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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Panteleimon Sazonov

(1895-1950)

Panteleimon Sazonov

Panteleimon Sazonov was a Soviet director of animation and feature films.

He was born in Belarus city of Grodno; he studied at the Law Faculty of Moscow University and the Higher Art and Technical Studios.

From 1918 to 1929, he worked as an investigator at various Lipetsk and Moscow institutions.

In Tambov he held the position of a chairman of the Criminal Investigation Commission; in Moscow he was a deputy chief of one of penitentiaries.

Sazonov combined these jobs with studies at various schools of fine arts. In 1924, he made his début at VUFKU, by making his short film Dappled Calf. In his next film, In the Claws of the Soviets (1926), he comically portrayed the tragedy of numerous White Russian emigrants.

At VUFKU he filmed two more films, Dymivka (1926) and Explosion (1927). He made his first animated films in the mid-1930s: Quartet (Квартет) (1935) and There Is No Biting Here (Тут не кусаються) (1937). Other iconic animated films include The Tale of Emelya (Казка про Ємелю) and The Cat’s House (Котячий будинок) (1938), The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda (1940), Vultures (Стерв’ятники) (1941), Shotgun (Мисливська рушниця) (1948), Fox the Builder (Лисиця-будівельниця) (1950). Sazonov was one of the developers and promoters of Ivvoston method of drawn sound. From 1936 to 1950, he intermittently worked at Soyuzmultfilm studio