The idea for the project is to hold the first Ukrainian Mobile Film Festival — Mobile Flix Fest — aimed at residents from every region of Ukraine without consideration for age or gender. The goal was to bring together fans of mobile documentary from the entire country and promote this as a creative industry among a broad audience while simultaneously raising important social themes that traditional media often ignores.
The festival was organized by the UCU School of Journalism, along with the international human rights documentary film festival Docudays UA.
Though the format was quite widespread in Europe, Ukraine had, so far, never seen a mobile film festival. Festivals of this type have been running for years in London, Paris, Berlin, Skopje, Zurich and other cities. Last year, the longest-running and largest of them all — the French Mobile Film Festival — celebrated its 13th year.
International media experts assert that mobile video will continue to grow in popularity. According to Stanley Meytin, an American authority on business-related video production, the appearance of social platforms like Snapchat and Periscope have given amateurs a simple, accessible instrument for making and distributing video, and the importance of mobile video will only increase. Video apps for smartphones have formed a video-world that mobile directors are filling with everyday, live situations, contributing to the "mobile first" mobile culture.
Taking into account the world trends and the availability of mobile video technology for the Ukrainian audience, we sought to revive its interest in creative technologies, thus enhancing the development of the cultural sector and attracting the widest possible range of people.
The main project-related events took place on 15-16 June 2018.
The festival Opening was held at the Sheptytskyi Centre, which served as the location for all main activities. Throughout the event media partners Oleksiy Furman and Serhiy Polezhak from New Cave Media ran a "VR-corner" where attendees could try out virtual reality goggles and using a mobile phone could be immersed into one of their VR worlds.
Included in festival activities were workshops and master-classes from video- and film-production and mobile photography professionals for both formal participants as well as a general audience.
We received 27 films from 34 applicants coming from 13 Ukrainian regions (oblasts). From these we identified 21 video enthusiasts from 12 regions of Ukraine interested in mobile culture professionally or at the amateur level, and who are engaged in the production of short films on smartphone. The majority are under 35, university upperclassmen, journalists and videographers engaged in local media or production. Our youngest participant was 16 and our oldest 61.
The jury selected 10 films for public screening during the festival.
The most senior festival participant was Lydia Filipchuk, a 61-year-old Lviv tram driver wither her own YouTube vlog. During the festival she befriended the most junior participant, just 16 years old. At the close of the event she said "thank you for brining me into this youthful company."
Festival winners
- The "Creative Debut" category: Anna Ilchenko from Severodonetsk and Marina Vereshchaka from Kharkiv with the film "Lyrist"
- The "Creative Look" category: Andriy Maksimovich from Lviv with the film "The Touch"
- The "Creative Composition" category: Yuriy Sukhodolyak from Ternopil and Oleksandra Komisarova from Rivne with the film "Fin del Mondo"
Photo Credits: Anastasiia Stopina, Maryna Vereshchaka