On the 14-th of April The Reckoning Project and the Ukrainian NGO Public Interest Journalism Lab organised a special screening of films dedicated to the events of the early stages of the full-scale war and war crimes in Ukraine at La Sala Leopoldo Lugones — In the Rearview by the Polish director Maciek Hamela and CHORNOBYL 22, The Reckoning Project’s film by Oleksiy Radynski, followed by a discussion with Maciek Hamela and The Reckoning Project’s co-founder, Ukrainian journalist Nataliya Gumenyuk.
The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies is an initiative of Ukrainian and international reporters, analysts and lawyers to document war crimes and create appealing stories that aim to provide historical documentation of the Russian war in Ukraine. Ukraine-based journalists and researchers collect testimonies of witnesses of the alleged war crimes, neutrally record them in accordance with a methodology that makes them applicable for use in litigation. The analysts verify them, while Ukrainian writers and documentary filmmakers create multimedia content based on the testimonies.
IN THE REARVIEW by Maciek Hamela
An authentic, intimate observation of war as it unfolds, following multiple generations of Ukrainian civilians as they abruptly abandon their homes and rely on the help of director Maciek Hamela’s volunteer aid van to escape the life-threatening conflict. As he steers through minefields to leave Ukraine and tries to get through numerous military checkpoints, Hamela offers us a seat in his car, guiding the documentary from behind the wheel and behind the camera, crisscrossing the roads of Ukraine to transport uprooted refugees safely to Poland. The van traverses tens of thousands of kilometres and serves as a waiting room, hospital, shelter, and zone for confidences and confessions among compatriots thrown together by chance.
In the Rearview is a collective portrait composed of an array of experiences of Ukrainians who share a single goal: finding a safe haven in the throes of conflict. With temporary asylum granted to all passengers, their differences in gender, age, skin tone, physical condition, origin, identity, worldviews and faith become irrelevant. While the war itself remains in the backdrop, its reflection and impact are evident and raw.
In the Rearview was shortlisted for the 96th Academy Awards in the Best Documentary Feature Film category, and was among the 14 titles on the shortlist of the Best European Documentary films, published by the European Film Academy in 2023. It was nominated for the International Documentary Association (IDA) awards, in the Best Documentary Film category and received the Pare Lorentz Award.
CHORNOBYL 22 by Oleksiy Radynski
During the Russian occupation of the Chornobyl Zone in early 2022, a local informant is clandestinely filming the Russian troops. We hear the workers of the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Station discuss their experiences during the Russian military takeover of their facility - an act of nuclear terror that threatened another global disaster at this site. Past and present catastrophic scenarios intertwine in this episode of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Chornobyl 22 won the Grand Prix at Kurzfilmtage Oberhausen in 2023 and has been long-listed for the Best Short Documentary nomination at the Academy Awards. It also won the Audience Award at the Kyiv International Short Film Festival and the Special Mention at the Docudays UA International Documentary Film Festival.
Maciek Hamela is a film and radio producer, director, and scriptwriter. Born in Warsaw, Poland, he received a master's degree from Sorbonne University (Paris IV) in French literature. Worked in renovations and as a tour guide, while studying film directing at École Internationale de Création Audiovisuelle et de Réalisation (EICAR). He is a longtime BBC Channel collaborator. A co-creator and a producer of a documentary short film Bless You, for which he received a Doc Alliance Award within the Cannes Docs program (Cannes FF 2021), the short was also presented at Millennium Docs Against Gravity FF. He produced films such as Convictions (MDR Film Prize for an outstanding Eastern European documentary film at Dok Leipzig IFF 2016), Gatherers of Sea Grass, Polonaise or Parquet. Being a director and a producer of various radio works he has received the Silver Melchior Radio Award for the Premiere of the Year 2018 in the Polish Radio Reporters National Competition. He produced and co-directed Plan B, a documentary podcast series for Audioteka.
Nataliya Gumenyuk is a Ukrainian journalist, and author specializing in conflict reporting. She is the founder and CEO of the Public Interest Journalism Lab which promotes constructive discussion around complex social issues. After the full-scale Russian invasion, Gumenyuk co-founded The Reckoning Project: Ukraine Testifies which documents war crimes committed during the war. The Reckoning Project’s documentaries and articles have been published by TIME, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic, The Dial, and New Lines Magazine. In 2023, under Gumenyuk's leadership within the Connecting Continents initiative, PIJL brought to Ukraine senior editors, public intellectuals and journalists from Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Nataliya is the author of several documentaries and books, including The Lost Island: Tales From The Occupied Crimea and The Maidan Tahrir on the development after the Arab Spring, as well as the co-author of the book The Scariest Days of My Life. The Dispatches of The Reckoning Project. As a foreign news correspondent, she has reported from over 50 countries. Nataliya regularly writes for The Guardian, Vanity Fair, The Washington Post, The Rolling Stone, Die Zeit, The New York Times, and The Atlantic.
The event was organised in partnership with Complejo Teatral de Buenos Aires and Fundación Cinemateca Argentina, and with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the framework of the Human Rights in Action Program implemented by Ukrainian Helsinki Human Rights Union.
USAID is the world’s premier international development agency and a catalytic actor driving development results. USAID’s work demonstrates American generosity, and promotes a path to recipient self-reliance and resilience, and advances U.S. national security and economic prosperity. USAID has partnered with Ukraine since 1992, providing more than $3 billion in assistance. USAID’s current strategic priorities include strengthening democracy and good governance, promoting economic development and energy security, improving health care systems, and mitigating the effects of the conflict in the east. For additional information about USAID in Ukraine, please call USAID’s Development Outreach and Communications Office at: +38 (044) 521-5753. You may also visit their website: http://www.usaid.gov/ukraine or a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/USAIDUkraine