A pair of filmmakers are collaborating on a narrative project covering the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution and the political turmoil and violence that followed.
Kate Lochte speaks with Ukrainian filmmakers Ruslan Batyski and Leslya Kalynska about Heaven Omits No Slaves which is currently in post-production.
The film follows a series of characters throughout the political protests, riots and violence.
Both Batyski and Kalynska received special training from war zone journalists in order to shoot the film in a cinémavéritéstyle.
"When we started, the revolution was a peaceful revolution," said Kalynska. "We had had two peaceful revolutions before in 1990 and 2004, but we didn’t know how far it would go. So when the violence started, we were with people who were surrounded by snipers and lived through this whole experience. After that we got a BBC specialist who came to Kiev supported by the Brit Doc Foundation and he actually trained us on how to work in this environment."
Kalynska says the goal of the film is to be able to convey the truth to western audience about the political and militant opposition to the Ukrainian people.
“For ages, Ukraine was under the influence of first the Russian Empire and then Soviet Union and we feel that it’s extremely important to tell the true story to the world about what’s going on now," said Kalynska. "Russian propaganda tries to portray the conflict as a civil war, and we really want to tell the truth to the world that this is a Russian invasion. What they call separatists, we call terrorists. They’re Russian-trained professionals who are fighting there, and it’s very important for us that we change this narrative. Ukraine is a country that is building and fighting for democracy and I think deserves the attention and the help of the world."
The film is now in post-production and the filmmakers will work on community engagement to further promotion and grants for the project. They're working on a February 2016 release date. The project is also being assisted by Murray State video production students.
