The award ceremony took place in the parish of Krasiczyn. For those who can read Polish, a more detailed article is below.

We are very proud and very happy for our dear Fr. Bartminski. The award is so well deserved, and we know there will be many more to follow!

Informacja z Krasiczyna

8 stycznia br. w parafii Krasiczyn odbyła się uroczystość wręczenia Nagrody im. ks. Romana Indrzejczyka b. proboszczowi tamtejszej parafii ks. Stanisławowi Bartmińskiemu. Wyróżnienie przyznała mu Polska Rada Chrześcijan i Żydów, jak czytamy w uzasadnieniu „w dowód uznania dla działalności na rzecz dialogu międzyreligijnego, kształtowania społecznych postaw otwartości i tolerancji, wzajemnego szacunku oraz urzeczywistniania chrześcijańskiej miłości bliźniego”.

Najpierw licznie zebranych parafian i Gości przywitał Proboszcz parafii ks. Wiesław Kałamarz. Dostrzegł duchownych, m. in. Ks. Prałatów: Rusina, Majchra, Stanisza, Sznaja i Woźniaka, osoby świeckie m. in. W-ce Marszałka Sejmu RP p. Marka Kuchcińskiego, Wojewodę Podkarpacką p. Małgorzatę Chomycz, przedstawicieli samorządu miasta Przemyśla z Przewodniczącym Rady Miasta p. Janem Bartmińskim i z-cą Prezydenta Miasta Przemyśla Wojciechem Błachowiczem, p. Jerzego Kowalskiego Wójta Gminy Krasiczyn, Prezesa PWIN p. Stanisława Stępnia, przedstawicieli Państwowej Wyższej Szkoły Wschodnioeuropejskiej w Przemyślu p. E. Kasperską i Ż. Niedbała, oraz szereg innych osób.

Mszę św. koncelebrowało 8 księży, a homilię wygłosił ks. Prałat Mieczysław Rusin archiprezbiter przemyski, proboszcz Archikatedry. Po Mszy św. p. Bogdan Białek redaktor naczelny miesięcznika „Charaktery”, prezes Stowarzyszenia im. Jana Karskiego, wiceprzewodniczący PRChiŻ, organizator  spotkań polsko-żydowskich w Kielcach poinformował o tej nagrodzie, której pierwsza emisja ma właśnie miejsce Krasiczynie.

Następnie prof. Stanisław Krajewski współprzewodniczący Rady ze strony żydowskiej, członek Polskiej Akademii Nauk i profesor Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, żydowski działacz, propagator dialogu międzyreligijnego, który tworzył Towarzystwo Przyjaźni Polsko-Izraelskiej i PRChiŻ, mówił o dialogu żydowsko-katolickim.

Po nim ks. Wiesław Dawidowski augustianin, współprzewodniczący Rady ze strony chrześcijańskiej, przybliżył postać ks. Romana Indrzejczyka, niezwykłego kapłana, b. wiceprzewodniczącego PRChiŻ, kapelana Prezydenta RP Lecha Kaczyńskiego, z którym zginął w katastrofie lotniczej pod Smoleńskiem. Na koniec  p. Zbigniew Nosowski działacz katolicki red. naczelny Więzi, KAI, członek KIK, świecki audytor Synodu Biskupów w Watykanie, zastępca przewodniczącego PRChiŻ, przewodniczący Kapituły Nagrody Dziennikarskiej “Ślad” im. bp. Jana Chrapka, autor kilkuset programów telewizyjnych, m.in. cykli “Boskie i cesarskie”, “Dzieci Soboru zadają pytania” przedstawił postać Laureata.

Z kolei p. Ewa Trafna rzeźbiarka, laureatka wielu nagród, w tym zrealizowanego w  2001 r. pomnika w Jedwabnem, zaprezentowała plakietkę nagrody w formie metalowej księgi ze stosownymi napisami, a sześcioosobowy (skromny, że względu na święta w kościołach wschodnich) chór Oeikumene z Kielc wykonał kilka kolęd rosyjskich i ukraińskich. Laureat podziękował Kapitule oraz wszystkim uczestnikom, a wręczoną plakietkę przekazał na ręce ks. proboszcza Wiesława Kałamarza do gabloty kościelnej, zawierającej wiele pamiątkowych medali ofiarowanych przez parafian krasiczyńskich.

Uroczystość zakończył bankiet w Zamku krasiczyńskim, na którym ok. 75 osób, przy biesiadnym „szwedzkim stole”  miało okazję do ciekawych rozmów, wymiany poglądów i zawarcia znajomości.  Duszpasterz z Krasiczyna.

