There are more and more documentary fans in Kirovograd Region every year: the Travelling International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Docudays UA gathers full audiences in libraries, houses of culture and classrooms at education institutions.

The viewers like the films whose protagonists are ordinary people. They are excited about real life stories which they can discuss right after each film screening. And it doesn’t matter which country the film was made in, what’s important is that the problems and dreams resonate with the viewers' hearts, so they gladly share their impressions and feelings.

“It’s nice when you bring a documentary to a village, and the locals start recalling which films they watched in the previous years at the Travelling Festival. People remember and ask if any follow-ups on the stories that excited and struck them have been filmed.

“The topic of this year’s Festival, human rights in the digital age, concerns people both in small villages which are under siege from lack of proper roads and in multi-million metropolises. They are all worried about their children, for whom ‘life’ in their computers or phones is as important as reality. They are anxious about becoming victims of online fraud themselves and losing money,” says Olena Mirkhaydarova, the regional coordinator of the Travelling Docudays UA in Kirovograd Region.

Parents who have teenage children were especially impressed with the film Listen, built on children’s conversations with a helpline in the Netherlands. Every day, children who have nobody to talk to call the hotline. During the discussion of the film, many parents admitted that they were often inattentive to their children’s problems. And children said that they, just like the kids in the film, also want to ask for help anonymously through a hotline, because they cannot dare to tell their parents or teachers about some problems they have.

In Chervona Sloboda, Kompaniyivka and Hubivka, the audience watched The Castle. High school students were very surprised that people with mundane and seemingly “boring” jobs have such interesting and original hobbies. During the discussion, the children emphasized that from now on they would pay more attention to people: every “ordinary” person can turn out to have an extremely interesting hobby, their life’s work which makes their faces gleam, their eyes sparkle, and their souls sing a magical tune.

It’s impossible to remain indifferent to the courage, focus and wisdom of the Mongolian gymnast from the film Girl Against Gravity. The viewers remarked in unison that her advice inspired them to work persistently to realize their dreams, despite obstacles and failures.

“We showed 17 films to audiences in 17 towns and villages in Kirovograd Region, including 14 at education institutions. Many viewers admitted that thanks to Docudays UA, they have changed their stereotypical attitudes to documentary cinema as popular science rather than artistic films. And a third of the viewers said that they considered the Travelling Festival’s films to be much more interesting than fiction films. And this is probably the highest appreciation of the work of documentary filmmakers. The most grateful audiences were children. At first, they were wary of announcements about documentary films. But then, when they started to watch them, they were fascinated by the events and protagonists of the films. One boy said after a screening, ‘Finally they brought us at least something interesting!’,” recalls Olena.

The Festival in Kirovograd Region has finished its journey this year. But the people are not saying goodbye to it, they invite it to visit with new film screenings in 2020.