“86: Generation Circle”

This year’s festival “86: Generation Circle” refers to the anniversary of the accident at the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant and explores the issue in the context of time, memory, generation gap, and dialog. The central image of the festival is an authentic imprint of a tree trunk made by American artist Bryan Nash Gill.

The opening event will display a documentary film The Babushkas of Chernobyl (in the picture a snapshot from it) by American filmmaker Holly Morris. Morris will attend the event with the film crew, reports i-pro.kiev.ua. The traditional program of the festival is Ukrainian premieres of iconic documentaries made during the past year. These include I Am Belfast, a new movie by British director Mark Cousins, and Counting, a cinematic symphony by Jem Cohen, produced by Patti Smith.

This year will also be the first one in which “86” festival would show fiction films: a 1962 avant-garde musical by Herbert Rappaport Cheryomushki, based on an opera by Dmitri Shostakovich, and The Project of the Century, a Cuban film about a twin city of Slavutych.

The forum will open a new strategic direction – a national competition of documentary films “Palm of North.” Seven short films by Ukrainian filmmakers will compete for the Grand Prix and the prize money. The winner will be chosen by an international jury, composed of British director Mark Cousins, Czech producer Diana Tabakov, and Ukrainian TV presenter Yanina Sokolova.