Organizing a screening on December 8th honestly proved to be quite challenging. It was hard to compete for attention with all the holidays parties and kids’ Disney shows that take place at this time of the year.

Thankfully, we have a very powerful marketing and outreach resource in the area called Olia’s “Fellow Moms Network.” They are as powerful as a local newspaper and as an added bonus, they are a lot of fun to hang out with over drinks after the show.

The screening went well. The theater was almost full and we were surprised to see that several people who had already seen the film the first time around, had come back for another viewing and brought their friends along.  Our favorite comment during the discussion came from a man -who had come to see the film for the second time – and who said that if it were up to him, he would grant us the Nobel Peace Price. (We think it’s really a shame the decision is not up to him…)

This year has been good. We look forward to 2012.

Have you heard of Vera Eliashevsky? Well, you should. Vera, also known as superwoman, can conduct a high level conference call to increase her products’ sales margin while applying perfect lipstick and making delicious french toast for her guests… all at the same time! We were very lucky that Vera was at the heart of organizing our trip to Chicago and welcomed us as guests at her beautiful home.

We started the Chicago tour with a screening at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. We were invited there by Prof. Volodymyr Chumachenko and had a good discussion with faculty members and students, almost none of whom had any personal connections with the region of Galicia but were very interested in the subject matter.

The next evening, we had a large screening in Chicago in one of the city’s most beautiful venues: the Chicago Cultural Center that used to be Chicago’s Public Library. The building is famous for its two beautiful glass domes, one of which is said to be the largest Tiffany glass dome in the world. The showing took place at the Claudia Cassidy Theater where the 300 seats were almost full.

The screening was organized by the The Kyiv and Warsaw Committees of Chicago Sister Cities International, headed respectively by Vera Eliashevsky and Thaddeus Makarewicz. Here, we have to point out something that really struck us: our Chicago poster had side by side logos that included the Star of David, the Ukrainian Trident and the Polish White Eagle. It’s the first time that we’ve personally seen those three signs side by side and we still can’t forgive ourselves for not taking a copy of that poster back with us as we believe one day it will be worth a lot of money!

The audience of Chicago was very generous and emotionally involved. Towards the end of the film, people were laughing very hard in all the places we expected them to and even in places that we didn’t think people would find funny. The emotions even spilled over during the discussion and there was a moment where we thought that people might actually start a fight. We think that the film does bring up a lot of painful memories and sometimes people need to let all those emotions out that were boiling inside of them for quite a long time. But as things calmed down, we got very hopeful, seeing that most of the audience members were able to accept each other’s pain and continue the discussion around those very sensitive topics.

On Friday evening, the conversation continued at the Ukrainian National Museum where a panel discussion was organized by the Museum’s Young Professionals Group. Panel members included Prof. Myron Kuropas, Mr. Stanley Balzekas and Rev. Myron Panchuk and the panel was moderated by Daria Hankewych. We discussed many themes, among which was the mythology around heroes and the importance of memory, identity and the representation of history.

On a final note, we have to admit that our Chicago schedule was even crazier than the one in Ukraine – and believe us, Ukraine was hard to beat. One morning for example, we had to wake up at 4.30 am in order to make it to a radio interview at 7 am and still manage to get a tour of the Ukrainian village with Vera before hand.

The Chicago Cultural Center where the screening on Thursday took place.

The Tiffany dome at the Chicago Cultural Center

With Vera Eliashevsky (Chair Kyiv-Chicago Committee) and Thaddeus Makarewicz (Chair Warsaw-Chicago Committee)

At the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with our organizing team and our hosts from the Slavic Department. Left to Right: Marika Klimchak, Vera Eliashevsky, Prof. Michael Finke, Olha Onyshko, Prof. Volodymyr Chumachenko, Raisa Bratkiv, Prof. Emeritus Dmytro Shtohryn , Prof. Richard Tempest and Prof. George Gasyna.

The audience at the Ukrainian National Museum Panel Discussion

Left to right: Daria Hankewych, Ksenia Hankewych, Prof. Myron Kuropas, Mr. Stanley Balzekas, Olha Onyshko, Sarah Farhat and Rev. Rev. Myron Panchuk

We sneaked out during the showing (we had seen the film before) and got a glimpse of the city by night

Afer the panel discussion, we were invited to have a drink at the top of the John Hancock Center that has the most spectacular view of Chicago!

