«The Living Fire» crew to create a TV-hour version of the film for audiences abroad

The story

“The Living Fire” documentary is a four-year-long project following three generations of Ukrainian Carpathian shepherds in their struggle to keep the age-old trade alive in the face of contemporary changes.

This film is about a human vocation. It’s about everyday work with no rest and no right for weakness.  About harmonious world we have lost in our attempt to get more comfort, and about childhood we are leaving while putting our grown-up masks…

Reasoning

The film’s festival success reaches only a relatively narrow audience of film lovers.  This is what urges the crew of “The Living Fire” to create a TV-hour version (52 minutes) of the film in order to make it available to audiences all around the world. International distribution of “The Living Fire” will tell the story of unknown, but real Ukraine.

Characters         

Three generations of shepherds live in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Ivan is an 82-year-old retired shepherd who lives a lonely life, having recently buried his wife. At the same time, ten-year-old Ivanko is just beginning his life and studying at the county boarding school, while 39-year-old Vasyl is raising young lambs on his farm. But when spring comes, all three men will head for the mountains following the shepherd’s calling that is becoming ever more difficult to sustain in the contemporary world.

Making of the film and participation in festivals

The project started as collaboration between director Ostap Kostyuk and cinematographer Oleksandr Pozdnyakov. The crew spent three years organizing filming expeditions at their own expense and with financial support of friends. By the fourth year, the film got Ukrainian producers and was financially backed by the State Film Agency of Ukraine. This entire let the crew to finish shooting, accomplish post-production and produce a theatrical 79-minutes version of the film in DCP format 24 frames per second.

“The Living Fire” was highly acclaimed by critics and audiences at international film festivals in Karlovy Vary, Zurich, Reykjavik, Chicago, Israel, Minsk, Odesa etc.  And it won a Special Jury Prize for high cinematographic value at North America’s most prestigious documentary film festival “Hot Docs” (Toronto, Canada).

The jury noted that “The Living Fire” combined “painterly cinematography with an attentive and empathetic gaze, a sophisticated evocative sound design, and accomplished and often playful editing”.

Why we need your support

Raised money will be used to cover the expenses on production of a TV-hour version of the film, adapted to audiences worldwide, including re-editing and sound design.

We need your support now, when Ukrainian content is in great demand and we have a real chance to popularize this high-quality product of Ukrainian culture in the world. 

Instruction for those who want to donate:

More information about the project you can find at “Spilnokosht” ("Big idea» platform), following the link below:

https://biggggidea.com/project/dokumentalnyij-film-zhiva-vatra-/blog/882/

Big Idea is the most popular crowdfunding platform in Ukraine.

You may log in using your email address or facebook account, indicating your name and surname.

To donate you may press the button “Фондувати”.

“Внесіть бажану суму” means “Enter the desired amount”.

“СУМА ВНЕСКУ В ГРН” means “The amount in UAH”.

Among the gifts are postcards with film stills, DVD with 52 min TV-hour version of the film, granting of co-production status with mentioning in initial titles, also supporters will be mentioned at official web page of The Living Fire documentary.

Please donate and share the information about the project!

THANK YOU!