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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VUFKU. Lost & Found

Catalog of the Dovzhenko-Center’s research project “VUFKU. Lost & Found”, which collected unique archival materials, illustrations and documents of the 1920s. The history of VUFKU (All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Management) is one of the most successful modernization projects of Ukrainian culture to this day. The book aims not only to present this forgotten phenomenon, but also to try different ways of dealing with the lost and finding it. Specifically for the publication, six well-known writers (Oleksandr Irvanets, Tania Maliarchuk, Oleksii Nikitin Anton Sanchenko, Natalka Sniadanko and Irina Tsilyk) have created fictional texts based on plots of 1920s lost films that have come to us in the form of so-called libretto-expanded synopsis.

Special Distinction of the jury at the IV competition for the best book design in 2019 among books with cultural studies!

Design, layout – Aliona Solomadina; concept of publication, research and selection of visual material – teamwork of the designer together with creative director Olga Zhuk and curators / editors Anna Onufriienko, Stanislav Menzelevskyi and Oleksandr Teliuk.

The book was published with the support of the Ukrainian Cultural Fund.

Book (Ukrainian, English) – 256 pages

Hardcover, 2019 р

Cost: 450 uah

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