In “Porcelain Struggle,” U.S.-based director Brendan Bellomo and Ukraine-based artist-director Slava Leontyev labored collectively to inform the story of porcelain artists whose lives are turned the other way up by the terrors of the conflict in Ukraine. The movie follows Leontyev and fellow artists Anya Stasenko and Andrey Stefanov, who all decide to assist their international locations combat off the Russian invasion. Regardless of every day shelling, Stasenko finds resistance and goal in her artwork, Stefanov takes the harmful journey to get his younger household to security overseas, and Leontyev turns into a weapons teacher for normal individuals who have turn into unlikely troopers. Within the movie Leontyev states, “Ukraine is like porcelain — simple to interrupt, however unattainable to destroy.”
“Porcelain Struggle” premiered on the 2024 Sundance Movie Competition, the place it gained the Grand Jury prize for U.S. documentary. The doc has been on the movie competition circuit for the final six months enjoying for audiences at fests together with Scorching Docs, Doc 10 and Mountain Movie. The 88-minute movie will display on June 22 on the Nantucket Film Festival.
Selection spoke to Bellomo, Leontyev, Stasenko and doc’s producer Paula DuPré Pesmen forward of the NFF screening.
How did this movie come about?
BRENDAN BELLOMO: I had gotten to know Slava and Anya, and admired their outstanding artwork, for years. When Russia brutally invaded Ukraine in 2022, I instantly made contact with them. At the moment, they defined that they have been decided to remain in Ukraine and would proceed making their artwork. It was additionally the primary time that Slava revealed he was a soldier within the Ukrainian Particular Forces. Over the following few weeks, because the conflict progressed, they expressed that many Ukrainians, whereas they needed the world to know what was occurring of their nation, felt annoyed with what individuals have been seeing. We collectively determined that placing the digital camera into their fingers and empowering them to seize their very own experiences was a method for them to have a voice and share their story with the world.
Whenever you started filming you and Slava had by no means met and also you each spoke two completely different languages. How do you know co-directing this movie would work?
BELLOMO: Slava and I have been assured that co-directing “Porcelain Struggle” would work as a result of, regardless of the language barrier and 6,000 miles between us, we knew we have been each fluent within the common language of visible artwork, which allowed us to speak fluently utilizing drawings, pictures, storyboards, and work to convey our concepts, regardless of solely talking by way of an interpreter. We shared not solely aesthetic instincts, however a guideline that the main target of the movie shouldn’t be on destruction itself, however on the goodness of these individuals who resist that destruction and the tradition they’re making an attempt to protect.
Brendan, you despatched 15 cameras to Leontyev. Stefanov turned the cinematographer. How did the three of you’re employed collectively to kind the movie?
BELLOMO: We started by sending Slava and Andrey one digital camera. Each day they have been filming, they have been additionally going by a mini-film college, so to talk, studying a brand new aspect of filmmaking each step of the best way. They might shoot and ship footage again to the US, by way of safe servers, so we might evaluation dailies collectively remotely. I’d give suggestions on the technical elements of what that they had shot, but it surely turned clear to me in a short time that the aesthetic high quality of their footage was all the time completely wonderful, as a result of they’re such gifted artists: the digital camera was merely only a new instrument. Moreover, we educated the members of Slava’s Particular Forces unit how one can use physique cams and drones to file their missions. By the point we have been within the midst of manufacturing, the workforce in Ukraine was utilizing 15 cameras. What they achieved as first-time filmmakers, in an lively conflict zone, amid fixed air raids and blackouts, was extraordinary.
Anya and Slava, was there ever any hesitation about making this movie? Why or why not?
ANYA STASENKO: We by no means had any hesitation about making this movie. Folks in democratic international locations have their very own distinctive tradition, artwork, music, and language. It’s vital for us to have the identical – our freedom to decide on how one can assume and how one can create. The aim of a totalitarian authorities is to remove all this stuff that make us distinctive. Creating our artwork and giving it again to the world is our resistance. To share our story is our type of resistance.
SLAVA LEONTYEV: What is occurring within the Ukraine can occur to any one among us. Democracy is in peril now greater than ever. That is the biggest assault on a European nation since World Struggle ll. It’s an odd feeling when conflict is correct exterior your door, but it surely’s not a novel expertise to Ukraine. If Russia will not be stopped, many individuals will quickly see it from their very own home windows. We hope that the viewers will go away realizing that we’re on the identical facet. It advantages all of us to work collectively. “Porcelain Struggle” is about all of us. It’s about holding our humanity within the darkest of instances – as a result of when the whole lot is taken away from you, that’s all you’ve got left. And that’s stunning and price combating for.
Paula, what would you contemplate the largest challenges of manufacturing this movie and the way did you navigate these challenges?
PAULA DUPRÉ PESMEN: For our producing workforce, this movie was logistically and emotionally advanced on many ranges. Our total workforce spanned a number of continents. Our co-directors have been in numerous international locations and spoke completely different languages. The movie individuals have been studying how one can use cameras for the primary time whereas combating in a conflict zone, dealing with every day shelling and blackouts. We navigated these every day challenges with calmness, readability, and by prioritizing safety at each step.
By way of distribution are you in any respect stunned that the movie has not been purchased given the success the movie had at Sundance and the truth that a doc — “20 Days In Mariupol” in regards to the Ukraine gained the Oscar this yr?
DUPRÉ PESMEN: Sure, however “Porcelain Struggle” continues to be validated by unimaginable viewers reactions as we share the movie at festivals right here and overseas. We’re dedicated to releasing the movie in 2024.
