Support Ukrainian filmmakers!

This campaign is organized on behalf of a group of Ukrainian filmmakers who are capturing events as their country is being invaded by Russia.

Our filmmaker friends in Ukraine are capturing the Russian invasion on camera. We're fundraising to help them document this tragedy and the heroism of their fellow citizens.

Bombs are dropping, buildings are collapsing, but our friends keep on filming. As the Russians continue their onslaught, these 13 award-winning filmmakers along with cinematographers & producers are on the ground. They’re lugging around camera equipment by day and editing at night. They’re filming people fleeing and citizens heroically resisting. They’re putting themselves in danger because their work is too important to ignore. 

In order to carry on with their critical, challenging mission, these filmmakers need your support.

Donate today.

We are working in several directions.

Thanks to our local partners in Ukraine, we are able to help filmmakers by providing them with the most necessary filming equipment (batteries, hard drives, memory cards, chargers, adapters, replacement of damaged lenses, etc. — that is, the things which are required to continue filming).

Donations will allow also us to cover expenses for fuel, medicine, protective gear, first aid kits, and basic needs in emergency situations (one-time payments of up to 4,000 UAH).

These funds will not be used to support the war effort or propaganda activities.

All funds raised by the campaign will be transferred to Docudays UA  for further dissemination to the filmmakers. During peacetime, Docudays UA is the leading human rights film festival in Ukraine. With the country now at war, Docudays serves as a central coordination hub for international assistance to Ukrainian-based filmmakers.

The filmmakers:

Darya Bassel, producer
Olha Beskhmelnitsyna, producer
Yelizaveta Smith, director/producer
Alina Gorlova, director
Maksym Nakonechnyi, director
Simon Mozgovyi, director
Iryna Tsilyk, director
Olga Zhurba, director
Vadym Ilkov, cinematographer
Viacheslav Tsvietkov, cinematographer
Khrystyna Lizohub, cinematographer
Denys Melnyk, cinematographer
and
Serhiy Mychalchuk, cinematographer

are accomplished filmmakers – you can find their names and award-winning films on IMDb. Their documentaries, like Alina Gorlova's This Rain Will Never Stop or Yelizaveta Smith's School №3, portray the profound dislocations caused by military conflict, and were widely screened at international film festivals. Sadly, such accolades are of little help to the filmmakers, as they remain in Ukraine to document the grim events unfolding in their country. In order to carry on with this important work, they need your support – now.

Other ways to support:

You can choose to support the Docudays DOCU/HELP fund which provides support to Ukraine's larger filmmaking community during this time of crisis.

Watch Ukrainian films:

Support Ukraine with DAFilms 
Stream Ukrainian films at Takflix  
Ukraine solidarity screenings via Elektron Art  
Ukrainian short films on Big Short 

—
This campaign is run by a group of filmmakers, journalists, and industry professionals with close ties to the group in Ukraine, including:

Valentyna Zalevska, film programmer and festival organizer 
Patrick Hamm,  documentary filmmaker and producer 
Ilona Bicevska, documentary filmmaker and producer 
Daniel Schulz, author and journalist