Marta KOLOMAYETS: “Our film is about the making of a leader”
The different people met while working on your project were, all attracted by one historical figure. What is so magnetic about Patriarch Yosyp Slipyi?
Of course, Yury Shapoval and Danylo Yanevsky were interested in that figure, being historians. Oleksandr Frolov had made a documentary about Metropolitan Andriy Sheptytsky. For me it was the first and most cherished project. I belong to the last generation that witnessed the patriarch’s efforts in Rome. I’ve always been interested in his life story, I heard his speeches in America in 1972-76. I was a little girl, but I remember his first visit in 1968, so I wanted to communicate with people that knew him: Petro Franko, his fellow camp inmate, Patriarch Liubomyr Huzar, the Rev. Borys Gudziak, his pupil in Rome in the early 1980s, the Rev. Dr. Mykola Prystai, his secretary at the Lviv Theological Academy in the 1940s. I have been fortunate enough to interview each. For example, the Rev. Ivan Datsko, secretary at Patriarch Yosyp’s eparchal see in 1976 until his passing. Yosyp Slipyi died 18 years ago, yet the Rev. Ivan Datsko tries to think the way Slipyi would in a difficult situation. The man is alive in the hearts of all that knew him in deeds.
Your documentary must be the first attempt to tell about Yosyp Slipyi.
I’m not sure it’s the first one, although it looks that way. Even if attempts were made, it wasn’t on this scope. We worked a lot digging up archives. Oleksandr Frolov and Yury Shapoval researched former KGB files, those at the Dovzhenko Studios, and I did my digging in Rome, New York, and Chicago. I wanted the film to be interesting not only for the ethnic Ukrainian community abroad (people well remember him from 1963), but also for Ukrainian audiences. Of course, people in Western Ukraine knew about Patriarch Yosyp and the catacomb church, but I think that ours is the first attempt to shed light on that outstanding religious figure in Central and Eastern Ukraine. Yes, he was a great leader of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, but he was also a champion of both his church and the Ukrainian people. He was a true champion of human rights. In fact, I heard this in commentaries after the premiere in Kyiv. People were interested to know what he was like as a public figure, as a leader. I think that the documentary is important as a study on the process of making a leader; the obstacles in the way one must surmount. It is especially important now that Ukraine is searching for such a leader.
There is a long list of names of donors to the project at the end of the film. Naturally, a project of this size, using archival documents and old newsreels (many unknown to the general public here), requires trips to various countries, meaning a hefty budget. How did you gather the funds?
I would express special thanks to the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox parish of Sts. Volodymyr and Olha in Chicago. I am its member, I grew up there. My mother has been a member since its inception. The parish was founded by Patriarch Yosyp. He visited to consecrate the cornerstone in 1968. A lot of our parishioners and those in Philadelphia and Washington knew him and they all wanted to contribute in the project. It was a truly public effort.
I learned a great deal working on the documentary about the Soviet prison camps in Siberia and Stalin regime. I think that people should know their history, so as, first, not to repeat mistakes, and second, to learn about themselves and ponder the effect of history on the future. There are many blank pages in Ukrainian history that must be filled in by researchers. We finished an English-language version of the documentary recently and the subtitles will be ready by Christmas. We will try to promote the film in the West.
It is my first documentary filmmaking experience, hopefully not the last. Actually, I’d want not only the diaspora and Ukraine to remember singular figures such as Patriarch Yosyp Slipyi who had so many obstacles to surmount and who never gave up. A host of people I interviewed quoted him as saying, “Evil cannot last long. Good will always emerge triumphant.” His Christian love of Ukraine and its people must serve as an inspiring example.
