Ukrainian Film Screening & Art Gallery Fundraiser

Parlour and Ramp Studio

2130 W 21st St, Chicago, IL 60608 (Pilsen)

March 19

Doors open at 4:30, film screening begins at 5:00

Cash Bar

With this event we aim to provide exposure to young Ukrainian artists, activists, and volunteers who have been effectively creating horizontal structures that replaced governmental institutions in their support of soldiers and communities affected by the war since the full-scale invasion in 2022.

We gathered artworks made by local and young Eastern Ukrainian artists who donated their pieces or created them exclusively for this event. The donations will go to three projects organized by artists and activists from Mariupol and Donetsk: Freefilmers, Ptichka Fund, and the Independent Nation. These initiatives provide humanitarian aid to individuals affected by the war and the Arm Forces of Ukraine (more info below).

This event intends to show Eastern Ukraine, a territory that has been engaged in the war since 2014 and still remains one of the main targets of Russian aggression. We selected two short films about Eastern Ukrainian cities before and after the Russian invasion: developed around the volunteer movement in Zaporizhzhya, they show life during the war in towns that became frontlines. The fundraiser aims to draw attention to the young voices from Eastern Ukrainian. Despite having been displaced from their homes, they help communities and fight this unjust war by building effective horizontal networks and raising social and political awareness.

We are honored to present digital artworks by Eastern Ukrainian artists: Katya Drobovik (Sloviansk), Yulia Kiriyenko (Donetsk), Valeriia Lysenko (Mariupol), Elizabeth Mahrova (Lysychansk), Denys Pogrebnoi (Donetsk), Mariia Prokopenko (Kharkiv), Masha Pronyna (Donetsk), Vira Prostkykh (Mariupol) and Viktoriia Teletien (Donetsk).

We highly appreciate the participation of Chicago-based artists Gunnar Curry, Nadia Fediv, Anastasiya Halauniova, Judith Joseph, Bert Menco, Jacqueline Moses, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern and Sechor who donated their photographs, paintings, and drawings to help Ukrainian artists and volunteers keep resisting.

SPECIAL GUEST:

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern, a historian, writer and artist based in Chicago. He is the Crown Family Professor of Jewish Studies and a Professor of Jewish History in the History Department at Northwestern University.

FILMS from Freefilmers:

Sashko Protyah & Oksana Kazmina “Revitalization of Space”, 2018

Sashko Protyah, “My Favorite Job”, 2022

More about the FUNDS:

Freefilmers is a cine movement and NGO founded by a collective of filmmakers and artists from Mariupol, Ukraine. Their work promotes the decentralization of cultural processes and independent filmmaking, especially in Eastern Ukraine. Reflecting surrounding reality, their films focus on human beings in their struggle for equality and freedom. Since the beginning of the full-scale war, members of the collective had to leave Mariupol. Now, they are partially based in Zaporizhzhya, where they organize humanitarian aid for internally displaced people and the Ukrainian army. Among the vulnerable groups Freefilmers support, there are people with chronic diseases and disabilities, the Roma community, and queer activists. The collective engaged in building an activist and volunteer network of solidarity and support for those Ukrainians affected by brutal Russian aggression.

Website: http://freefilmers-mariupol.tilda.ws/eng

https://www.instagram.com/freefilmers.ua/

Ptichka Fund is an initiative that supports creative Mariupol youth forced to flee the occupied city since the beginning of the war in 2022. The project was organized by Masha Pronyna and Denys Pogrebnoi, both artists and activists from Donetsk, who were displaced from their hometown in 2014 when the war conflict began to escalate. After moving to Mariupol, they organized the art cluster OS, where they gave art workshops, building a safe space for the creative queer youth in Mariupol. Since the escalation of the war in February 2022, the Ptichka Fund helped ten young people to flee Mariupol, assisting them with general financial support, purchase of basic needs, therapy sessions, and technical help for studies. Masha y Denys are based in Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia. They also participate in the fundraiser with their artworks.

Website https://www.instagram.com/ptichka_fund_ua/

Independent Nation is a Ukrainian NGO that helps soldiers and civilians in the de-occupied territories. From the first days of the full-scale invasion, they have been involved in rescuing civilians from affected regions, managing to evacuate 2500 Mariupol residents to safe areas. They repair and transport vehicles for soldiers and volunteers, buy tactical medicine and military equipment. Independent Nation also helps the civilian population with humanitarian aid, providing war victims with basic necessities like food, medicine, and generators in the recently de-occupied Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Kherson regions. The members of Independent Nation became the protagonists of the movie “My favorite job” by Sashko Protyah, 2022, which will be screened during the event.

Website: https://independent-nation.org.ua/en/ , https://www.instagram.com/independent_nation_/

FEATURED ARTISTS:

Katya Drobovik

https://www.instagram.com/drobovik_katya/

Yulia Kiriyenko

https://www.instagram.com/pictureyuka/

Valeriia Lysenko

https://www.instagram.com/leraelur/

Elizabeth Mahrova

https://www.instagram.com/lizamakhrova666/

Denys Pogrebnoi

https://www.instagram.com/hans_ejj/

Mariia Prokopenko

https://www.instagram.com/chambosatori/

Masha Pronyna

https://www.instagram.com/ibupron/

Vira Prostkykh

https://www.instagram.com/iamamiwhoamiidk/

Viktoriia Teletien

https://www.instagram.com/viktoriia_teletien/

Gunnar Curry

https://www.instagram.com/gunnlukari/

Nadia Fediv

https://www.nadiafediv.com

Anastasiya Halauniova

Judith Joseph

https://www.judithjosephstudio.com

Bert Menco

https://www.bertmenco.com

Jacqueline Moses

https://jacquelinemoses.com/about/index.htm

Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern

http://yps.gallery

Sechor

https://sechor.com

Grant Lewandowski

www.nightedlife.com/shop/tohope

Organizers of the event

Maxim Belovol, JD – Ukrainian-Chicagoan, deeply Skokian, co-curator of Preserve Ukrainian Culture fundraiser at OMWP Studios.

mnbelovol@gmail.com

Hanna Deikun – Graduate student in the History Department at UIC, originally from Mariupol. Co-curator and co-organizer of the art project “At the Front Line. Ukrainian Art, 2013-2019” in Mexico and Canada, 2019.

hannadkn@gmail.com

Official Website

More events on this date

Tags: Anastasiya Halauniova, Bert Menco, Chicago, Denys Pogrebnoi, Elizabeth Mahrova, Fundraiser, Gunnar Curry, Jacqueline Moses, Judith Joseph, Katya Drobovik, Lower West Side, Mariia Prokopenko, Masha Pronyna, Nadia Fediv, Parlour and Ramp, Sechor, Ukraine, Ukraine. Fundraiser Film Screening and Art Show, Valeriia Lysenko, Viktoriia Teletien, Vira Prostkykh, Yohanan Petrovsky-Shtern⁠, Yulia Kiriyenko