THE UNCHILDISH FACE OF WAR

Director Alisa Kovalenko shot the film "We Will Not Fade Away" from 2019 to 2022 in the Luhansk region. She conveys the stories of five teenagers who, like all youngsters, listen to music, draw, play, and have dreams despite the terrible reality around them. Alisa will talk about what a female director feels during the war and what childhood looks like on the battle lines in a conversation with the director of Northern Lights, Volia Chajkouskaya.

Language of the event: Ukrainian, Belarusian

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Alisa Kovalenko

Alisa Kovalenko is an Ukrainian award-winning documentary director. She was born and grew up in Zaporizhzhia, South-Eastern Ukraine and studied documentary cinema at the Karpenko-Kary National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television in Kyiv and at the Andrzej Wajda School in Warsaw. Her debut feature-length documentary "Alisa in Warland", a personal diary through revolution and war in Ukraine, had its World premiere at IDFA 2015 First-appearance competition. "Home Games", a social fairy-tale about the broken dreams of a young female football player, appeared at Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018 and was again at IDFA (Best of Fests 2018). In 2021 "Home Games" was the first Ukrainian creative documentary acquired by Netflix. In 2018, Alisa directed and coordinated a "Beautiful Game", a 10-parts documentary series commissioned by Current Time TV. Her latest documentary "We Will Not Fade Away" had its world premiere at Berlinale Generation 2023 and was nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Award.

Volia Chajkouskaya

Volia Chajkouskaya is a Belarus-born producer and director based in Estonia. She works for Allfilm Production Company. Volia obtained a Masters degree in directing and producing documentary films at the Baltic Film and Media School (Tallinn, Estonia). She is the founder of the Northern Lights Film Festival and the online cinema VODBLISK. Volia Chajkouskaya is also the co-founder of the Belarusian Independent Film Academy.