Hollywood Trident Foundation marks fifth year of activity

by Andrij J. Semotiuk

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. - The Hollywood Trident Foundation met on Tuesday, December 13, 2005, at the UCLA Faculty Center to celebrate its fifth anniversary. The meeting included the foundation's regular members and two UCLA professors, Roman Koropecky and Dr. Paul Micevych, who joined in the lively discussion.

The meeting opened with a brief film, both moving and touching, put together by Halja Kuchmij and Orest Sushko about the Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus and the bandura. Mr. Sushko indicated that the film-makers were well into their project and described some of the circumstances involved in the filmed interviews. It is clear this film will have a major impact on the Ukrainian community and Ukraine. The foundation was pleased to see the progress being made on the film, particularly since the foundation supported the project from its inception.

The meeting then heard a report from Peter Borisow, the foundation's president, about his work in Ukraine with the Ukrainian government aimed at encouraging the Ukrainian film and television industry. Mr. Borisow reported that all television programs will soon be required to have proper Ukrainian dubbing (not Ukrainian subtitles) and that over the next few years, all new films coming into Ukraine will be required to be dubbed into Ukrainian for theatrical distribution. Mr. Borisow added that there are good people in the Ukrainian government to work with and that meaningful progress is being made.

Andriy Semotiuk, the foundation's executive director, then briefed the meeting on the activities of the foundation over the last five years. Apart from meetings mobilizing people of Ukrainian origin or interest in the entertainment industry in Hollywood, the foundation also: presented Oles Yanchuk's film, "The Undefeated" at UCLA's film theater; put on a Dovzhenko Film Festival in coorperation with the UCLA Film Archives and Film School, awarded a scholarship to a student for studies at the Los Angeles Film School; subtitled Oles Sanin's film, "Mamay" for submission as Ukraine's entry for the Academy Awards. Best Foreign Language Film Award; helped sister Ukrainian organizations on general community-related matters; organized a petition of people in the entertainment industry to support the Orange Revolution; and worked hard, mainly through its president's multiple visits to Ukraine, to help Ukraine get its film industry back on solid ground and focused on Hollywood partners instead of Russia. It was noted that five years went by very quickly.

The meeting then launched into a lively discussion of what the foundation has done in its first five years and what it should do in the future. Among needs identified were setting up a foundation website for members networking as well as for general informational purposes, setting up workshops in Los Angeles for people interested in film, promoting a Ukrainian Film Festival in Los Angeles, promoting Ukrainian interest networking in the entertainment industry, doing a film based on Eugenia Dallas' autobiographical book, "One Woman, Five Lives, Five Countries," holding periodic community-based screenings of Ukrainian films and continuing the foundation's work in Ukraine. All of the participants agreed there is much more for the foundation to do and that it is worthy of the Ukrainian community's support. The executive will now try to work with these ideas for future growth of the Hollywood Trident Foundation.

Copyright © The Ukrainian Weekly, January 1, 2006, No. 1, Vol. LXXIV

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