The Travelling Docudays UA opened in Mariupol on 13 November in the central  cinema Peremoha. The organizers chose the short Shut the Fuck Up!, directed by Taisiia Kutuzova, as the opening film. It is a film about a teenager’s fight against corruption, created as part of the CIVIL PITCH programme—a unique example of joint work of activists and documentary filmmakers.

The film did not leave the audience indifferent: the long discussion after the screening brought up some grassroots and activist movements in Mariupol itself. For example, an audience member told everyone how activists pulled out 600 km of illegal fishing nets. With this evidence, they went to law enforcement agencies, but the perpetrators still haven’t been found.

The traditional Docudays UA partners in Donetsk Region, the Charity Organization “Future Club”, NGO Azov Human Rights Group and NGO Donetsk Memorial, were joined this year by Platforma TYU.

“We are participating in the organization of this festival for the first time. But for us, grassroots culture, innovative ideas, human rights and freedoms, and contemporary art are dominant values. The Center’s events, from art residences to street art actions, raise the most urgent social topics: gender violence, freedom of speech, discrimination, decommunization, minority rights, environmental activism, etc. Making social change in Mariupol in particular is quite a challenge. But we are convinced that everything that works to develop culture also works against the war,” said Vira Protskykh, the coordinator of the Travelling Festival.

For 4 years now, Mariupol has had a Docudays UA discussion club. Every month, its participants come to the club to watch movies and discuss their plots. Nadia Herasymova, the manager of the Information and Bibliography Department of the Korolenko Central Library, emphasized: “We try to choose the topics for the screenings which would be the closest to the problems we have here in Ukraine. These are the problems of violence against women, violence among teenagers, so-called bullying. Also, the topic of human trafficking. The topic of xenophobia.”

In total, the Travelling Festival audience in Mariupol will see 19 best documentaries made in Ukraine and other countries. The Travelling Festival will continue its journey in Donetsk Region until December 11. See more detail about the regional screening schedule here.