Sasha Dolhyi

What happens to museums during war? The evacuation of museum pieces, the simultaneous indomitability and brittleness of museums and museum workers under the onslaught of Russian aggression, life and development, direct speech of museum workers, exhibitions, events.

This is a documentary trilogy about museums during the war: processes, actions, events, results, interviews.
Museum and War––Part 1 tells about the evacuation of the Khanenko Museum collection and what happened next. Having joined this process, I filmed this unique event. 
The Exhibition––Part 2 shows how difficult it is to organize an exhibition in such conditions, but how it can nevertheless become a marker and symbol of hope and fusion of art in times of crisis.
Artists––Part 3 is dedicated to artists and women artists who remained in Ukraine during the war. This part involves interviews, snapshots of life, places of work and creativity, and preparation for the exhibition "Meanwhile in the House of the Khanenkos". 

The project involves both the audio and video documentation of the Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Art Museum and other museums of Ukraine and interviews with the museum workers of Ukraine who stayed behind to save collections and funds from destruction despite the dangers presented by ongoing active military operations. There are many examples of direct attacks by the Russian enemy on Ukrainian cultural heritage, and many examples of heroic actions of museum workers for the sake of preserving Ukraine’s past, for the sake of the future. First-person accounts of the war will provide a unique resource for future students of the current conflict, offering them a glimpse of Ukrainian experiences of war.
I plan to make a documentary out of the collected material, and to structure all the material and make it open access to anyone interested in studying and using it. The film, as a complete work, is planned to be screened at various interested venues, festivals, etc. offering viewers insights into current experiences, and thereby disseminating information about the situation in Ukraine as widely as possible.