UKRANIAN STORYBOX - VOICES OF WAR
Our latest documentary feature tells the personal stories and
experiences of living in Ukraine since the 2022 Russian invasion.
Inspired by our previous feature, the Grierson-nominated ‘Memory Box - Echoes of 9/11’,
we built a wooden video booth, took it to Ukraine and invited ordinary people to share their stories of the war.
Travelling to several cities around the country, including some just a few kilometres from the front line, we recorded more than two hundred extraordinary and powerful testimonies which provide a deeply intimate and personal portrait of a nation that suddenly found itself the victim of a brutal war.
And in a twist from ‘Memory Box’, the film focused on Ukrainian women caught up in the war. From surgeons and nurses in Ukraine’s hospitals, teenagers trying to go to school under bombardment, to housewives joining up to become army snipers, the film reflects the experiences of women who are, so often, overlooked in war.
MEMORY BOX: ECHOES OF 9/11
In the months following the terrorist attacks that struck New York, Washington D.C. and Shanskville on September 11, 2001, artist Ruth Sergel set up a plywood video booth and invited passersby to stop and recount what they had witnessed and how they felt.
In this landmark feature documentary, filmmakers David Belton and Bjørn Johnson intersperse Sergel's testimonies with archival news footage and invite some of the original participants to return to the booth again. The result is a powerful narrative of those massive, cataclysmic events and a remarkable portrait of trauma and resilience.
Memory Box: Echoes of 9/11 premiered to critical acclaim at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival and received a highly recommended commendation at the 2022 Grierson Awards.
In addition, the film received two nominations at the 2022 FOCAL Awards for Best Use of Historical Archive and was also recognised by the Cinema for Peace Foundation as one of the nominees for Most Valuable Documentary of the Year 2021/22.