“Contact” International Film Festival to Create New Opportunities for Documentary Filmmaking
From April 25 to May 1 of this year Kyiv will host “Contact,” Ukraine’s First International Festival of Documentary Filmmaking. Its cofounders are Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Arts, National Union of Cinematographers, 1 + 1 Television, and Larysa Rodnianska Documentary Filmmaking Fund. As Molodist Youth Film Festival director Andriy Khalpakhchi revealed at “Contact’s” first news conference, the festival is the brainchild of Larysa Rodnianska (1938-2004), who was the founder and administrator of a documentary filmmaking studio called “Contact.” The festival is thus a tribute to her memory.
Explaining the other reasons for launching the new festival, chairman of 1 + 1 Television’s board of directors and documentary producer Oleksandr Rodniansky said he wanted “Ukrainian documentary filmmaking to continue to exist and find new opportunities in the new era,” in which state funding on the scale of the Soviet period has given way to new players on the market, such as commercial television channels, independent producers and studios. According to Rodniansky, a major goal of the future festival is to form a kind of intellectual milieu for exchanging ideas and opinions, which will help Ukrainian filmmakers to integrate into “significantly broader contexts.” The well known film critic and secretary of the National Filmmakers’ Union Serhiy Trymbach also mentioned the importance of creating an adequate environment. As he put it, whereas film studios used to provide such an environment before, most of them have turned into low-capacity film factories, and “the factory atmosphere has ousted the studio atmosphere.” Therefore, film festivals “are truly a means of saving and reviving film culture.” Deputy Minister of Culture and Arts Tymofiy Kokhan promised his ministry’s support for the festival that will facilitate the search for new partners and “visualizing concepts for the development of contemporary documentary filmmaking.”
“Contact’s” organizing committee members believe there are certain preconditions for a documentary filmmaking festival. According to Andriy Khalpakhchi, documentary filmmaking exists in Ukraine as both public and cinematographic phenomena, economic difficulties notwithstanding. This is largely due to television, which “not only airs documentary films” but also produces them, largely owing to independent studios, some of which have been very prolific, like the “Contact” studio. Some of those present at the news conference voiced doubts as to whether documentary films recorded for television can be considered documentaries in the classical sense of the word, to which 1 + 1 general producer Volodymyr Oseledchyk replied that technical media the world over “have ceased to determine the genre to such an extent that they should no longer be discussed as a criterion of selection.” As he put it, the production of documentary films by and for television channels is also a universal process that “does not affect the quality of documentary films in any way.”
Another precondition for the festival is the fact that documentary films are gaining in popularity throughout the world. As Andriy Khalpakhchi pointed out, “Today documentary films are as popular as action films. In recent years, full-length documentary films, even animated films, have been nominated for awards alongside action films in Berlin, Cannes, and Venice.” The most recent example is Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11,” which won the Golden Palm in Cannes and garnered $220 million in box-office sales. Khalpakhchi views this as a “sign that documentary filmmaking today surpasses action filmmaking in certain respects, in terms of its ideas and format.” Incidentally, the festival’s organizing committee plans to use the opportunity afforded by the current situation on the film market to try to convince Ukrainian distributors and owners of film theaters that documentary films should be shown on cinema screens as well. When asked by The Day whether the success of Michael Moore’s film is inspiring him to produce documentaries for cinema, Oleksandr Rodniansky replied that the biggest problem in contemporary Ukrainian cinematography “is not the shortage of funds or film studios but the lack of ideas. If there is an interesting idea for a documentary, we will be happy to support it.”
The multitude of documentary ideas that have already been brought to life will be aired at the festival three months from now. Despite the short preparation time, the members of the festival’s organizing committee believe that it is “a realistic date.” Festival participants will have a handsome prize purse for which they will be competing. The winner of the Larysa Rodnianska Grand Prix for best film in the festival’s international category will receive $5,000, and the prize for best film in every category is $3,000. This is equal to the prize money earmarked for the festival’s national section.
