Yaroslav Pilunskyi

The main goal of this project is the production of a series of short documentaries that record Ukraine during the war. While images of the war are abundant these days, most of them come from amateurs or generate the same narrative of destruction and trauma. My project is designed to bring the focus back to the living, rather than dying, during the war. I plan to document the beauty of the country and its people who are living through the war but whose lives cannot be measured by the war alone. My cinematographic language involves a series of mind-blowing shots. Imagine for a second: the sun is slowly going down, its pink rays are covering the fields during the spring-time agricultural season; we see a group of people who are working the land. Then, the camera turns around 180 degrees, and we see the tanks, the artillery, and the military that are preparing for a battle. I fully understand that war always brings death, destruction, and pain. But I aspire to show this horror through the beauty of the nature and the people in Ukraine. I immerse myself in this project with the understanding that we are in this for a long stretch, and that we have to learn how to live––and not just to suffer––through all of this.