What's at Stake in Ukraine - a Filmmakers’ Conversation

Industry Insights – The EFM Podcast is presented by the European Film Market of the Berlinale.

This podcast episode is a special edition dedicated to the current invasion of Ukraine. Tamara Tatishvili (Head of Training - MEDICI the Film Funding Journey) is moderating this episode and speaks with Julia Sinkevych (Producer, Ukraine), Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer (Producer, Germany), and Keti Machavariani (Producer/ Director, Georgia). They talk about the fact that the war in Ukraine did not start on 24 February, but eight years ago with the annexation of Crimea. We hear four women and their fear on the one hand and their will to stand up for peace on the other. Film and cinema have enormous power; those have to be used and supported in the right way. Because the misuse for propaganda purposes is a real danger. In this time more than ever the film industry needs to stand together. Filmmakers have the tools to reach a big audience. The industry should endorse Ukrainian film projects from the past to achieve awareness and gather financial resources to support the fight for freedom in Ukraine.

Our moderator for this episode is Tamara Tatishvili. She combines solid experience of international film funding & promotion strategies with strong passion for talent curation and programming. She worked for several years as Director of the Georgian National Film Center. Prior to that, Tamara co-founded and was an Executive Director of the Independent Filmmakers’ Association - South Caucasus. Since 2020 Tamara heads an exclusive training platform for public film financiers MEDICI - The Film Funding Journey organized by FOCAL. Among different industry collaborations, Tamara acts as strategy consultant to the European Women’s Audiovisual Network as well as programming consultant to Bridges: East of West Film Days organized by Bozar.

Julia Sinkevych Ukrainian film producer, co-founder and member of the supervisory board of the Ukrainian Film Academy. Julia has been the general producer of the Odesa International Film Festival from 2010-2020. Besides general management, programming and curating tasks, her prior work at distribution and production company Arthouse Traffic allowed her to promote and support Ukrainian artists and filmmakers on an international level.

Georgian filmmaker and producer, Keti Machavariani known for her debut feature film Salt White which premiered at the International Film Festival Karlovy Vary in 2011. Her documentary, titled Sunny, premiered 2021 at Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival. Currently Keti is working on the feature film project Ia that won first place at Georgian-Baltic Bridge Pitching Forum at the Tbilisi International Film Festival.

Tanja Georgieva-Waldhauer is a German film producer at Elemag Pictures. Since 2012 she works with the Ukrainian director Roman Bondarchuk known for Volcano and his team in Ukraine. At the moment Tanja co-produces together with Darya Bassel Roman Bondarchuk’s upcoming film The Editorial Office. In the last days, she initiated with colleagues from the German Producers Association and Documentary Association a support programme to provide technical equipment as well as safety jackets and helmets for Ukrainian filmmakers. This should follow the call of their Ukrainian colleagues to cinematically document the current situation.

This podcast episode has been co-developed and produced in cooperation with Goethe-Institut.