Launching the Kyiv Cinema Society

Hi everybody, I’m Chad Gracia and I’m a filmmaker from New York who has called Kyiv home since 2013. This club, where we plan to share cinema gems every two weeks, has been a dream of many people for many years. Let me introduce them to you. First, Marc Raymond-Wilkins, is a film director from Switzerland who now lives in Kyiv with his family. He formally founded the group a few years back, but it was interrupted by the full scale invasion.

We are lucky to have Natalia Libet on our Curatorial Board, one of Ukraine’s most important cinema ambassadors, who selected the debut film. Liliya Syvytska is a rising filmmaker and actor. Ilya Gladshtein is the manager of Kino42 and sends his regards from Lviv. The director and festival founder Nadia Parfan is also on our team. And finally, Mikael Colville-Anderson, urbanist, bicycle fanatic and filmmaker. He’s a real inspiration for people to get off their popkas and make their dreams come true. 

Speaking of dreams, as you may know, cinemas in Kyiv are going extinct and the ritual of sharing the magic of movies as they were intended, with other humans in a theater without distractions, is dying globally. But as long as there 42 people in Kyiv who want to be part of a film family, who love this art form and its ability to bring people together and take them to another world, then the Kyiv Cinema Society will thrive and fulfill its purpose.

Tonight, we will give birth to a new tradition and head out on an emotional and visual adventure together, one that will add to the cultural renaissance in Kyiv during these challenging times, which we expats are lucky to be part of.