General Audience #18
Ukraine at War: Memory, Resistance, and Solidarity
Forty months into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, North American understanding of the war continues to be shaped by headlines, remote analysis, and partisan noise. In a landscape clouded by disinformation and polarizing narratives, General Audience 18 will offer a space to ask urgent questions: How do those closest to the war make sense of it? How are memory, culture, and community being sustained in the face of violence and erasure? What can we learn by listening more closely to the voices of artists, researchers, and volunteers working on the ground? And can witnessing itself become a form of resistance?
Through film, fieldwork, and personal experience, this event offers a window into how individuals are navigating life during war, and what solidarity might look like. Featuring filmmaker and photographer Jonathan Kolodziej Durand, political ethnographer Alexandra Wishart, and artist, filmmaker, and educator Oksana Kazmina, who is also a member of the Ukrainian cine-movement Freefilmers.. Talks will be followed by an open Q&A.
Thursday, August 7th
7pm
$10-$20 (suggested donation, NOTAFLOF, all proceeds will go to Freefilmers
https://help-freefilmers.network/donate/)
Cash bar
PRESENTATION 1: Volunteers and Bearing Witness In Ukraine
Jonathan Kolodziej Durand will present photos and videos from multiple trips through Ukraine since March 2022, drawn from his documentary work exploring the unique role humanitarian volunteers are playing in the war—from overseas through to the front lines. Acting as bridges between civil society and the military, these volunteers not only help resist the invasion itself, but also to counter the disinformation and deliberate erasure that Russia is actively promoting as part of its war strategy.
BIO
Jonathan Kolodziej Durand is a Montreal-based filmmaker and photographer who explores themes of trauma, memory, displacement, and the mechanics of erasure. His film, Memory Is Our Homeland, documents the history of Polish deportees to Russia who became refugees in East Africa. Since volunteering at the Polish-Ukrainian border at the outset of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, he has been returning to document humanitarian efforts in Ukraine.
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PRESENTATION 2: Contemporary History of Ukraine
Oksana Kazmina will present Contemporary History of Ukraine (CHU) project, which is a live montage of audiovisual materials from her personal archives, including footage from Kyiv's underground art and music scene, film expeditions to Eastern Ukraine with cine-movement NGO Freefilmers, maps and more. This presentation offers a layered perspective on war, history, and the relationship between the body, language and territory.
BIO
Freefilmers member Oksana Kazmina is a Ukrainian artist, filmmaker, and educator whose work lies at the intersection of critical media theory, the history of the moving image, and trauma studies. Since 2021, she has been producing a series of performance lectures titled Contemporary History of Ukraine. Currently, Oksana teaches Video Art at Syracuse University, NY.
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SCREENING: Kharaltyda (In the Yard)
Following the presentation, Oksana will share the short film Kharaltyda (In the Yard) created by Freefilmers member Vasyl Lyakh. kharaltyda is Vasyl’s process of excavating his family’s history as a Greek descendants in the garden that has been tended by generations of the same family.
Freefilmers is a cinemovement and NGO from Mariupol, Ukraine. Besides producing films, the NGO supports grassroots initiatives across Ukraine by delivering medical aid, building materials, and other essential supplies to the regions most affected by Russia's war against Ukraine.
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PRESENTATION 3: Kyiv’s Cultural Community During Wartime
Alexandra Wishart will present her ongoing dissertation research on Kyiv’s cultural community during wartime. Centred on Kyiv’s Podil district, her case study documents the evolution of practices among Ukrainian civic and cultural activists before and after the invasion. Carrying out field research between 2022 and 2025, she addresses the question of what it does to a community to be torn apart by war. With members between Berlin and the frontline, her research discusses how shared experiences shape solidarities and activism on the ground. Furthermore, she touches upon changes in the atmosphere in Kyiv throughout the last three years. How has the war and changes within the community affected Ukrainian cultural production as a whole? What role does the targeted audience play? What are the implicit social norms of war that shape community members' outlook? Finally, having just gotten back from Kyiv, what are the new challenges the community faces now that Russia is ramping up its attack on the capital?
BIO
Alexandra Wishart's is a feminist scholar and political ethnographer. She is a Ph.D. candidate and member of the Chair of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Ottawa, researching political activism and social movements in contemporary Ukraine. Her dissertation deals with cultural production and civic resistance during Ukraine’s full-scale invasion. Since 2020, she has worked as ASN Convention Assistant Director for the Association for the Studies of Nationalities (ASN) and the Harriman Institute.
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PRESENTATION 4: Transformation of Life Under Occupation
Anastasiia Mykolenko will present a personal account and observations on the transformation of life under occupation in her hometown of Horlivka, located in the Donbas region, from 2014 to the present. Her focus will be on the media coverage and artistic representation of the region, and how these depictions correspond to the lived experiences of the town’s residents who have chosen to remain over the past decade. The talk draws on fragmentary data, including personal notes and memories, from Anastasiia’s own journey to occupied Horlivka in 2018, as well as conversations with relatives who became involuntary witnesses to the town’s gradual transformation. The talk will briefly explore informal economies (past and present), restricted access, survival strategies, micro-tactics of resistance, and the rules of everyday life under a suspended legal order, including access to goods and services.
BIO
Anastasiia Mykolenko is an anthropology PhD student at the Université de Montréal. She also holds a Master’s degree in European Law from the College of Europe (Bruges). Her current research interests lie at the intersection of anthropology of migration and humanitarianism, legal anthropology and refugee studies. Her doctoral thesis is focused on the humanitarian infrastructure on the Polish-Ukrainian border and life trajectories of displaced Ukrainians.
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ACCESSIBILITY:
Rocket Science Room is on the second floor. There is a single flight of stairs off the main entrance with no wheelchair access, however there is a functioning elevator on the main floor. If you require assistance of any kind, please let us know! We'd be happy to accommodate any of your needs to the best of our ability.
Rocket Science Room est au deuxième étage. Il y a un seul escalier à l'entrée principale sans accès en fauteuil roulant, mais il y a un ascenseur qui fonctionne au rez-de-chaussée. Si vous avez besoin d'une assistance quelconque, faites-le nous savoir! Nous serons heureux de répondre à tous vos besoins au mieux de nos capacités.
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