On May 20 started online registration for free screenings of the Children KinoFest, which opens in Kyiv in late May. This is not the first film forum for children, held by the team of Arthouse-Traffic under the guidance of its invariable leader, Denys IVANOV. As the key ideologist of the festival, he will tell our readers what awaits the young Ukrainian film lovers (and, as importantly, their parents) at this edition of the festival.
You dared make a children’s film festival in the time when children’s cinematograph is virtually non-existent in this country. What prompted this idea?
“The idea occurred because the country started changing rapidly. And exactly at the moment when the information war was unfolding, the idea occurred to educate the public from childhood, to work with those who will later become cinema goers, because our environment of children’s media is absolutely monotonous. There are quite good Hollywood films, but they always represent one genre, fantasy, typically based on Anglo-Saxon best-sellers. True, our animation is not bad, but it, too, deals with some imaginary world and has its stable format. We want to join Europe, but you must integrate in Europe from childhood: understand that you live in society and the others may have problems as well. The proportion of Ukrainians who can afford traveling is not so big, and cinematograph compensates for this lack of traveling. For many children, it is a trip to another country, another culture, which should be closer than American to us.
“Now we are developing Children KinoFest as a large platform not only for screening the best European children’s films, but also as an educational project. Also, it is a big charitable project, since all the screenings at Children KinoFest are free, you only need to register online. We are working extensively with large groups, children with social dysfunctions, who found themselves in complicated life circumstances, who have health problems. Our society is not particularly adapted to the needs of such children, typically they are kept away from people, that is why handicapped children and children from orphanages are living in their own, parallel reality. We show to these children films based on European values. We get extensive support from the EU mission in Ukraine, the Agency of Cinematograph of Ukraine, cultural centers like the Goethe-Institut and the French Institute in Ukraine, and a considerable number of embassies.”
From the very start, the format of the festival does not foresee a permanent president. You announced that the president would be changed every year. On which principle is the president elected and what are his or her functions?
“This is the ambassador of the festival, whose functions are very simple: a celebrity who helps us to explain how important it is to let children see good films, how important it is to go see films together with them. That is why we are trying to choose people working in the sphere of culture, who are directly connected to the film. We in Ukraine do not have the institute of film stars. That is why last year it was Jamala, who had played in Povodyr (“The Guide”), this year it is film director and actor Akhtem Seitablaiev: they are all stars whom children must know from their earliest years, and to whom they must grow used.”
This year the festival has a new format, for teenagers. This is the most difficult age group, who asserts itself through denying everything. How are you planning to work with such a difficult audience?
“For teens we are creating the European Film Academy: 50 to 60 teenagers aged 12 to 14 will see three films. The films are meant for this age group and are screened simultaneously all over Europe, which means that 31 countries take part in voting for the best European film for teenagers. We organize the screenings in Kyiv. The format of communication with teens, in a discussion after the screening when ideas are expressed, is very important. Most of the population has problems with critical thinking. In principle, all this information war became possible because adults did not ask themselves questions like: ‘What am I watching? Who profits from it? What have I just seen? Why sad music is playing here? Why were these two shots presented exactly in this way, and not otherwise?’ That is why it is so important to start working with children, give them an opportunity to express their opinion of films or at least ask themselves: ‘What have I just seen? Why did I like it? Why didn’t I? What did they mean to say with it? Was this character right or wrong? Why?’”
How could you “tag” this year’s festival program?
“The competition program of the festival, which is judged by the jury, comprises seven movies handpicked at several world festivals: the Blue Whale in Amsterdam, the festival in Toronto, the Berlinale children’s program. What we show are absolute hits. All these films are the future classics of children’s movies. I feel like recommending all the movies. For the youngest the Danish animated film Cykelmyggen og Minibillen, suited for age five and on. Then there is a retrospect of a British studio famous for its Shaun the Sheep and Wallace and Gromit, the classics of plasticine animation. Also, the Ukrainian plasticine animation My Country – Ukraine by Stepan Koval, the Berlinale winner. Another part of the specter includes a film about teens by Swedish director Lukas Moodysson, quite a renowned author. The movie is a story of teenage girls who decided to set up a band in the 1980s and perform at a metal rock festival, about their first kisses, relations, protest in the Swedish reality. The screening will be opened with Phantom Boy, a winning movie of many children’s film festivals. It is an animation telling the story of a boy in a wheelchair, who can fly to the sky only by the power of his thought. This is consonant with what we are trying to do at the festival: to integrate people in normal life, to invite people from those social groups to screenings and to talk with healthy people about this problem and how it should be approached. All the movies are very good, and we are showing them to a huge audience in 17 Ukrainian cities.”
Following the festival for some time already, what can you say about the viewers’ interest, the expansion or narrowing of the audience?
“At the moment we are delighted at what is happening. This year we have moved to a new festival center at Kyivska Rus, a movie theater. This is the largest movie hall in Ukraine at the moment, with a capacity over 1,000 seats. What concerns infrastructure, I guess we have grown some muscle and now we are going through an exciting stage: we are beginning to develop all this into a platform. Children KinoFest is a phenomenon which allows to get acquainted with the art of movies, using the movies for children’s development: in our country media education is virtually absent, but this needs to be done. We must help children develop an interest in movies, start making films in clubs, independently, or with parents. That is why we are going to develop Children KinoFest not only as a festival, but as a platform which would help launch film education for children.”
