Nowadays, the art of cinema is perceived at the level of blockbuster, Hollywood actors and incredible special effects. But next to the noisy premieres, there is the historical cultural heritage of world cinema, which is virtually unknown to the contemporary spectator, or Ukrainian cinema, which is sometimes difficult to break into big screens. Today, as before, there are places in Zhytomyr where Charlie Chaplin, Georges Milles, Sergey Ezenstein or Yuriy Illenko can watch the life and work of such prominent cultural figures as Leonardo da Vinci, Botticelli, Van Gogh, or just to watch masterpieces of domestic and world cinema classes. For fans of the “great dumb” – the history and the present of Zhytomyr film clubs

Cinema club is a modern format of events, in which the review of content cinematic films is combined with cultural, and sometimes philosophical dialogue. The history of these cells in our city is very interesting. A huge role in the development of cinema was played by the fact that Zhytomyr was born the first domestic film documentary, practically the first director, cinema operator and ancestor of the chronicle of royal Russia Alfred Fedetskyi. Therefore, it is not surprising that in the 60’s and 70’s of the twentieth century, there were 75 amateur film groups in the city, whose activities involved more than 1,200 people, and Zhytomyr gained the fame of the Ukrainian capital of amateur cinematic motion.
In 1968, the first All-Union festival of amateur movies “Golden Polissya” was held in our city, which took place every two years and gathered cinema lovers not only the former Soviet Union, but also other countries. The best films of the Zhytomyr film-makers took prize-winning places, in particular “Kopyshche” by Yuriy Ptitsin, “Do not quench the fire” Vyacheslav Mayboroda. In 1976, the founder of Zhytomyr Cinema Club of Trade Unions Yuriy Yakovlev shot a presentation film about the repertoire of Zhytomyr Oblast Music and Drama Theater named after Kocherha.
In the 1980s, Leonid Skibinsky, an active participant of the Polesie People’s Film Studio (Zhytomyr Reagional Cinema Club), filmed the “Monologue of my City” film, and Viacheslav Mayboroda and Yuri Ptitsin, founders of the independent film-makers’ union, presented their works “The Monologue of Love”,” Perspective”,” Spring 90″,”Afghanistan has not become a history”.
A little later, in the 70-80’s, we actively worked at the “Club of Cinema Lovers”, which at that time were taken care of by Vitalii Belov and Yuri Ptitsin. In 2009, a member of the Union of Cinematographers of Ukraine, the head of the department of cinema, television art of Zhytomyr College of Culture and Arts named after. Ivan Ogienko Vyacheslav Mayboroda and President of the Association of Human Ecology Sergey Tvardovsky revived club appearances in the newly formed Zhytomyr Club of Elite Cinema. At the same time in Zhytomyr there was a club of arthouse cinema “Trub Navivorit”, a club of social-critical cinema “SOK”, and the “FREE SKY CINEMA” seasonal cinema clubs that performed shows in city parks enjoyed popularity among the Zhytomyr citizens .
“Elite Cinema Club” exists to this day. Its conductor, Igor Shurpan, believes that cinema is a cultural phenomenon that exists constantly, and cinema clubs, like any social structures, then revive, disappear. Active cooperation with national distributors “Arthouse Traffic”, “KINOLIFE Distribution”, “Kinove”, “Kyiv Music Film”, “My Cinema” gives the club the right to one-time show of tapes that came out in the last one or two years. The events are open and mostly free, and in case of payment of copyright, the ticket price varies from 20 to 35 UAH.
“Elite Cinema Club” actively cooperates with domestic and international film festivals – their program shows are also available to Zhytomyr people. Recently, there were shows of new Ukrainian films: movie-television film “Keep it closer to heart”, documentaries “MIF” and “War of Chimer”.
Today, the cinema club movement in Zhytomyr does not stop its development. At the end of 2017, his first show was made at the Hnatyuk Art Center based cinema club, where the animated film “With Love, Vincent” was presented to viewers. More than 100 painters worked in this Polish-British project, which was included in the short list for the Academy Award in the “Animation” category, 13 of which were Ukrainians, among whom was the Zhytomyr dweller Alexander Bashinsky.
On February 28, 2018, a new thematic culture club “Culture” was opened on the basis of the cinema named after them. I. Frank The first show featured a documentary film “Leonardo da Vinci. Genius in Milan “, and on March 14th, the all-Ukrainian premiere of” Botticelli: Inferno “was held.
Cinema clubs – the flagship of Ukrainian cinema development. January 28 “Elite Cinema Club” together with the cinema them. Ivan Franko and Zhitomir College of Culture and Arts. I. Ogienko presented a film “The Tale of Money”, shot after the story of our countryman Vladimir Korolenko. One of the brightest roles in the film played by Zhytomyr citizen Mykhailo Kukuyuk. The next Ukrainian premiere, a 2017 documentary film, The War of Chimeras, dedicated to the Volunteer Day, tells about the fate of our fellow countryman, a soldier of the volunteer battalion Donbass Vadym Antonov with the calligger “Samolot”.
The Creative Laboratory Portal has its own cinema club, which is fully oriented to the Zhytomyr people: during the week in the Instagram social network, a film is elected by open vote, and every Friday it is arranged.
The cinema “Ukraine” and the Cambridge Cambridge Center WinWin in the club “CINEMA in English Only” organize movie reviews in the original language for all those who like.
There is also a striking feature of the festival activities of Zhytomyr film clubs: the New British Film Festival, an extremely short film festival “100 films in 100 minutes” – a subdivision of the Kyiv International Short Film Festival “KISFF”, an annual international film festival of cinema for children and teenagers “Children Film Festival” “, London International Animation Festival” LIAF “, etc. The show “Ukrainian New Wave”, the best fantastic short films “BEST SCI FI”, “OSCAR SHORTS FILM”, “OSCAR SHORTS ANIMATIOS” and many others were held. Separately, the “Open Night” film festival, which shows short Ukrainian films filmed over the last 2-3 years, should be noted. This festival is held simultaneously in Ukraine and abroad – in Poland, France, Germany. Extremely attractive spectator is its specificity: they show ribbons from 21:00 to 4:00 in the morning, and then the voting and announcement of the winners.
Today in many countries of the world there are also cinema clubs, but there is another approach to their work. The representative of the British Cinema Club movement, who communicated with Ukrainian counterparts at a meeting in Kiev, had difficulty understanding the feasibility and feasibility of free impressions. In the UK, at the local level, there is an entire state program of support for cinema clubs, which allocates premises and facilities for activities, and everyone has access to classical cinema at shows in cafes or specially created locations. We have this opportunity thanks to the Zhytomyr enthusiasts promoting the activity of the film clubs.
So let’s dig into cinema art in all its manifestations and together make the world a better one!
The editorial board of Zhytomyr.Travel expresses its sincere gratitude for helping to prepare the material for Ihor Shurpan, an enthusiast and advocate for the Ukrainian cinema club movement.
Translated by Aliona Matushevich