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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Oleksii Pankratiev

(1903-1983)

Oleksii Pankratiev was a Ukrainian cameraman, one of the most celebrated masters of camerawork in VUFKU times.

He was born in Kyiv in a family of a military doctor.

In 1927, he graduated from the camerawork department of Odesa State Cinema Technical College. At the same time, in cooperation with the experienced Borys Zaveliev, he shot the film Taras Triasylo (1927).

Starting 1928, he worked at the newly constructed Kyiv Film Studio, where he shot films directed by Mykola Shpykovskyi, Self-Seeker (1929) and Bread (1930). He also filmed Mirabeau (1930) together with Yurii Tamarskyi and Joseph Rona, directed by Arnold Kordium.

During the reorganisation of Ukrainian cinema and its subordination to Moscow, from 1934 to 1941, he headed a research laboratory and a compositing department at Kyiv Film Studio.

Moreover, in the 1930s, Pankratiev lectured on camerawork at Kyiv Film Institute (1931-1932, 1935-1937).

As a cameraman, he worked on films Bohdan Khmelnytskyi (1941) by Ihor Savchenko, Alexander Parkhomenko (Олександр Пархоменко) (1942) by Leonid Lukov, Secret Agent by Borys Barnet (1947) and others.

After World War II, having returned from the evacuation, he combined the work of a chief cameraman and a specialist in compositing.

His post-war finale includes camerawork in Shelmenko the Valet (Шельменко-денщик) (1957) by Viktor Ivanov.

In 1960, he made the documentary about folk crafts Golden Hands (Золоті руки), which was co-directed with Oleksandr Nikolenko and Sergei Parajanov.