Невагома (Weightless), 70min, 2023 (collaboration with Nick Thomas)
Khrystyna Bunii travels solo across remote south-west Ukraine in pursuit of her anthropological research. As she encounters people and digitises their family photo archives, conversations and interconnections emerge. Conducting visual research into the trans-national region of Hutsulshchyna, Bunii pursues a political practice of self-narration from the margins of representation. The sequences of this poetic journey do not simply elucidate the history of the region, but rather call for an associative labour from researcher and spectator alike, and finding people who want to talk about the region’s past is not an easy task. Made through close collaboration between the film’s directors and protagonist, ‘Weightless’ combines observational and direct cinema style with staged performance and elements of documentary-essay.
‘Weightless’ is supported by FilmFonds, Mondriaan Fonds, Amarte Fonds, Gemeente Rotterdam and ZAIKS and produced in collaboration with Manon Bovenkerk from near/by film.
Booklet
Festivals:
International Film Festival Rotterdam 2023, world premiere
Credits:
Directed and produced by Marta Hryniuk and Nick Thomas
With Khrystyna Bunii
Edited by Diana Toucedo
Camera: Marta Hryniuk
Location sound: Nick Thomas
Mixage: Hugo Dijkstal
Grade and deliveries: Laurent Fluttert
Location manager: Oleksandr Debych
Production adviser: Manon Bovenkerk (near/by films)
Transcription: Natalka Babalyk
Translation: Ostap Bohoslavets, Khrystyna Bunii, Marta Hryniuk, Mariia Ponomarova
With the participation of: Hanna Shovheniuk, Vasylyna Romanchych, Anna Slochak, Petro Dudenchuk, Kalyna Bilak, Manusia Humeniuk, Mariia Tatarchuk, Ostap Bohoslavets, Mykola Kolesnykov, Alina Volyntseva
Photo archives: Hanna Litynska, Mariia Verezhak, Mariia Novits’ka, Hanna Shovheniuk, Ivan Marusiak, Vasylyna Romanchych, Kalyna Bilak, Mariia Tatarchuk, Anna Slochak, Petro Dudenchuk Mykola Debryniuk
Music:
‘Dmitryi’ spivanochka, composed and performed by Manusia Humeniuk
‘Hutsulka’ (Ukrainian folk song), performed by: Myroslava Tymchuk (drums), Rоman Strutynskyy (tsymbaly), Roksolana Tymchuk (tsymbaly)
The ensamble: Anhelina Tymchuk , Pylypo Zub’yuk, Nazar Iliun, Volodya Prokopyshyn, Nazar Bilak, Zakhar Hlushko, Khrystyna Ziuziak, Vasyl Tymchuk (teacher)
Thanks to the community of Zamahora village and Polonyna Krynta, Oleksandr Debych, Hurt Legenda, Sashko Protyah, Yulia Serdyukova, Kari Robertson, Santiago Pinyol, Albert Kuhn, Naomi Pacifique, Tim Leyendekker, Maciej Nowacki, Manon Bovenkerk, Wendelien van Oldenborgh, Oksana Kazmina, Ivan Hrechuk, Oleksandra Klym, Sophie Bates, Erika Roux, Anna Łuczak, Oleksandr Pozdnyakov, Edith van der Heijde, Josje Hattink, Nienke Doekes, Absaline Hehakaya, Renée van der Grinten
Special thanks to Khrystyna Bunii and Diana Toucedo
Filmed on location in: Verkhovyna, Bukovets’, Volova, Kryvopillia, Zamahora, Nadvirna, Kosmach, Kvasy, Yavoriv, Yablunytsia, Yabluniv
Filmed in western Ukraine in 2021
Marta Hryniuk, Nick Thomas 2023