Dispatches from Ukraine: 20 Days In Mariupol & Letter to a Turtledove

​Join us at the Claudia Cassidy Theater for a free film program showcasing work from Ukrainian filmmakers reflecting on the ongoing war in their home country through immediate and gripping journalism and art.

​20 Days In Mariupol (2023), last year’s winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, details the work of a group of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol during the Russian invasion. The film draws on director Mstyslav Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

​The feature will be preceded by Letter to a Turtledove (2020), an experimental short film-poem directed by Ukrainian multimedia artist Dana Kavelina.  It comprises fragments of archival footage of Donbas since the peak of Stalinist industrialization in the 1930s until the 1990s, amateur footage shot during the current war, and animated and staged film segments. In Kavelina’s words, the Letter… invites us to “think of a victim as having certain subjective agency who is not involved in the reproduction of violence yet absorbs it. This is her strength.”

​After the film program, we invite you to the Michigan Avenue Galleries to explore our current exhibit Women At War: 12 Ukrainian Artists. Women at War features works by a selection of the leading contemporary women artists working in Ukraine (including Letter to a Turtledove director Kavelina), and provides context for the current war, as represented in art across media.

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​Program Details:

​Short: Letter to a Turtledove | 2020 | 21min | dir. Dana Kavelina | Ukrainian with English subtitles

​Screening copy courtesy of the filmmaker

​Feature: 20 Days in Mariupol | 2023 | 94min | dir. Mstyslav Chernov | English, Ukrainian & Russian with English subtitles

​Screening copy courtesy of PBS Distribution, in partnership with WTTW

​NOTE: Your RSVP does not guarantee entry. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis, subject to availability.

For more information about the Chicago Cultural Center, including directions and accessibility resources, visit https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/ccc.html