So, when we heard from our organizers that people from other Ukrainian cities were calling and requesting to have screenings for them as well, we seriously thought about packing our bags and taking the first flight back for another tour. We would have a bus painted with flowers and drive from village to village, from house to house; or like Olia Ilkiv says: “vid sela do sela, vid khaty do khaty.”

We got back just in time for Thanksgiving and on this day, we can’t help but give thanks to all the amazing people we have met or reconnected with on this Ukrainian tour. We are extremely lucky to have found such an inspirational group of people who worked tirelessly with us on a voluntary basis just because they believe in what we are trying to achieve.

Olena Hantsyak-Kaskiv was the superb organizer of our tour. We started working with Olena over Skype and email about two months before our trip. Even though we had never met, by the time we arrived to Kyiv, we felt we knew each other very well. We have to admit that we gave her a hard time at first, we wanted to be involved in everything and Olena would reply: “Why don’t you just trust us?” Well, we should have. Olena never sleeps, she is known for sending emails at 3, 4 or 5 in the morning and also for her power of persuasion: she managed to recruit an entire army of people to work on this tour. We believe that local chocolate Olenka was named after her.

Luba Mykhalyuk, our media relations guru was apparently ready to kill that “Olia from Galicia” who spent years away from Ukraine and was trying to give her suggestions from overseas about how to work with Ukrainian media. Thanks to Luba we were all over Ukrainian television and that created a great buzz around the film. Needless to say, no one died and we all became great friends. During our travels, we noticed that Luba never ate. When we asked her about it, she said: “Oh no, I do eat – on weekends”. It was true!

Petro Didula, our tireless director of photography and loyal friend spent the entire time once more behind the camera in order to document the discussions in the different cities. By now, Petro knows that he cannot stick to his own plans whenever we are in town.

Valentina Podgornaya is a woman who makes things happen. She is one of our earliest supporters and one of the biggest promoters of our film in Ukraine. You can always count on Valya not only when it comes to business but also when it comes to having a good time! We believe she fits in her purse an entire army of drivers that appear whenever you need them.

Tetiana Stawnychy is the initiator of the entire tour. We met Tanya at one of our screenings in DC and we remember her saying: “You have to show this film in Ukraine. I will look into it.” And she sure did.

PS: We really tried to have this post ready yesterday on Thanksgiving day but too much turkey and wine made writing quite challenging. And since we’re in thankful mode, our gratitude goes to Olia’s husband Darrin who not only took care of the kids when we were on the tour but also cooked Thanksgiving dinner!

During the screenings, we usually look forward to taking a small break and having a coffee somewhere near by, because just between us, we cannot stand watching the film yet another time. But in Odesa, we had parked our luggage at the Ukrainian Club, and so we just sat in the room next door to the main screening hall. Thank goodness we stayed put. About halfway through the showing, we heard loud footsteps and some sort of commotion near by. “The power went off” someone said. “It’s a provocation” someone else replied, half joking “the electricity went off with the first mention of the KGB.” Not knowing if the power would come back or not, we decided to start the discussion even though the film was only past the first story.

About twenty minutes later, the power came back and we were able to finish the viewing.

Maybe because we had started the discussion just after Aharon’s story (the Jewish perspective) or maybe because of the pre-existing tensions in the city, the discussion was very heated to say the least. It was very interesting for us to note that in Lviv – where we were warned that we might encounter some serious Ukrainian nationalist reactions – there was nothing as such. On the contrary, even with many remarks of our moderator that were purposefully provocative to the Ukrainian audience, the people of Lviv remained very balanced and open-minded. Many audience members in Odesa on the other hand were very defensive towards the portrayal of Ukrainian history in the film.  Some felt very strongly for example about the necessity of giving more attention to the period between 1939 and 1941 – the Soviet atrocities during their first occupation of Galicia.

Interestingly, during the screening in Kharkiv where Russians and Ukrainians are a majority, the most heated comments came from representatives from the Jewish community who felt that not enough attention as given to the Holocaust and the issues of collaborators.

But even with all the differences of opinions, the audience agreed that “everyone should see this film.”

After the screening, we were surrounded by many people. One woman said: “I am a simple retired soviet engineer. I am trying to make sense of the history for the sake of my children. Nowadays in Ukraine, history is so politicized that I tell them to learn history through the stories of our family. That’s why I brought my daughter today with me to hear the stories in your film. Thank you.”

On a lighter note, we did manage to devote half an hour to seeing the city and we made it to the legendary Potemkin steps – much to the delight of Sarah who had seen them many times in film school but never in real life.

