In this final part of our three part interview series with Babylon’13 cinematographers Phillip and Andriy Rozhen, we discuss their film tour across Canada, information reliability issues in Ukraine, and their impressions of the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora.
UE: You’ve spent the last few months travelling across Canada, tell me about it! What made you come here and what have you been up to?
A: Right after we shot the revolution we realized how powerful live shows are. We realized that uploading movie clips on YouTube was good, but that it’s not enough. It’s important to have live shows and we thought, why not do it in Canada? We created this program UA from P to A (Ukrainians from Pacific to Atlantic) because we wanted to show it to the Ukrainian diaspora and use their connections to invite Canadians of all different backgrounds. The main purpose was to explain the situation in Ukraine to people who are not aware of what is happening there right now. We mainly showed footage from Maidan because that is where everything started, and to understand the current situation you need to understand what happened this winter.
UE: Are there similar projects in the US and Europe?
A: Yes. Another Babylon group has been working in the US for four months now. Another group is working throughout the EU.
UE: Any in Russia?
A: In Russia it is impossible. But we did shows in Kramatorsk and Slovyansk [in the Donbas region] right after they were liberated.
UE: What was the reaction like there to your films?
P: These people were just liberated from the Russian occupants, and they saw what kind of people these occupants were. We showed them true information about what happened on the Maidan, that on the Maidan there were people like you and me, that it didn’t matter what language you spoke, what your religion was, the colour of your skin…what mattered was if you were human or inhuman. That was the main thing, and they saw this.
UE: I think one of the main problems in southern and eastern Ukraine was that there was a serious lack of reliable, accurate information…
A/P: Yes, seriously missing. Russia does a very scary thing by providing a mass amount of misinformation. Russia came in and immediately cut out all Ukrainian television stations and replaced them with their own, and Ukrainians were thus not able to show people in the south and east what is actually happening and provide correct information. And this was (and continues to be) a very big problem because people watch Russian news, a lot of them do not have access to the internet, and they don’t want to think for themselves at all; they live by their emotions.
UE: What was your favourite part of Canada?
A: We liked Vancouver and BC very much, we liked eastern Canada and Newfoundland (loved it!), Quebec, and Toronto is great.
P: But every province is beautiful on its own, every one is different and has its own things to see.
A: Canada is very beautiful and has all kinds of different people, and very interesting people, in every province.
UE: Did you see a lot of Ukrainians during your travels here?
A/P: Yes, we saw a lot of Ukrainians and also, saw some interesting things. For example, in Newfoundland, we met a person whose parents were from Ireland and India, he had no relations at all to Ukrainians, but he was so enraptured with Euromaidan that he gathered people and we showed the films in Newfoundland. He even invited the CBC and they did a clip on us. He understood that Europe is in danger, and Canada is also in danger because Canada has a border with Russia in its far north, and this should be remembered and understood.
UE: And what were your impressions of the Ukrainian diaspora here in Canada?
P: Shocking.
UE: [Laughs] Why?
P: Shocking because the diaspora does so much of everything. It is very diverse, but when it tackles one matter everyone works together on it. We know, and we saw this in every province that we visited, that the diaspora gives massive amounts of money, and this money goes to Ukraine, but Ukrainians [in Ukraine] don’t know anything at all about Ukrainians in Canada, about the diaspora. They know that Canada gave a plane [to the NATO mission], or that Canada sent planes with humanitarian aid, but Ukrainians can’t fully understand the work that went into getting this to happen. Much has to be said about this because Ukrainians [in Ukraine] right now consider themselves to be on their own.
A: Well they know that there is a diaspora, and that the diaspora helps, but they don’t know how. They don’t know what forms this help comes in, they don’t know how it works. When a plane lands with humanitarian aid or Canada applies sanctions, they don’t know that this happens because there is a very strong push and influence on the government from the Ukrainian Canadian diaspora. We see that it takes immense work on behalf of Ukrainian Canadians, that it is not just the will of the Prime Minister, and this is what they don’t know.
P: The problem is that we are people who read quite a bit, are on the internet quite a bit, know where Canada is and a bit about it, we travel quite a bit, but we still didn’t know anything at all about the Ukrainian diaspora in Canada. Imagine, that if we as cinematographers didn’t know anything about it, then what will the average Ukrainian know, who for example lives in the East or South? This has to be talked about, because millions of dollars are being sent to the army, which is very good, but who exactlydoes this, no one knows.
A: We must come together, Canada and Ukraine, and unite forces to show Ukrainians who these Ukrainians in Canada are. This can be done through shows, documentaries, the press – it’s a massive undertaking. We need to show Ukraine how over the last [over] 100 years of Ukrainian history in Canada, Ukrainians who came over here with nothing have developed. 70 percent of Ukrainians have never left the borders of their oblasts – can you imagine what kind of information they have?
UE: What message would you like to leave Canadians?
A/P: Keep going! But also, that we know there is stability and a nice way of life here in Canada, and this is very good. But the majority of people in Canada [not including Ukrainian Canadians] are sitting and thinking that somewhere far away in Europe something is happening, but people should understand that this is how World War III starts. Ukraine is just the first stage. Putin understands that that NATO is very strong, but there are so many countries in NATO that to break it up would be very easy. It must be understood that if WWIII starts, it will be a nuclear war and no matter where you live - in Ukraine, Canada - it won’t make a difference. Humanity will perish. Which is why something needs to be done right now, steps need to be taken, and that is why we are here.
UE: What are your plans after you get back to Ukraine?
A/P: We will build a new Ukraine. We will continue to make films about what is happening in the East.
