Making Waves will join film festivals across Europe in showing solidarity with Ukraine. From film screenings to a fundraiser for the Disasters Emergency Committee, we’re shining a spotlight on Ukrainian film.

Film has always had the power to bring people together. Even now, with Ukraine’s cinemas closed, the Ukrainian people are still watching films. President Volodymyr Zelensky has requested that Ukraine’s biggest film archive screen a series of Soviet-films in metro stations from Kyiv to Kharkiv, where residents have sought shelter from the war.

Outside of Ukraine, pro-Ukrainian sentiment has swept across Europe’s film festivals. Festivals in Berlin, Venice and Sarajevo have screened Ukrainian films in solidarity. Other festivals have gone even further. Cannes and Venice have chosen to ban official Russian delegations while others such as Glasgow Film Festival and Stockholm International Film Festival are boycotting films funded by Russia. Here at Making Waves we are running two events to show our solidarity with Ukraine.

MWFF & The Front Room present ‘HOME’ a fundraiser for DEC Ukraine appeal

Friday 22rd April 7-10pm at No 6 Cinema

Making Waves and The Front Room have partnered to raise money for The Disasters Emergency Committee with a fundraising event. HOME will include an eclectic mix of spoken word, live animation and a selection of short films by Ukrainian filmmakers. For us, home is a place of shelter, security and nourishment, something we would like to celebrate and share with you.

The DEC delivers effective and timely relief to people most in need. With more than 10 million people haveing fled their homes to escape conflict in Ukraine, the DEC is raising money for shelter, food and water.

We invite you to donate directly to the DEC Ukrainian Humanitarian fund via our Just Giving Page. To buy a ticket for this event please make a donation of what you can afford. One donation equals one ticket and we suggest £10 or more.

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/mwff-home

HOMEWARD (cert 15) 2019

Saturday 23rd April 7pm at No 6 Cinema

Having lost his oldest son in the war between Russia and Ukraine, Mustafa resolves to take the boy’s body to his native land: Crimea. Together, he and his younger son set out on a journey that will profoundly mark their relationship.

In solidarity with the Ukrainian film industry we will be screening Homeward. Ukrainian filmmaker Nariman Aliev’s debut feature premiered at Festival de Cannes 2019 and was nominated for Un Certain Regard. Acclaimed by critics and audiences, Homeward is a powerful road movie following a father and son united by grief, travelling across a war-torn land.

Despite being one of Ukraine’s finest films in recent years, Homeward is just one film in a rich and vibrant history of Ukrainian cinema. The Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Centre (Dovzhenko Centre) in Kiev is the largest Ukrainian film archive with an extensive collection that includes over 7,000 feature films, documentaries, animated films and thousands of archival records from the history of Ukrainian film.

In times of war it’s important to remember that art and humanity are inextricably linked. We are honoured to be screening Homeward and hope you will join us in celebrating Ukrainian culture.

https://www.no6cinema.co.uk/films/making-waves-film-festival-presents-homeward

Making Waves Film Festival runs in partnership with No 6 Cinema in the Historic Dockyard, Portsmouth and is supported by BFI FAN, BFI NETWORK, Camera Crate, Tilly Films, Euroscript, University of Portsmouth and Portsmouth Guildhall.