Ukraine's television broadcasts new series on Ukrainian diaspora (08/20/00)

Ukraine's television broadcasts new series on Ukrainian diaspora

by Roman Woronowycz
Kyiv Press Bureau

KYIV - A television series on the Ukrainian diaspora - part of an extended film festival on the same subject - is currently being broadcast on the Ukrainian government network UT-1. The program, "Foundations," hosted by Khrystyna Stebelska, is a presentation of submissions by the Ukrainian diaspora and archival material of the Soviet era.

The television program concerns the organizational and everyday life of Ukrainians scattered across the globe, with the focus on noteworthy individuals and events. Although Ihor Vynnychenko, chairman of the Institute of Diaspora Studies that developed the series, said there is plenty of material garnered from Soviet archives, he has very few video pieces from the Western diaspora. As of today, the series has merely seven video films and vignettes to offer Ukrainian viewers.

The series is part of a larger Ukrainian video film and cultural festival on the accomplishments of the Ukrainian diaspora near and far titled: "Our Blossom - Across the World" ("Nashoho Tsvitu - Po Tsilomu Svitu").

The festival will culminate in August after Ukrainian Independence Day when a panel of excerpts will convene to judge the submissions and decide on the best films. Mr. Vynnychenko stressed that the judging will be based on content and the story told, and not on film-making techniques and creativity.

Afterwards, the festival organizers will show the winning entries at selected movie cinemas across the country. Also planned is a touring exhibition of the films down the Dnipro River and along the Black Sea coast, which will make nine stops at major ports between Kyiv and Sevastopol.

Mr. Vynnychenko said those video entries that do not arrive in Kyiv in time for this year's judging will be considered next year.

The Institute of Diaspora Studies, a non-profit organization that works with the Ukrainian government, also has planned a radio series on the international Ukrainian theater titled, "Theater Scattered Across the World," hosted by Valerii Haidabura, an expert on Ukrainian art and theater.

The television series, however, remains the centerpiece of "Our Blossom - Across the World."

The first installment of the television series, "Kuban Kozaks, 200 Years," dealt with the life of Ukrainians, ancestors of Kozaks of the Zaporizhian Host, who were exiled to the Kuban region, east of the Azov Sea, at the end of the 18th century. Documentary footage of the inhabitants of this land, historically considered to be ethnographic Ukrainian territory, tracks how Ukrainians have retained their separate language and traditions in the face of years of Russian and Soviet pressure to assimilate into what is now a Russian culture.

In the works are programs based on film footage found in the cinematic archives of the Ukrainian SSR, including a 1984 production, "Betrayal is Their Trade," which gives the Soviet view of such U.S. organizations as the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America and the Voice of America, as well as profiles on Yaroslav Stetsko, Valentyn Moroz and Zbigniew Brzezinski, international figures close to the Western Ukrainian diaspora. The archival footage will be accompanied by appropriate commentary to set the historical record straight.

Another Soviet production from 1934 shows a meeting of the Providence Association of Ukrainian Catholics at the Philadelphia editorial offices of the newspaper America. There is also a series of vignettes created between 1930 and 1938 on the Ukrainian National Aid Association.

The Institute of Diaspora Studies and the "Our Blossom - Across the World" video film festival are requesting additional video materials from diaspora individuals and organizations, on notable figures, organizations or events. It is not necessary that the footage be of a highly professional level, only that it tell a story and have a definite beginning, middle and ending. Although the organizing committee would prefer that entries be on Super VHS or Betacam SP videotape in PAL format, they will accept other types of standard videotape.

The films should have a Ukrainian narrative (dialogue can be in any language) and be no longer than 30 minutes in length, with at least 50 percent of the material directly related to the topic, "Ukrainians in foreign lands."

Two Ukrainian companies, Golden Telecom GSM and Intertrans, are partial sponsors of the various events associated with the video film festival. However, the organizing committee is seeking more sponsors. Money is especially needed to fund the transfer of archival film material to videotape, as well as office services and equipment.

For more information please see the festival's website at www.ukrsvit.kiev.ua; e-mail [email protected]; phone (380-44) 244-2911; or fax (380-44) 513-7132.

Video materials should be mailed to: Orh-komitet "Nashoho Tsvitu - Po Tsilomu Svitu," a/c 507, Kyiv, Ukraine 01034.

At the end of last year the Institute of Diaspora Studies released the first comprehensive bibliographical index "The World Community of Ukrainians - 99" along with an associated catalogue that includes listings of all Ukrainian organizations in the Western and Eastern diasporas.

The catalogue was prepared with the financial support of the Ukrainian Fraternal Association and its publication was financed by Ivan Puio of New York.

The institute currently is preparing an even more comprehensive 2000 update. Mr. Vynnychenko also has compiled a two-volume monograph, "The Historical-Geographic Phenomenon of Ukrainians on the Territory of Post-Soviet Countries."

This is the first study of the various deportations and agricultural, industrial and Komsomol migration of Ukrainians within the Soviet Union, which the author researched in special archives in Russia, archives and libraries of the Baltic countries and Belarus, as well as at the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine and the State Security Service of Ukraine.

Unfortunately, no one has come forward to finance the publishing of these projects. The Institute of Diaspora Studies asks that interested sponsors contact the institute at: e-mail, [email protected]; telephone, (380-44) 244-2911; or fax, (380-44) 513-7132. The address is: a/c 507, Kyiv, Ukraine 01034.

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