Telling the stories of the displaced through documentary film making

The plight of Ukraine’s 1.6 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) is largely overlooked by international media organisations.

In an attempt to try to bring the stories of those uprooted by the conflicts in eastern Ukraine and Crimea to a wider audience, the Ukrainian internet based television station, Hromadske, is producing a documentary.

The Hromadske journalists are being helped as part of a project run by Thomson Foundation with support from the international Media Institute for Regional Media and Information (IRMI). 

For a month Thomson Foundation consultant David Hands has been guiding the journalists to produce a documentary about people who are having to start their lives afresh in the country’s capital, Kviv. There are 130 thousand IDPs living in the city.

 

Thomson Foundation consultant David Hands has been guiding Hromadske journalists to produce a documentary about people who are having to start their lives afresh in Ukraine's capital, Kviv

 

“As documentary filmmakers it’s very important to ensure, that IDPs who went through traumatic experience recently, are comfortable telling their story in front of a camera”, says David.

“After meeting our three main characters we knew that they have different stories to tell. We decided on telling their parallel stories by filming them in three distinctive documentary styles which suit their stories: participatory, observatory and self-filming. Also, by this, we wanted to amplify that in spite of finding themselves in a similar situation, everyone’s challenges, fears, and hopes are unique.”

 Hromadske producer, Angelina Kariakina, says that their journalists are full of ideas, but when it comes to a creating the story and post-production, Thomson Foundation’s expertise in covering sensitive issues and conflict consequences is very reassuring.

 

We wanted to amplify that in spite of finding themselves in a similar situation, everyone’s challenges, fears, and hopes are unique.

 

The second stage of the documentary production will take place in May. Afterwards, with the help of Irmi and the Thomson Foundation, Hromadske will market the documentary to European broadcasters.

This consultancy is part of the Regional Voices Project funded by the European Union. It is continuation of the ‘Displaced’ magazine show established by the Thomson Foundation and Hromadske in 2014-15 (UK FCO support) to enable wider coverage of contemporary issues reflecting IDP and conflict management in more depth.