D.C. campaign tells story of Ukrainian famine (12/29/85)

D.C. campaign tells story of Ukrainian famine

WASHINGTON - During a two-week span in November, a number of people in Washington heard about the 1932-33 man-made famine in Ukraine.

This was the result of a media campaign organized jointly by The Washington Group, an association of Ukrainian-American professionals, and the Washington Branch of the Ukrainian National Women's League of America, that was pegged to the screening of Slavko Nowytski's and Yurij Luhovy's prize-winning documentary film "Harvest of Despair."

Both organizations had planned to bring the film to Washington, and to avoid a conflict, Natalie Sluzar and Marta Terleckyj, presidents of TWG and the UNWLA, respectively, agreed to do so as a joint venture.

The Biograph theatre in the Georgetown section of the capital was selected for the showing, because of its location and because it is known for running quality films which attract serious audiences.

The media campaign followed guidelines developed by Andrij Bilyk of IMAX Corp., a public relations firm in Alexandria, Va. It involved compiling a list of some 300 names and addresses of key media people in Washington, production of a press packet about the famine and the film, mailing the packets, and follow-up telephone calls to the recipients. Each caller had a "script," which sought to convince the listener of the importance of the famine and the film which documented it. Because the screening had been scheduled a week after the Reagan-Gorbachev summit meeting in Geneva and in the wake of the unsuccessful bid for freedom by Ukrainian seaman Myroslav Medvid, the script worked these events into the story of Ukraine and specifically to the famine, which continues to be covered up by Soviet rulers.

About 30 persons, members of TWG and the UNWLA, volunteered to work the telephones. They and the press packets carried the Ukrainian message even before the film was shown.

The entire effort ran along at time chart developed by Miss Sluzar. It covered a period of six weeks prior to the film showing and listed a series of talks to be performed (reprinting of press materials, mailing, telephones calls, follow-up calls, additional mailings to addresses generated by the callers.)

Since the organizers had the Biography theater for the entire evening, they decided to hold three showings of "Harvest." They also decided to invite from St. Paul, Minn., the film's director, Mr. Nowytski, who was recently ordained a deacon in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

On November 26, despite a shilling rain, the first screening of "Harvest of Despair" at 7 p.m. played to a standing-room-only audience. There was a full house for the 9 p.m. screening, and more than 50 persons for the one at 10:30 p.m. - a respectable crowd for a week-night in the "early-to-bed" Washington.

Mr. Nowytski was introduced to the audience after each showing and answered questions about the famine and the film. He also held a press conference between the first and the second showings.

Alex van Oss, a producer for "All Things Considered" news program on national Public Radio, who said he was impressed by the film, invited Mr. Nowytski for a taped interview about the famine the following day. The interview is to be broadcast at a future date.

After each showing, members of the audience asked about plans to show "Harvest of Despair" on television and about its availability on video cassettes.

Requests for private screenings of the film also came from some media people contacted by the telephone callers. TWG and UNWLA are now in the process of following up on these requests.