On November 11, the Travelling Docudays UA teamed up with the Construction Festival of audiovisual art and contemporary media in Dnipro for a joint screening of short films, Civil Pitch 2.0. The films screened included 89 Days by Pavlo Dorohoi, Under the Wing of a Night by Lesia Dyak, Guests from Kharkiv by Halyna Lavrinets, and Our Robo Family by Anastasiia Tykha. The event was organized by Hryhoriy Kurachytskyi, a lawyer and the regional coordinator of the Travelling Docudays UA in Donetsk region, who, after leaving Mariupol last year, has been actively curating screenings and discussions in Dnipro.

Reflecting on the event, attended by approximately 100 viewers, Kurachytskyi shared his first-hand impressions:

The festival venue left an impression – the sheer scale of the building brought to mind the Mariupol Drama Theatre. The event’s vibe brought back memories of when Docudays UA took place in the Cinema House. Back then, a film would play in one hall, discussions in another, and a musical event in the third, with art exhibitions and displays all around.

As the event began, we discussed the theme of the 20th edition of the Travelling Festival – the image of the future. We also announced a gift crafted for the most engaged participants in our film discussions.

The film discussions were the highlight of the event, offering the audience a deeper insight into the filmmaking process and unexpected aspects of the Civil Pitch 2.0 project. Pavlo Dorohoi, the author of 89 Days, and Halyna Lavrinets, the director of Guests from Kharkiv, also joined the conversation.

Pavlo Dorohoi shared candidly, “I immediately admit the director’s mistakes, especially the absence of a protagonist in the film. Originally, I envisioned my father, who lives near the Kharkiv metro, playing that role, but it didn’t pan out.” The director chose to reserve his father’s story for his next feature film, and several other residents of Kharkiv became the central figures of 89 Days instead. 

Travelling Docudays UA in Dnipro 

Halyna Lavrinets also spoke about the challenges of filmmaking, “My characters swore a lot, and I ended up cutting out 80 percent of the scenes! We all lived together for an extended period – I stayed in an abandoned house while we shot round the clock. I had a mentor, the director Roman Bondarchuk. When I gave him the script, he’d say that it didn’t quite fit and needed reworking. I was perplexed, but I listened to him, introduced some changes, and the film took shape!”

The event made an emotional and inspiring impression. As promised, the most engaged participant in the discussion received a Travelling Docudays UA poster, allowing her to envision her own image of the future.

Looking ahead, on November 16 at 4 pm, 89 Days will have another online screening simultaneously in multiple Ukrainian cities – Chornomorsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, and among the community of temporary displaced persons from Mariupol. We will discuss the subway as a refuge during wartime, personal experiences of escaping shelling, dreaming of victory, and envisioning the future of Ukraine.
 

Be our guest!

Main photo: A still from the film 89 Days.

The 20th Travelling Docudays UA is supported by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the Embassy of Switzerland in Ukraine, and the US Embassy in Ukraine. The opinions, conclusions, or recommendations do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments, charities, or companies of these countries. The content of this publication is the sole responsibility of its authors.