Videos: After the Revolution - Ukraine Stories
The following series of short documentaries looks at life in Ukraine since the Euromaidan revolution. These fascinating personal portraits show how change-makers from the country’s new generation are breathing life into Ukraine. The stories highlight how citizens, activists and artists are building solidarity and creating Ukraine’s own renaissance despite little or no state help.
There are five stories in the series
Anastasia’s story: A young reporter from Donetsk is displaced to Kyiv and finds herself on the opposite side of the war from her boyfriend. After a tragic turn of events, she has battled to rebuild her life with the help of a new theatre production group which encourages those struggling with loss to tell their stories on stage
Ivan’s story: Ivan works for the Dovzhenko Centre in Kyiv. The centre is breathing new life into the works of Oleksandr Dovzhenko (one of Ukraine’s most famous film directors from the 1920s) and others from the same period, by remaking and reinterpreting their content now that they are outside of KGB control. In doing so, it is helping a new national identity of an independent Ukraine, which mirrors these earlier times, to emerge.
Maryna’s story: Maryna runs the Employment Centre for Free People, which helps veterans of the war and displaced people to find new employment, as well as providing retraining, legal aid and psychosocial support. With little or no formal state support, many traumatized people have been left to fend for themselves, but the centre has helped rebuild thousands of lives so far.
Iryna’s story: Iryna runs the Garage Gang Colletiv, a crowdfunding organization that – inspired by the famous ‘creative cities’ theories of Charles Landry – creates urban development projects by drawing on ideas from local communities. It also partners cities with each other to produce a shared collective experience across the nation.
Andriy’s story: Formerly a respected BBC radio reporter in the UK and a leading political commentator on ICTV in Ukraine, Andriy has launched an independent public radion station – Hromdske [Public] – in Kyiv with a group of independent journalists. Hromdske is the first public radio station in the country, with a funding model to ensure that its independent reporting is protected. The radio station reaches out to the occupied Donbas territories and Crimea.