Article and screening from Ukrainian Film Club

[Diana Howansky]

Below please find a link to a recently-published article on the 
Telekrytyka website by Dr. Yuri Shevchuk (director of the Ukrainian 
Film Club at Columbia University and lecturer of Ukrainian language  and 
culture at Columbia), discussing the offering of the Ukrainian film 
"Aurora" by Oksana Bayruk, for Oscar consideration in the best foreign 
film category. Shevchuk discusses, among various issues, how Ukrainian 
viewers have not been shown this film, even though by American Academy 
requirements, those for Oscar consideration should have been in 
commercial release in the submitting country no later than before 
September 30, 2006.

Details at: 
http://www.telekritika.kiev.ua/articles/131/0/8153/shevchuk_avrora/

(The reaction of Oksana Bayrak can also be found at:
http://www.telekritika.kiev.ua/articles/131/0/8154/ interview_bajrak_oscar/)

For comments and opinions, please respond to Yuri Shevchuk directly  at: 
sy2165 at columbia.edu.

***************

TOMORROW:

The November event of the Ukrainian Film Club will feature
"Chasing Two Hares" (Za Dvoma Zaytsiamy), a 1961 film directed by Viktor 
Ivanov.

This is arguably the most popular film in the history of Ukrainian 
cinema. Its central theme is the dilemma many Ukrainians have faced 
throughout the 20th century, and even today, in a society dominated by 
the Russocentric mindset: to try and become part of the prestigious 
imperial culture or stay Ukrainian and be socially marginalized, 
despised, and oppressed. The story’s two protagonists enthusiastically 
opt for the former option and, in the process, discover the ruinous 
price of the social success they covet so much. The film features a 
truly brilliant line-up of actors: Marharyta Krynytsyna, Oleg Borisov, 
Mykola Yakovchenko, Nonna Koperzhynska, and Natalia Naum. It is a 
hilarious and skillfully narrated comedy of errors, unmistakably 
Ukrainian in its sense of humor -- a divine marriage of the ridiculous 
with the pathetic.

Original Russian language version with English subtitles.

The film will be introduced by Yuri Shevchuk, director of the Ukrainian
Film Club at Columbia University. Discussion will follow the screening.

WHEN: Thursday, November 30, at 7:30 PM
WHERE: 717 Hamilton Hall, Columbia University, 1130 Amsterdam Ave., New
York, NY (subway train #1 to 116th St.).

The screening is free and open to everybody.

For more information, please see: http://www.columbia.edu/cu/ufc/.

-- 
Diana Howansky
Staff Associate
Ukrainian Studies Program
Columbia University
Room 1208, MC3345
420 W. 118th Street
New York, NY  10027
(212) 854-4697
ukrainianstudies at columbia.edu
http://www.harrimaninstitute.org/courses/ukrainian_studies_program.html

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