A traditional hand-made poster of our film in front of the theater

The screening in Chernivtsi (Southwestern Ukraine, right on the border with Romania) was added to our schedule at the last minute and because of that, we didn’t have very high expectations in terms of a turnout. We went there nonetheless thinking that it would be fine if we had a good discussion with 30 people afterwards.

The drive from Lviv to Chernivtsi takes about 6 hours, so we had to get going by 5 a.m. By now, our small team has expanded  to include several people who came onboard to organize different screenings and travel with us to the different cities. For Chernivtsi, there were seven of us, so a mini bus came to pick us up and we set out for a road trip along the beautiful roads of the Ukrainian country side. It had snowed a little overnight and the fields were all covered with a thin white blanket.

We arrived at 11 a.m. sharp.  We came out of the bus, most of us still half asleep, and found ourselves right out of a fairy tale: Chernivtsi is among the most well preserved and most charming cities of Ukraine with a very dynamic and multicultural population. Our host (and moderator) Serhiy Osatchuk was already waiting for us on the city’s main square. “We don’t have much time, he said.  Let’s get going.” And he proceeded to give us a speed-tour of the main landmarks, including “Sheptytsky Street” (a symbolic location since our Ukraine tour is funded and organized by the Sheptytsky Foundation), the opera house, the university whose unique architectural ensemble is now on the list of UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Jewish museum and finally the movie theater where our screening was to take place. Our local host chose that particular movie theater because it used to be one of the 70 synagogues in the city before the War. Many sacred buildings during the Soviet period were turned into warehouses, movie theaters, dance halls, etc.

At one point we asked our hosts how many seats the theater holds. “Four hundred” they answered. We politely smiled and thought: “Oh Lord, it is going to look so empty with just a few people there…” We should have had more faith. Arriving to the theater, we were greeted by journalists and as we were answering a few questions, crowds of people were passing us and walking into the theater. When we got it, four hundred seats were almost full and half of the audience was comprised of young high school and college students.

Cinema Chernivtsi, former synagogue turned movie theater

Olia and Sarah with our translator Halyna and moderator Serhiy

The discussion afterwards was one of the most interesting we’ve had during this tour. It was particularly impressive for us to see the involvement of young people. One girl stood up after the showing and said: “I thank you for making this film and for showing me the importance of saving the stories of my family. My grandmother died when I was 13, and at the time, it didn’t seem important for me to learn about what she went through. Your film made me realize that there is much more to our history than what we are taught right now in classrooms.”

On a side note, we are finding it extremely funny to be the center of attention. This time, we had a group of young girls who came to us after the showing and wanted to take pictures with us and have us sign autographs. Almost impossible to keep a straight face in this situation; we always have the urge to look back and see who they are really talking to…

Our host and moderator Serhiy Osatchuk

The traveling crew with our local hosts after the showing

From left to right: Halyna our translator, Sarah, Olena our tour organizer, Olia, Petro our cinematographer, Anastasia the organizer in Lviv, and Luba our media coordinator

What was particularly striking for us was the fact that even though the screenings took place in three cities that are historically and culturally very different, a lot of the same themes were brought up during the discussion. People wanted to talk about what can unite the country that was divided by different ideologies and the importance of memory in shaping the identity of modern-day Ukraine. We also discussed the notion of “heroes”: as one of the viewers remarked, Ukraine is still a relatively new country and the heroes of the people are still being identified and this has produced some controversy among the different communities.

With five cities to cover in just one week, we have been on the road almost constantly and it has been hard to keep up with the blog. We will be writing in more detail and reporting on the different screenings and discussions, but in the meantime, we wanted to share this update as well as some of the pictures from this tour.

The discussion following the first screening in Kyiv

The screening in Kharkiv

The audience at the Lviv showing

Our small crew on the road getting supplies of beer and chocolate before taking taking the overnight train from Kharkiv to Kyiv

Punting on the river Cam

The view of the Colleges from the river

We learned for example that Prince Charles attended Trinity College – the wealthiest of all colleges at Cambridge – and even though he asked to be treated like everyone else, it didn’t quite happen that way. While the Prince lived with the rest of the students in the dormitory, he alone occupied 27 rooms. He also had a personal bodyguard who accompanied him everywhere – even to his classes. The anecdote says that when it was time for final exams, the bodyguard took the same exams but had a much higher score than his Royal Highness . He unfortunately was not granted a degree because he was never officially enrolled as a student.

