In the course of these meetings, Nina Khoma, Lina Babych, Kateryna Singurova, Olha Babchuk, Anzhelika Penkina, Tetyana Volkova, Olha Kotok, Vira Karpinska, Tetyana Lekhniuk, Tetyana Bondarenko, and Yuliya Davydiuk shared their experiences with the moderators of French film clubs, met with civic activists and volunteers who help Ukraine, and presented Ukrainian documentaries to French audiences.
We wanted to learn more about the organization of non-profit documentary screenings in France, the ways to bring together and unite communities to achieve a common goal, and the work of French film clubs and thematic communities. Thus, a small team of four members of the Network's management team and seven moderators set off on a journey.
We were lucky to have an experienced guide, French distributor Jacques Pélissier. The audience of this year's Docudays UA International Film Festival had the opportunity to meet Jacques, a passionate fan of documentary films and founder of Aloest Distribution and Juste Doc, distribution companies that work with documentary films. Jacques has distributed 22 films for an audience of 220 thousand viewers. He also advises documentary filmmakers and producers on distribution. This is why his experience, contacts, stories and advice were very valuable.
Meeting with Jacques Pélissier
With Jacques's help, we met with activists and volunteers from the city of Montrouge, a suburb of Paris. The community cafe Schmilblick, where we met, is run by volunteer residents of Montrouge and surrounding towns. This is an interesting experience for Ukraine: community members unite to help their fellow citizens. They volunteer to cook daily free lunches for low-income people, open various clubs to socialize lonely people and newcomers to the community, organize free concerts by local talent, and earn money to maintain the café through the operation of a coffee shop and bar. After the full-scale invasion began, French volunteers started organizing French language courses for refugees from Ukraine.
Free documentary screenings are one of the activities offered at the public cafe. The hosts were fascinated by our moderators' stories about the work of film clubs in Ukraine. It was a revelation for them that documentary screenings can be not only a pleasant leisure activity, but also a tool for implementing changes in communities. As one of the activists said, “We thought that we would pass on our experience to you; turns out that it’s us who need to learn from Ukrainians.” Looking ahead, we would like to add that we were very pleased to see our new friends from Montrouge at the screening we held at the Ukrainian Cultural Center. They came to see how our film clubs work in practice and were fascinated by the format of the meetings and their atmosphere. With all likelihood, our cooperation will continue in the future.
“How do you find energy and inner motivation?”, asked Maksym Bondarenko, head of the La Maison Ukrainienne association, after meeting our the moderators. Maksym has lived in Paris for over 10 years and organizes screenings of Ukrainian documentaries by the Babylon 13 association for young Parisians. He spoke about organizing non-commercial screenings in Paris and attracting French audiences to watch documentaries. According to him, Parisian young people are more likely to come watch a film when it is screened in the format of a party. So he was impressed by the ability of our moderators to unite young people around cinema, inspire them to be active and, ultimately, to become activists.
Representatives of the Sylleps publishing house and Ukraine Combʼart, an association of activists and human rights defenders who actively support Ukrainian artists, counteract the propaganda of the Putin regime, and were actively involved in the information campaign before our friend and colleague Maksym Butkevych was released from Russian captivity. During the full-scale invasion, they published 36 online magazines about the war in Ukraine, as well as a book about Ukrainian culture, war, and politics for a French-speaking audience.
We talked about the effectiveness of advocacy and information campaigns in support of Ukraine and discussed the possibility of opening film clubs, introducing documentary films into Ukraine Combʼart activities, and organizing and holding joint events. The work on the implementation of these plans will continue, and we’ve returned to Kyiv with a request from our French partners for publication of stories about the impact of film clubs in communities. Marie Ribot, Patrick Silberstein, and Michel Lanson asked us to share our published interviews with the moderators in order to prepare stories for the French media about civic activism in Ukraine during the war.
Meeting with Soraya Ouferoukh, head of the department that the citizens call “Solidarity Factory,” at the City Hall of Paris
The members of the Ukrainian delegation had an important meeting at the City Hall of Paris. We were greeted by Soraya Ouferoukh, head of the department that the citizens call “Solidarity Factory.” It is the social action center Ville de Paris that implements many volunteer initiatives and helps third-generation people, young mothers, refugees, people without a permanent place of residence, and anyone who needs any kind of help.
