EXCLUSIVE: The Ukrainian Institute has lambasted the organizers of a prestigious German filmmaker residency program for inviting Russians and Belarusians to take part as well as Ukrainians, slamming the emergency program for the “perpetuation of both an outdated Soviet perspective and Russia’s colonial logic.”In a letter sent by Ukrainian Institute Director General Volodymyr Sheiko in July, Sheiko urged Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (MBB), the organizer of the emergency program for “refugee and endangered filmmakers,” to “frame the residency program in a different way and instead recognize that Ukrainians feel much more affinity with their neighbours across Eastern and Central Europe.”The letter was sent twice to MBB but MBB didn’t respond to the Ukrainian Institute, Deadline understands.Several Ukrainian filmmakers subsequently refused to apply to the program in protest, according to a spokesman for the Institute, who said it was “not the only initiative which was framed in this way,” adding: “It’s time for all of us to reconsider the place of Ukraine and Russia in the world and the complexity of their mutual past.”The emergency residency program opened in early July and offers €162,000 ($167,400) to 11 “refugee filmmakers from Ukraine and endangered filmmakers from Russia and Belarus” for six months.
Under the professional supervization of the MBB-organized prestigious Nipkow program, the filmmakers will spend the months working in Germany and networking with the local film industry.
Ordinarily, Nipkow is open to all writers, directors, producers and animators, who submit feature film project ideas and are given help with their scripts.While thanking MBB for “your efforts in supporting filmmakers in Ukraine who have
Read more on deadline.com