Part one of a three part series with Babylon’13 cinematographers Phillip and Andriy Rozhen.
Last week Ukrainian Echo sat down with Phillip and Andriy Rozhen, a director and producer from the organization Babylon’13, a “cinema of civil society.” Thousands have watched their videos on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/user/babylon13ua), which give audiences around the world a firsthand look at what has been happening in Ukraine since late 2013. This summer, Phillip and Andriy were on a cross-country tour of Canada promoting the work of Babylon’13 and the case for Ukraine. Many would agree that their videos are captivating, invaluable tools for information dissemination, and like their videos, the creative minds behind Babylon’13 are no less interesting.
UE: What were you doing before Euromaidan revolution began?
P/A: We are cinematographers. I am a director and Philip is a producer. Our father is also a professional cinematographer, script writer, and director.
UE: How and when did you first get involved with Euromaidan?
A: I saw Mustafa Nayyem’s message on Facebook asking people to take warm clothes, tea, coffee, and go start protesting. Initially it [the protest] wasn’t that big. I was there starting from the second day because I saw the message too late the first night and I was in a meeting.
UE: Were you were both there?
A: Yes, and Phillip had his son with him, he was about eight months old at the time.
UE: Who does the filming for the Babylon project, do you do most of it yourself?
A: Some of it; Babylon is a big union of cinematographers, there are more than 100 people involved right now, so lots of directors, cameramen, and interviewers.
UE: How long have you been filming for?
A: We started filming the 29th of November – the idea of “Babylon’13” was there, but it didn’t have a definite shape yet.
UE: Why was it decided to call your project “Babylon’13”?
A: Because of the Christmas tree, “yolka,” [found on Independence Square, where the protests originated]. It is symbolic, and looks like the tower of Babel. “13” is for the year that the revolution began.
UE: Can you describe some of your most memorable moments from Euromaidan?
A: The very end of the revolution really sticks out to me. I’ve never seen in my life, for example, thousands of people running in the street. The people were running from the police [Berkut], who were chasing them and beating them. I saw old people running, people over 70 years old, and also very young people running. Also dead and wounded people; when you see them so much in your city it is something that blows your mind.
P: Yes, there are memorable moments. These are the things that we did. For example, on January 18th we set up a giant screen by [Kyiv] city hall and showed a film about the Egyptian revolution. We showed this on January 18, and on January 16 were passed the anti-democratic laws, according to which we should have been given 15 years in jail.
UE: Were you afraid?
P: Yes, it was very scary. The day after we showed the film we began to get scary text messages, we didn’t know where or who they were coming from.
A: We weren’t afraid while we were doing it, but more so after.
P: That evening one of our team’s cars was burnt, which we used to transport our equipment.
A: It was set up so that it looked like an accidental fire.
P: The next day they arrested one person, who sat in jail for three months and didn’t get out until Yanukovych left. Another person, who brought films from America, had his bank account in Ukraine frozen, cards blocked, was deported to America, and was forbidden to return. On the SBU [Security Services of Ukraine] site it was written that this person and the people who worked with him are traitors.
UE: Can you tell me a bit more of what it was like to live through that type of fear that many experienced as civil activists during Euromaidan?
P: The fear wasn’t really for yourself, it was more a fear for your parents, wife, and kids. It was very scary because you understood that that which you are doing is because you are a patriot of your country, and we should be helping; but we also knew that these forces, who they were exactly we didn’t know, someone controlled by Yanukovych, they could hit us very hard, our parents, and those closest to us. This was the scariest thing for us. And from Babylon’13 many people were put in jail, beaten, tortured…it was horrible. One of our guys, Oleg Sentsov, is still in jail in Moscow, because the Kremlin is accusing him of terrorism.
UE: How did Sentsov end up in Moscow?
P: He organized an AutoMaidan in Crimea, and he’s a very well known Ukrainian director. When he got to Crimea from Kyiv they [the FSB] immediately caught him and took him to Moscow. A lot of the best directors from Europe are lobbying on his behalf right now, writing letters, but they won’t let him go. It is very sad because he has a beautiful family, he is a father whose child has autism…just try to imagine the difficulty.
A: Last year I was with him in Armenia for a workshop. Of course at that time I didn’t know he would become so famous, in an unfortunate way. He was presenting his future film there called “Rhino.” It was about a mute person, and only after did I realize that it was his own personal story about his autistic child.
P: Right now a lot of cinematographers are showing his films to raise funds to support his family.
UE: Have you had any communication with him since he’s been in jail in Moscow?
A: None at all. Sometimes he wasn’t even allowed communication with his lawyer. He says that he has been tortured a lot [in Moscow] because they were trying to get him to sign a statement that he was part of a terrorist organization. They tortured him like crazy, but he didn’t sign it. He stands by the fact that what he was doing was not terrorism, and that he will never be ashamed of what he’s done and his beliefs.
