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Where there is no law, but every man does what is right in his own eyes, there is the least of real liberty
Henry M. Robert

or The Italian itinerary of Tetiana Derevianko

31 July, 1999 - 00:00

Tetiana Derevianko has extremely pleasant memories of Italy.
Last year, at the film festival in Pardenon, she was awarded the prestigious
Domino Mitri Prize, named after a well-known Italian film director. The
prize was given «for outstanding contribution to world cinema.» Ms. Derevianko
is Ukraine's only winner of this honorary award. Meanwhile, the public
at large apparently knows her very little. The point is Ms. Derevianko
has undertaken the difficult and indispensable mission of being custodian
of the memory of Oleksandr Dovzhenko, Ivan Kavaleridze, Natalia Uzhviy,
Serhiy Paradzhanov, Ivan Mykolaichuk and many other Ukrainian film personalities.
She has been curator of the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Feature Film Studios'
museum for a solid forty one years. A passionate propagandist of Ukrainian
cinema, Ms. Derevianko herself keeps in the shadow of great names. However,
but for her insistence, the museum could hardly have lived through all
economic hardships suffered in the past few years by national cinematography
in general and the studios in particular.

For the museum is unique. And I wish it did not exist owing
almost exclusively to the enthusiasm of Ms. Derevianko and the small staff.
Of course, the studio's manager Mykola Mashchenko also does his bit. Deputy
Minister of Culture Hanna Chmil does not forget the museum, either. But
their resources are, unfortunately, rather limited. For example, there
is no place at all to find money to preserve the existing exhibits, let
alone replenish the stock. The latter contains over 300 personal archives,
including artistic biographies of Ukraine's leading cinema personalities,
the scripts and continuity sheets of various years, short-hand minutes
of film debriefings, editorial remarks, sketches of the scenery and costumes,
adverts and posters, and trial-photo albums... In a word, a real bonanza
for all those who study the history of cinema, the future directors, production
designers, and cameramen.

But the most surprising thing is they contrive to replenish
the stock under the conditions of total lack of money. I think the wonderful
reputation of the museum and, to a large extent, of Ms. Derevianko herself,
a pains-taking and judicious collector, plays by no means the last role.
Many cinema personalities and their families hand over, free of charge,
archives, documents, photos, and memoirs, being well aware that these will
be kept safely in the museum as part of the history of Ukrainian cinema
about which nobody seems to care outside the studio walls. As a satirist
said, rescuing drowning victims is the headache of the victims themselves.
Meanwhile, the state can again quietly watch what is going on, basking
in he sun on a beach. It is in Italy that the guardians of history are
rewarded...

This museum is also remarkable for its atmosphere. It occupies
a few small rooms in the so-called «Shchors' block» built in 1936 specially
for shooting Oleksandr Dovzhenko's film Shchors . «The Master's
memorial office and exhibition halls are here. But there is no pomposity
or corniness. You always feel good and cozy here, as if at home, and see
that life is still bubbling up. This is so even in the hardest times for
the studios, when film production has virtually ground to a halt. I wish
special awards for such activities would be instituted.

Tetiana Derevianko has recently visited Italy again. This
time to Bologna for a festival of free cinema. Its motto was «The films
that have reached us.» Unique pictures made from the turn of the century
until the 50s. They were presented by the film archives of various countries
except for ours. We have problems with film archives and with memory in
general. However, there is an agreement whereby Ukraine will be invited
to the next festival with three films by Dziga Vertov, Ivan Kavaleridze,
and perhaps some of the modern directors.

Yet, the main project Ms. Derevianko has been dealing with
for several years still remains unfulfilled. The museum has been gathering
for twenty years materials about Oleksandr Dovzhenko's first, but later
lost, film Vasia- reformator (Vasia the Reformer). Tremendous work
has been done by a well- known cameramen Eduard Tymlin, who managed to
restore some miraculously preserved frames. In other words, everything
is in fact ready for making a film about the film. Moreover, it has already
been included in the program of the 2000 Berlin Festival (this picture
is to open the retrospective show of Oleksandr Dovzhenko's films). What
is still to be done is very little: to find money for this project.



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