VUFKU (All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration) existed for less than nine years (1922-1930), but it managed to release over 140 fiction films, several hundreds of non-fiction films and newsreels, dozens of animations, gain fame of “Ukrainian Hollywood,” and take under its control all aspects of the cinematic process – filmmaking, distribution, film press, propaganda, and education. From over 140 full-length fiction films made by VUFKU, about 60 films are considered lost. A lot of the surviving films have come down to us incomplete (without one or more parts).

The website VUFKU. Lost&Found is the first online collection of Dovzhenko-Centre’s media library and is perhaps the only online resource providing comprehensive information on VUFKU.

The mission of the VUFKU. Lost&Found project is to search and return to Ukraine the lost films of the 1920s. Traces of some of the lost films of that time can be found in international archives. Meanwhile, we are collecting archive materials about the lost films, restoring their contents, learning the context of their release.

These searches and analysis, restoration of films and their return to the cultural circulation require financial support. Donating to our fundraising campaign, which will start in October 2019, you will be able to contribute to the restoration of Ukrainian cinema.

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Three

Children / Lost Jim

1928, Second Film Studio VUFKU (Yalta), 7 parts / 2,148 m, 70 min

Director:
 Oleksandr Soloviov
Scriptwriter:
 Vladimir Mayakovsky
Cameraman:
 Albert Kuhn
Artist:
 Volodymyr Balliuzek, Konstantin Yevsieiev, Константін Євсєєв
Cast:

H. Marynchak (Zaboichenko, a worker), B. Honcharov (Zhuravkov), Zoia Barantsevych (his wife), Yurko Krestynskyi (Zhorzhyk, their son), Varvara Masliuchenko (his governess), Tolia Lukashevych (Senka Sumatokha, a street boy), Shura Bydnikov (Myshko, a pioneer), Sofiia Yakovlieva (his mother), Nikolai Panov (Baron, a bandit), H. Rostov (Black Hand, a bandit)

The plot is based on the short story The Ransom of Red Chief by the American writer, O. Henry.

Three boys meet by chance. Myshko, a pioneer, walks down the street with a pioneer detachment, the street kid Semen follows them respectfully, and a nobleman’s son Zhorzhyk is watching it through the window.

The boys meet again in the Crimea, where Myshko comes with pioneers, the rich boy travels with his governess in the first-class car, and Semen goes between the cars. Semen is kidnapped by some bandits who mistook him for Zhorzhyk and hoped to get a ransom. Meanwhile, Zhorzhyk runs away from his governess and joins the pioneer detachment. Soon Semen finds his way there as well.

The film is stored at the Cinema Fund of the National Oleksandr Dovzhenko Centre.

The film was released on 06 April 1928 in Kyiv and on 28 August 1928 in Moscow.

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