The scale of the center is staggering: the Solidarity Factory has more than 18 thousand volunteers! It was delightful to hear that these people made an effort to get Parisians to join in to help Ukraine. At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, they were able to collect an entire hangar of humanitarian aid for Ukrainians.
In general, willingness of local authorities to support volunteer initiatives is impressive. Within our team, we talked a lot as a team about how useful it would be for our country to learn from France's experience and its methods and ways of encouraging volunteering and charity.
A vivid example of the success of this approach is the activity of the Fondation de France, the foundation that has been a reliable partner of the DOCU/CLUB Network for several years. In France, the state encourages its citizens and businesses to engage in charitable activities through such foundations by reducing their tax burden. As a result, NGOs and institutions have the opportunity to receive support for implementing initiatives and projects that are useful for societies in different countries.
Meeting with Karine Meaux, employee of the Fondation de France
The members of our delegation had the opportunity to personally thank Karine Meaux, a representative of the FDF, and share the results of advocacy campaigns implemented by film clubs.
Tetyana Lekhniuk from Lviv told us about her “Synytsia” project that organizes psychosocial support for children who lost their relatives in the war and helps IDPs socialize in a new school community. Tetyana Bondarenko from Oleksandrivka shared how her film club’s experience of employment for IDPs could be scaled up to other communities in Kirovohrad region. Tetyana Volkova explained why the residents of her native Pavlohrad, despite the challenges of the wartime, actively joined the advocacy campaign to save a local river. And Anzhelika Penkina from Shostka impressed everyone with her story about a media literacy campaign for older people.
Questions, clarifications, emotions of excitement, surprise, and delight – everyone in the audience was overwhelmed. As usual, there was not enough time to share all the achievements of the film clubs. To tell the truth, even we ourselves were once again touched by these stories. Thousands of kilometers away from home, in peaceful and tranquil France, one acutely feels the strength of our people who, despite all circumstances and challenges of war, are changing their communities and our country.
Screening and discussion of the film Witnesses. North of Kyiv by Tetyana Simon
“You are a special and very brave people,” said a French guest after the screening of the film Witnesses. To the North of Kyiv by Tetyana Simon. This screening was the final point of our Paris itinerary. We held the event at the hospitable premises of the Ukrainian Cultural Center at the Embassy of Ukraine in France. The screening was attended by 77 viewers, half of whom were French. They came to familiarize themselves with the film club and listen to what Ukrainian women themselves had to say about the war. We watched the film together, shared our emotions, and became closer to each other.
“I didn't know whether to cry or laugh,” said one of the viewers after the screening. “Are these people on the screen real?” asked a French viewer who could not believe that these ordinary “unheroic” Ukrainians in the film dared to stand up to the Russian army. He seemed to be truly stunned. And he was not the only one. One after another, the French guests asked us to dub the film in French, because “the whole of Europe needs to see it.” And when we introduced our team and told them about the work of the film clubs, the audience stood up and gave our wonderful moderators several minutes of applause.
From our French trip, we brought home warm connections, new contacts, interesting experiences, and fruitful ideas. We are confident that we’ll use them in our future work.
Merci, Paris, for these intense four days!
P.S. After the end of the planned program activities and our travels, Kateryna Singurova, the DOCU/CLUB Network's partnerships manager, became a participant of the Forum of Ukrainian Associations in France “1000 Days of Unbreakability.” The Embassy of Ukraine in France, which organized the Forum, invited us to join and present the Network to the participants.At this meeting, about 80 representatives of various NGOs discussed the possibilities of cooperation and supporting Ukraine. Judging by the interest of the participants, new film clubs of our Network will soon open in France.
The development of the DOCU/CLUB Network is funded by the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Fondation de France.
The opinions, conclusions or recommendations are those of the authors and compilers of this publication and do not necessarily reflect the views of the governments or charitable organizations of these countries. The authors and compilers are solely responsible for the content of this publication.
