Self Reliance New York supports "The Orange Effect" project (01/29/06)

Self Reliance New York supports "The Orange Effect" project

NEW YORK - The board of the Self Reliance New York Federal Credit Union has provided $20,000 in funding support for a feature-length documentary film project titled "The Orange Effect."

The producers of the film are documentary filmmaker and Emmy Award winner Robert E. Frye and Prof. Alexander J. Motyl of Rutgers University - Newark, a noted Ukraine expert.

As a major voice in the Ukrainian American community, Self Reliance and its president, Dr. Bohdan Kekish, have generously supported a variety of important projects, including the Ukrainian Studies Program at Columbia University, The Ukrainian Museum of New York, The Orange Circle, and Ukrainian-language courses at Rutgers University - Newark.

The Orange Revolution both refashioned and consolidated Ukrainian identity and exposed its fissures - the conflicts, disagreements and animosities between east and west, democrats and non-democrats, Ukrainian speakers and Russian speakers, supporters of a European tendency and supporters of a Russian tendency, nationalists and Communists, young and old.

No less important, the Orange Revolution brought into especially sharp focus the controversies surrounding Ukraine's historical memory.

"The Orange Effect" will investigate how Ukrainians are remembering their past and imagining their identity. These questions are open-ended, but "The Orange Effect" will capture changing feelings, moods, and beliefs in a cinematic tapestry consisting of portraits, words, music and images conveying the multi-layered complexity of ongoing changes in identity and of attempts to grapple with reconciliation in Ukraine.

The founding members of the advisory board for "The Orange Effect" project are: Adrian Karatnycky, president of The Orange Circle; Dr. Zenon Kohut, director of the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies; Dr. Larysa Onyshkevych, president of the Shevchenko Scientific Society; Dr. Bohdan Vitvitsky, former president of the Ukrainian American Professional and Businesspersons' Association of New York and New Jersey; and Irene Zabytko, author.

Dr. Motyl is professor of political science and deputy director of the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University - Newark. A specialist on Ukraine and the post-Soviet states, he is the author of six academic books, including "Dilemmas of Independence: Ukraine after Totalitarianism" (Council on Foreign Relations, 1993), and the editor of the 2-volume Encyclopedia of Nationalism.

Mr. Frye is managing director of Whistling Communications, an independent producer of documentaries, and a senior fellow at the Division of Global Affairs at Rutgers University - Newark. His most recent film is "Berlin Metamorphoses." A feature-length documentary examining the transformation of Berlin and Germany since 1989, the film has been broadcast on over 80 public television stations around the country including WNET and WNYC in New York.

Mr. Frye's work as a producer over four decades has been recognized with several awards, including an Emmy, the Dupont-Columbia Silver Baton, the Peabody and the Cine Golden Eagle.

For further information or to provide support for "The Orange Effect" project, readers may contact Prof. Motyl or Mr. Frye at [email protected] or [email protected], or write to Whistling Communications, 130 E. 67th St., Suite 9B, New York, NY 10021.

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