Conversation with Olena Honcharuk

Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre (Dovzhenko Centre) is the main Ukrainian film archive, established in 1994. It cares for the collection of more than 7,000 titles of feature, non-fiction, documentary, and animation films, mostly produced in Ukraine, by Ukrainian filmmakers or with their participation, as well as thousands of documents, posters, photos, drawings, screenplays, recordings, interviews, props and equipment.

Since 1991 Ukraine has become independent again and started the process of recovering its culture, history, roots, ideas, and heritage—tracking down every fragment. Ukraine is in-progress, despite war and threats, and Dovzhenko Centre is one of the key players in this agelong fight for essence—through collecting, preserving, discovering, and promoting art and the power of film.

The archive in times of war, the institutional crisis and the necessity to expand archival activities to the documentation of the war will be the topic of a talk with Olena Honcharuk (acting director of the Dovzhenko Centre) and Maria Hlazunova (communications, Dovzhenko Centre and contributor to the NGO project Ukraine War Archive (Архів війни) ukrainewararchive.org), led by Barbara Wurm.