Supporting Ukrainian Refugees Through Film and Photography

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and it became clear the war would not stop quickly, Valya began thinking about ways she could help. Having been in the field of filmmaking and photography for seventeen years, it made sense to channel these skills into something philanthropic. With co-founder Vera - and with support from the Canon Young People Programme - they set up KiNO. While their first projects were online, their big ‘a-ha’ moment came when Vera was in Tallinn, Estonia, and heard about a docked ship that was housing Ukrainian refugees. As the adults were preoccupied with finding work and handling necessary paperwork, the children usually stayed on the ship all day, especially since many of them were attending online Ukrainian schools. So, when Vera arrived with cameras and the promise of free workshops, it was soon the hub of the ship. Over three months children on the boat aged between seven and eighteen would come to take Vera’s weekly class, borrowing cameras and creating their own photography projects. 

It took Vera quite some time to convince the Estonian Social Service, responsible for assisting Ukrainians, to showcase the photos taken on the ship. However, after some negotiations, Vera finally managed to open the documentary photo exhibition at the port of Tallinn. Valya described the works as “extraordinary documentary material”. Exhibiting the work from the courses is a key part of the process for KiNO:

“In general we have this practice that at the end of each course - whether photography or filmmaking - we have a public showing. Because it's important. You work on something, you show it to people, people react to it and you feel your existence.” - Valya K

Valya and Vera are keen to treat the course attendees as practising artists. The students get full autonomy over their projects to speak about the subjects that matter most to them.

“We ask them to figure out what is important to them and they can talk about whatever they want to talk about - from the problem with water in Georgia to bullying in school to the issues of immigration. Our course really showed the unique problems of these teenagers. I think about half of them talk about immigration and isolation because when you emigrate, you enter a completely new world with a different language and social norms for communication, leading to an initial feeling of isolation and loneliness.” - Vera P

And this isolation is the reasoning behind the online courses also offered by KiNO. While the offline courses provide much-needed socialisation and community for the students, the online courses are vital for those that have been forced to move away to remote areas without other Ukrainians - especially ones their own age. This forced migration means individuals might end up alone in a small village in Norway for example, miles from friends. They don’t speak the language and will find it difficult to integrate. But through the KiNO course, they can regain that sense of belonging and community, as well as develop useful skills. Of course, sometimes it’s not possible to hold a course in person because of safety concerns. KiNO did one course in Zaporizhzhya, a frontline city in Ukraine, but found it very complicated to organise. They needed to find a space where they could discuss photography while also providing shelter from bombings. It was much appreciated though, offering kids a chance to socialise when they no longer had school or other activities to take their mind from the current situation. 

There are a number of ways to measure the success of the KiNO courses. Number one is to look at the number of graduates. There is a statistic, particularly with free lessons, that for every ten people who come, if seven finish then it’s been a success. KiNO very much focuses on the end project - the final series of photographs or final film, plus the exhibition - so the course attendees have a high-rate of finishing. So far, KiNO has conducted 16 courses and has over 200 graduates across Europe and the Caucasus. Secondly, there is the progression of the students after the courses. Vera and Valya try to keep in touch with their past participants, even recently submitting the work of one of them to a film festival in Italy. Her application was successful and the student is now travelling to Italy to take part. This would already be a major achievement, but given that all of these children come to the classes with no prior knowledge of film and photography, it is even more so. As Vera says:

“Sometimes I think that their questions and their stories are more valuable than the stories I'm watching at the Cannes Film Festival.”

Then there is the celebration that comes with each final exhibition, showing that these courses are clearly important to the whole community, not just to the individuals that attend. For example, a course that KiNO ran in Georgia had over 70 people attend the final exhibition! Finally, there are the number of individuals hoping for a place on their courses. Ideally the class size is no more than 10 students to one teacher. However, when they launched their London course, they had 30 applicants and people were willing to travel pretty far… 

“For a long time I didn’t want to do anything in London. Because I thought London is the centre of the world - there is everything. There are free exhibitions, free this, free that. But we decided to run a course in London anyway and I realised how needed it was because of the same reasons we’ve spoken about - children here don’t have the socialisation. They don’t really speak English. To have a group of people speaking the same language, who are the same age, it’s an important thing for them. Especially offline. I was amazed when we started doing the individual projects and I realised that we have four or five children travelling from outside of London to come to the class. We have one student who lives in Wales! She has been travelling six hours one way to get to this workshop and then six hours back. Every Saturday for three months.” - Valya K

This London course will soon culminate in an exhibition at Stone Nest, an arts space in Central London, just off Leicester Square. Usually the exhibition would only feature the work created on that particular course. However, due to being able to secure such a huge venue they decided to celebrate the last two years of KiNO. Called ‘Displaced Dreams’, the exhibition will feature work from the teachers as well as the students and will be interactive with the viewer, asking them about their own displaced dreams. Both photographs and film screenings will be on display, curated by Valya, Vera and Petr Antonov, a professional curator who has curated the likes of Alexander Gronsky, one of the biggest names in landscape and documentary photography. Vera says of the upcoming exhibition: 

“The kids have very valuable stories actually because they have experienced a lot of things. For example, one of the girls tells a story about how, during her immigration, she went through five countries in two years! Then she said that after this trip she now understands the value of people who are close to you and who are kind to you and that during this harsh time you can really understand what kind of people are close and what kind of people are strangers. For many of them, they are faced with making mature decisions at a much younger age than usual. For example, they often share the responsibility with their parents in deciding whether to stay or leave the European country and return home. So for me the exhibition is very valuable.” 

When asked what they hope the audience will take away from the exhibition, they said that they want people to absorb the experiences that these kids have been through and then try and ask themselves the same questions. They feel it’s really important for the children to understand that they’re not the only ones who think about these topics - whether it’s isolation or more typical teenage topics such as the way you look and the way you’re perceived by others. They would love it if people came away inspired to help in any way they can and to challenge their own privilege: maybe visitors have an old camera at home and want to give it to the student who did great work or maybe they have an idea for the course and they want to participate or collaborate in some way.

Things won’t stop for KiNO after the exhibition either. They already have plans for three more courses: one in Hanover, Germany; one in Batumi, Georgia and one back in Zaporizhzhya. They hope to scale up operations by working with more partners and curating teachers remotely from their various locations. It may seem like a lot to take on for two individuals, but there is clearly no sign of them stopping any time soon. We can’t wait to see what they do next!