Public Screenings
New York, USA
The screening of the film “The Living” at Columbia University, New York, took place on December, 2 nd 2008, as the closing event of a conference on the Holodomor. More than 180 people were in attendance. The audience was mainly American – researchers, teachers, and film students. Several representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora also attended. Dr Margaret Siriol Colley, the niece of British journalist Gareth Jones, came to Columbia especially for this American premiere.
The presentation was opened by Professor John Coatsworth , Dean of the School of International Public Affairs (SIPA), at Columbia University. The film was presented by University professors – Professor Catharine Theimer, Director of the Harriman Institute, Yuri Shevchuk, Lecturer at the Slavic Department of Columbia University and Ann Whitney-Olin, Professor of Russian Literature and Chair, Slavic Department, Barnard College. The final introduction was given by director Sergiy Bukovsky, and producers Mark Edwards and Victoria Bondar.
The film received a very warm reception and prompted a lively discussion afterwards.
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Feedback:
Anna Frajlich, Professor of Polish, Columbia University:
The conference was very interesting and attendance was great, there were not enough chairs in the room, people were dragging chairs from the closets. The evening screening of the film by Serhiy Bukovsky was an incredible experience. I cannot say I enjoyed the film because it is not be enjoyed but I found it very well made, informative, educational and distressing/harrowing at the same time. It is a miracle that they could find so many actual witnesses still alive, and put it in the context of the documents left by the British journalist, and some original footing. Because of these three diversified strata the film provided a depth to the narrative, it was persuasive and moving.
For me it was both - painful to watch, and fascinating at the same time. The filmmakers truly succeeded in the task of showing how people survived the famine itself, and then so many years of oppression to bear witness. I think the whole conference was a success but the screening and the discussion following the screening was a truly memorable event.
Zenia Kish, graduate student, New York University:
“The Living” is a beautiful and thoughtful exploration of the lived experiences of one of recent history's greatest yet little known horrors - the Ukrainian Holodomor, or terror-famine under Stalin's direction in 1932-33. Developing slowly and meditating on the subtle significance of simple images, facial expressions, broken memories of survivors, the film opens up the paradoxical humanity of events that continue to escape all-encompassing narratives. At times eliciting genuine laughter, at others, painfully sobering, the film never allows the viewer to make quick or easy judgments about this dense story that only comes to life in the plurality of voices that have survived the purges of the historical record. Avoiding simplistic moralizing and sentimentality, filmmaker Bukovksy opts instead to foreground the complex relationships of power, voice, and vulnerability that extend the tragedy outside the borders of Ukraine and beyond its isolated historical moment, exploring, for example, the rarely told story of Welsh journalist Gareth Jones who persistently tried to convey the extent of the mass deaths in Ukraine to a deaf international audience.
The Holodomor is an experience of terror that continues to haunt survivors and the Ukrainian national imagination, and must be better understood by Ukrainians, Russians, and the rest of the world. But Ukrainians must also be able to mourn, something they were never allowed to do under the blanket of silence and denial defining Soviet official history of the period, and The Living reminds us that this process is incomplete and will remain forever unfinished - but must continue nonetheless. The film participates in this mourning process, meditating on the devastating losses, but also, perhaps above all, dedicating itself to the resilience of human life that survives the most abject circumstances to continue telling its stories. The film deserves to be experienced over and again in order to better hear them.
Allegra Panetto, Barnard College, Columbia University:
"The Living" was an extraordinarily poignant film that approached the seemingly unapproachable in a very resonant way. The film gave a breath of life to the survivors, not shying away from heartwarming and humorous instances in their lives. Bukovsky gave the survivors a beautiful sense of space, which is very rare in the documentary genre. The film was a memorial in the best sense of the word; it honored the survivors and victims, while reminding us that the gift of life should never be taken for granted, even in the face of such atrocities.
Konstantyn Tchergueiko, student, Columbia University:
I really appreciated the new and unique approach that "The Living" utilized. It is too easy to take the Holodomor issue and focus on images of brutality in order to shock the viewer without making a coherent argument. "The Living" brings to light exciting and little known evidence which contributes interesting new facts to the general discussion of the Holodomor. At the same time, the film tries to present accounts of survivors of the genocide but in my opinion it underemphasizes their testimonies. Nevertheless, I believe that "The Living" has great potential to become an important film!
James Williams, student, Columbia University, Olympic silver medalist in fencing:
“The Living” presents candid interviews with survivors of the Ukrainian famine of the 1930s. Shot beautifully, the film is informative yet captivating.
Tanah Spenser, student, Columbia University:
I found the film to be profoundly moving due to the manner in which Serhiy Bukovsky approached the film, through the lens of the living. As was discussed in the Q&A session after the screening, Bukovsky sought to relate the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932-1933 in a way that was not macabre. He interjects the horrific stories told by his survivors with their songs and laughter, showing the beauty and triumph of the Ukrainian identity. The sharp clarity and color of the shots, in addition to these interjections, indicate that images of the living possess power equal to that of (if not more than) those of the dead.
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