Global Cinema Film Festival of Boston returns
Years before the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Ukrainian documentary filmmaker Alisa Kovalenko had a very different project in mind.
her initial vision was to follow a group of five teenagers in the Donbas region of Ukraine as they prepared for an expedition to the himalayas, escaping their war-torn home, if only for a brief moment.
however, as she kept filming and the conflict intensified, she realized that her project, “we will not fade Away,” was now about preserving memories of a past Ukraine.
“when we made a rough cut before [the] full-scale invasion, I realized that what I filmed is actually the last document of the world which is not existing anymore,” said Kovalenko in a recent phone interview with the globe. she describes her film as a “capsule of time of this world.”
That cinematic capsule received its new England premiere friday at the global cinema film festival of boston, which showcases documentary films from around the world and runs through may 21. The himalayan expedition is still present (the film’s subjects were able to go post-pandemic), but it takes a backseat to showing pre-war Ukraine, where life mostly carries on, over an ominous real-life soundtrack of shelling and military vehicles.
Though Kovalenko did not attend the premiere — she hasn’t left Ukraine in two years, and even served on the frontlines of the volunteer Army for four months — she’s hopeful that sharing these human stories will help American viewers will think more deeply about what’s happening in her country.
“I hope that audiences in the United states can find lots of universal things to feel connected with our characters,” she said.
from the start, she knew she wanted to document the lives of teens, saying that the young people who live in the Donbas region personify hope in such dark times.
“It doesn’t matter in which town you grow up, if you have this inner light inside yourself, you can illuminate this darkness,” she said.
Raouf Jacob, executive director and program chair of the global cinema film festival, said Kovalenko’s documentary fits into the themes of resilience, identity, heritage, and activism the festival wants to spotlight with this year’s lineup.
“Ukraine dominated headlines the first year of the war, and then after that, it kind of faded away,” he said. “we want to give an opportunity for filmmakers to tell their own stories.”
Also showing will be directors Daniel mccabe’s Ugandan grasshopper trapping team documentary,” grasshopper Republic,” and lee chang-jun’s “A mother, Youngsoon,” centered on a north Korean defector living in south Korea.
Kovalenko says creating documentaries instead of serving on her country’s frontlines brings on complicated feelings of guilt and sorrow. completing this film took an emotional toll on her, and she’s weighing returning to the frontlines following her next two projects.
still, “Documentary film is more than just about cinema or your artistic ambitions,” she said. “It’s about sharing something important. You can touch other people, people who are very far away from your reality.”
For more information about the film festival, including screening times and ticket prices, visit worldwidecinemaframes.com.