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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Arsenaltsi

1925, VUFKU's First Film Studio (Odesa), 3 parts / 792 m

Director:

Scriptwriter:

Cameraman:

Dmytro Feldman

Set designer:

Vadym Meller

Cast:

Amvrosii Buchma (an Arsenal Factory worker, disguised as a student and also as an old general), Valentyna Chystiakova (a worker Vira dressed as a lady), Leonid Chembarskyi (a chief of staff, colonel), Pavlo Dolyna (an old worker), Teodor Brainin (a young worker, the second role – an exchange dealer), Aleksandr Sashyn, Osyp Merlatti (cossacks), Leonid Khazanov (a Circassian), Semen Svashenko (a warrant officer), Oleksandr Perehuda (an undergrounder), Dmytro Fedorovskyi (a soldier)

An agitfilm based on historical events. An episode of pro-Bolshevik worker’s uprising at the Arsenal Factory against the Central Council forces.

The film was first demonstrated in March 1925. The film was included in the second issue of VUFKU’s newsreel “Flywheel.” The film was lost.