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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Borys Kosarev’s View of Earth. Photo Album

Borys Kosarev’s view of Earth is the first album to introduce Kinooko (Cine-eye) series launched by Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre. The series is intended to demonstrate richness of Ukrainian modernist cinematic tradition of the 1920-1930s. Conceived as part of major program of events to celebrate the 90th anniversary of All-Ukrainian Photo-Cinema-Directorate (VUFKU), this album is based on a collection of photos by Borys Kosarev, a recently rediscovered Kharkiv avant-garde artist, carefully preserved by his daughter Nadiya.

Borys Kosarev, an assistant of the cinematographer Danylo Demutskyi at filming of Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s Earth, was a heroic figure in the history of Ukrainian art. An amazing muralist graphic artist, scenic designer, photo artist, he became a patriarch and guardian of the great tradition of Ukrainian 20th century avant-garde, of which he was the contemporary. His importance for Ukrainian culture of the 20th century has only recently been revealed fully with the studies conducted by Kharkiv based researchers Tetiana Pavlova and Valentyna Chechyk.

Until recently, even film critics were not aware of Kosarev’s engagement with the film crew of the greatest Ukrainian film Earth. His name was not mentioned in the titles that have been preserved. Nor were the names of Oleksandr Dovzhenko’s second assistant Vasyl Khmuryi, who was repressed in the 1930s, and the film’s art director Vasyl Krychevskyi , Jr., who emigrated from Ukraine in 1944. Through the efforts of Vasyl Krychevskyi’s daughter Kateryna Krychevska-Rosandych and Borys Kosarev’s daughter Nadiya Kosareva, the names of the two artists will be returned to the titles of Earth, which is planned to be released on dvd with restored Ukrainian intertitles.

The album Borys Kosarev’s view of Earth consists of 40 original backstage photographs made by Borys Kosarev during the shooting of Alexander Dovzhenko’s Earth in Yareski village (Poltava region) in 1929. The book also features over 100 storyboards made while filming.

160 p.

Hard cover

290х240 mm