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16 WWW.UNWLA.ORG “НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, КВІТЕНЬ 2015 Ukraine at Sundance Film Festival 2015: Three Images of Deepening Trauma by JoAnn Myer Valenti, Ph.D. Although for several decades I have cov- ered Robert Redford’s Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, with a focus only on the science, environment, and health genre—not exactly red carpet stuff, but my sole area of expertise—this year’s screenings included a trio of films from Ukraine, my grandparents’ homeland, that left me somewhere between outrage and a puddle of tears. My colleagues in the press screening room must have thought that the “older lady” has final- ly gone mad. These three impactful films included a documentary, a narrative feature, and a short, and one of them actually did appear on the sci- ence genre list, so I have included it in several re- views and commentary for academic and profes- sional publications. Yet I could not neglect the cry in my soul to share all three of these stories from an embattled Ukraine. Filmmaker Chad Gracia and Ukrainian artist Fedor at post screening of The Russian Woodpecker . The Russian Woodpecker , a solved mystery thriller and a winner of the World Cine- ma Grand Jury Prize for documentary films, was listed in the Sundance program as an 80-minute Russian-language project with English subtitles; that it is in Russian rather than Ukrainian says it all for me. Did it not occur to the United Kingdom film crew to ask why the subject of the story—a Ukrainian – did not speak in his own language? Or did the filmmaker not know the difference be- tween Russian and Ukrainian? (Now I am won- dering what language I actually heard.) The film follows a young Ukrainian artist, Fedor Alexandrovich, who was affected by the Chornobyl nuclear disaster at the age of four. He, along with other Ukrainian children living in the then Soviet-controlled area, was not evacuated for the first three days after the explosion. During this time, the population had continued to swim in radioactive water, breathe contaminated air, etc. The Chornobyl event—then called an acci- dent—had a lasting effect on Fedor, and one would assume, on all of the corralled children who were sent to orphanages for special care; subsequent health examinations found these chil- dren to be among the countless victims of leaked radiation. While trying to find out what exactly had happened at the nuclear plant, Fedor search- es for information on the massive radio antenna, known as “the Duga,” which was built by the So- viets near the Chornobyl nuclear power station. Through investigative digging and re- search that one would expect more from journal- ists or scientists rather than an artist, Fedor un- covers that the Duga was one of the USSR’s secret Cold War weapons. It turns out to be linked to the Chornobyl nuclear disaster in a way that demon- strates with particular force the brutality of the Russian oppression of Ukraine. As film reviewer Eric Hynes writes, “[t]here’s a long tradition of documentaries that seek to address, inform, and even influence the discourse around politics and social justice. But The Russian Woodpecker is a uniquely incendiary case. Not only was it made during a time of extreme tumult and conflict in the Ukraine—when history was being written and revised on a daily basis—but its assertions are so inflammatory that director Chad Gracia now fears for his subjects’ safety. Meanwhile, and in turn, the subjects fear for all of ours.” Duga was a massive wall of metal and electricity emitting a pounding, radio wave- interfering noise that sounded like a loud, persis- tent woodpecker. Intended as an espionage tool, the giant structure failed to live up to its Cold War-altering potential. Targeted countries, in- cluding the United States, picked up on the “woodpecker” noise and quickly located its
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