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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Bohdan Nebesio. The Silent Films of Oleksandr Dovzhenko

Bohdan Nebesio is a well-known researcher of Ukrainian cinema and culture. He is a Professor of Film Studies at Brock University, Canada. He is an author of numerous articles and historical researches, namely Olexander Dovzhenko: A Guide to Published Sources (CIUS Press, 1995), and a co-author of The Historical Dictionary of Ukraine (Scarecrow Press, 2013). He is a guest editor of the special issue of the Journal of Ukrainian Studies (part 1, 1994) marking the 100th anniversary of Dovzhenko’s birth.

The translation of Bohdan Nebesio’s book The Silent Films of Olexander Dovzhenko is just about the first attempt to introduce the Western academic research dedicated to Dovzhenko’s Silent Trilogy to the Ukrainian readership. The films of the Silent Trilogy – Zvenyhora (1928), Arsenal (1929), and Earth (1930) – were the ones that have gained Dovzhenko the status of a world famous film director and are considered to be the milestones in the history of the Ukrainian cinema. Bohdan Nebesio tries to define the unique background at which Dovzhenko’s films were created, demonstrated, and criticized.

Cost: 110 uah

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