kyiv and Witnesses. Captivity Kills. She is also the creator of documentaries for the Ukraine War Archive YouTube channel, including Kherson. Resistance Continues, Moshchun: How the Invasion Began, Kharkiv: How the Theatre Endured, and Mariupol: Testimonies of Those Who Survived.
Oleksandr Bilous is a PhD in Psychology and Associate Professor at the Department of General Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, at the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Originally from Kherson, he graduated from the Kherson Pedagogical Institute in 1998 with a degree in Biology and Practical Psychology, qualifying as a biology teacher and school counsellor. After graduation, he worked at Kherson State University and later moved to Kyiv to pursue postgraduate studies at Taras Shevchenko National University, where he continues to work today. His research interests include environmental psychology, the psychology of art, and oral history. He is involved in social projects and regularly appears on television programmes and podcasts as a psychology expert.
Mykola Nosok is a documentary filmmaker from Korostyshiv who is based in Kyiv. Since 2016, he has been the lead director at the Ukraïner media platform. His work explores themes such as Ukrainian identity, the value of memory, home, the Russian-Ukrainian war, and others. In 2022, the documentary series De-Occupation was nominated for the Taras Shevchenko National Prize. In 2024, Mykola directed the feature-length documentary Cypress, which was screened at various international film festivals and received awards at the Carpathian International Film Festival and the Ukraine Film Festival in Poland.
Alina Gorlova is a Ukrainian documentary filmmaker, producer, and visual artist. Born and raised in Ukraine, she graduated from the Ivan Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema, and Television and earned a Master’s degree in Artists’ Film and Moving Image from Goldsmiths, University of London. Her work explores the consequences of war and trauma/PTSD. Among her recent projects are No Obvious Signs (2018) and This Rain Will Never Stop (2020).
Her latest feature-length documentary, Militantropos (2025), co-directed with fellow filmmakers, was selected for the Directors’ Fortnight programme at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival. Her films have received numerous awards at international film festivals, including IDFA, goEast, Beldocs, Docudays UA, DOK Leipzig, Festival dei Popoli, and others. She is also a recipient of the Ukrainian Film Academy’s Golden Dzyga Awards for Best Documentary Film and Best Editing. Alina is a laureate of the Women in Arts Award and holds the title of Honored Artist of Ukraine.
She has received the Felix Sobolev Award for her contribution to Ukrainian documentary cinema, the Bohdan Khmelnytskyi Prize of the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine for portraying war through artistic works, and the Order of Princess Olga, Third Class. Since 2013, she has been a co-founder of the independent production company Tabor and has produced several films, including the documentary Fragments of Ice (2024). Alina is also involved in educational projects and teaches at SKVOT.
