Free Ukrainian cinema screenings - Between a Rock and a Hard Place

In Toronto on March 3 and 4, the University of Toronto hosts free screenings and discussions of Ukrainian films that are open to the public.

The Thursday screening takes place at 7pm at Innis College and features Мудаки. Арабески. (Assholes. Arabesques). It combines the work of nineteen Ukrainian directors and was conceived by Volodymyr Tykhyy.

On Friday, the event begins at 6pm and moves to Room 208 of the North Building, Munk School of Global Affairs. The screening will be of Білий Птах З Чорною Ознакою (White Bird with a Black Mark). Directed by Yuriy Illyenko, it stars Ivan Mykolaichuk, Bohdan Stupka, Larysa Kadochnykova and  Kost Stepankov.

All films screen with English subtitles.
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Between a Rock and a Hard Place
Ukrainian Cinema since Independence

A series of lectures on the current state of and challenges faced by Ukrainian cinema as it tries to shake off the crippling legacy of the Soviet past and to adapt to the fast-moving reality of a post-Soviet Ukraine. Each presentation will be followed by screening of films representing a wide range of contemporary Ukrainian directors, genres and subjects. The events are FREE and open to the public.

Lecture Twenty:

Assholes. Arabesques.

Ukrainian filmmakers banded together to make, from nothing, feature shorts that are completely independent, with a vision of reality that will take your breath away. It’s about Ukraine, with Ukrainian talent, and in the Ukrainian language – the three faculties that have hitherto been largely absent from films made in Ukraine over the last years. F***ckers. Arabesques has it all.
F***ckers. Arabesques had its Ukrainian premier on September 23, 2010 and caused quite a stir among the public and filmmaking community alike.

Conceived by Volodymyr Tykhy, F***ckers.., nineteen shorts by various directors, features a peculiar social type of a post-Soviet Ukrainian, a jerk, existing between the Soviet past and a future that would never come. Outrageously funny and deadly serious at once, this is a must-see.

 

Time: Thursday, March 3, 2011, 7:00 p.m.

Location:Innis Town Hall, Innis College, University of Toronto, 2 Sussex Ave

(For directions to the theatre please click here.)

The screening is co-sponsored by the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies.

Lecture Twenty-One:

White Bird with a Black Mark, 1970

This masterpiece of Ukrainian poetic cinema will be screened restored and digitally re-mastered with English subtitles for the first time in Canada since it was made in 1970. It features a star-studded cast which includes Ivan Mykolaichuk, Bohdan Stupka, Larysa Kadochnykova, Kost Stepankov. Shot in the breathtakingly scenic Carpathian Mountains it tells a dramatic story of a family ripped apart by historical events before, during, and after WW2. With English subtitles. Free and open to the public. Yuri Shevchuk will introduce the film and hold a traditional post-screening discussion. The digitally restored version of the original motion picture was done by the Information Business Systems and Telecommunications, Kyiv, Ukraine. We wish to thank Mr. Pylyp Illienko for the DVD copy of the film made available for the purpose of this and other public screenings organized by the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University  and to popularize Yuri Illienko's work worldwide.

Time: Friday, March 4 2011, 6:00 p.m.

Location: Room 208, North Building, Munk School of Global Affairs (1 Devonshire Place)

The screening is co-sponsored by the Canadian Foundation for Ukrainian Studies.

All films are with English subtitles. Free and open to the public.

http://www.utoronto.ca/jacyk/ukrcinema/index.html