It is said that Isaac Newton and other famous students used to pray under this tree before their exams

This is the oldest bridge in Cambridge, the one that the town actually owes its name to. It was the bridge over the river Cam, hence the name "Cambridge"

To those of you who were asking about our delayed luggage, here is the story. The airline called us as we were stepping out from the punt and informed us that they would deliver our luggage “right around tea time, M’aam.” At that point, we wished we could move “tea time” to the morning, but since we were in England, we had no choice but to cave in and go shopping. The luggage actually arrived later in the evening.

The screening itself went very well. The theater was packed, and there were even a few people sitting on the stairs. We were honored that there was such interest about our film and we would like to thank our host Dr. Rory Finnin, who is not only doing a wonderful job promoting Ukrainian films through the annual Ukrainian Film Festival that he created but who is also one of the most prominent scholars and promoters of Ukrainian culture and Ukrainian studies in England.

As always, the discussion was very interesting and we were honestly very pleasantly surprised by the questions from the younger audience who demonstrated great knowledge and interested about the history of Galicia and current affairs of modern-day Ukraine and Poland. We noticed that during the discussion and also in private conversations afterwards, people were genuinely interested in learning more about the region and about the topics that we are exploring in our film. That is one thing that stuck us in Cambridge: you can really feel that there is a great respect for knowledge and creating optimal conditions for learning. One example of that is the fact that students who have better grades get larger rooms in the college accommodations.

On the way to the screening with our wonderful host Dr. Rory Finnin

Cambridge Picturehouse cinema where the screening took place

Inside the Picturehouse Cinema

After the screening, we had a pleasant surprise: we got a chance to see The Ukrainians, the legendary rock band based in England who were performing that night at a pub in Cambridge. Their original songs are a modern interpretation of traditional Ukrainian and Roma music.

What can we tell you? It was a lot of fun! Our feet are still recovering from that night. We also had a chance to meet a lot of people who had come to our screening – including the band members – and it was a pleasure to party together after spending the afternoon engaged in a pretty serious discussion.

The local pub where The Ukrainians were performing

The Ukrainians

The perfect ending for this great day was the tour of Cambridge by night that Rory Finnin was kind enough to offer us after the concert. While walking from the pub to our residence at King College, we got a chance to visit a large part of the city including two of the Colleges in Cambridge: Jesus College and Trinity College. We felt very privileged that we got to hear many inside stories and anecdotes. In Trinity College, for example, we saw the fountain where it is said that Lord Byron, who was a rebellious student, used to bathe to annoy the higher authorities. We also saw the quarter where Gareth Jones lived. Jones, a graduate of Trinity College, was a Welsh journalist who first reported the existence of the Holodomor, the Great Ukrainian Famine of 1932-33, in the Western world.
So many brilliant people attended those colleges for so many centuries that it seems like every stone has a story and a famous footprint.

Jesus College at night

Cambridge by night

Tour of Cambridge by night with Rory Finnin

We had a chance tonight to watch a selection of short films from Ukraine including the winner of the Palme D’Or for short films at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. We will have another post tomorrow with details about how our screening goes, but in the meantime, here are our first impressions of Cambridge and the journey so far.

Our first steps on British soil actually started with a major faux-pas.  Our bags got delayed and, upon arrival to Heathrow Airport, we rushed to the United Airlines counter to sort things out. There, we learned that they would not be able to deliver the bags to us in Cambridge until after the screening. We got appalled and started pleading and arguing as to why we needed to have our dresses before the screening and not after. At one point, behind the counter, the men’s faces went blank and they all froze. We continued our diatribe and tried to be louder than the music coming from the speakers. The men didn’t react. They even put their hands on their chest as if in deep regret. Only then, did we understand that in the entire airport, there were only our two voices that could be heard. Everybody else was silent. It was 11 am on Friday 11/11/11. The British were commemorating the people who fell dead during conflicts past and present…. and we were still arguing about our luggage. Way to go for two filmmakers who preach about commemorating the losses of the War.

We apologized profusely, and to make up for our blunder in etiquette, we purchased two poppies (symbol of Remembrance Day) and wore them the entire day.

On the way to Cambridge, Olia’s first thought was: “Oh, this is just like Virginia, just driving on the wrong side!”

When we got to the city itself, our impressions completely changed when we saw the little streets filled with the cutest shops, restaurants and coffee shops, the countless kamikaze bikers and finally the majestic campus of King’s College where we are hosted. When we started looking for our rooms, as we were going through endless narrow corridors,  up and down old flights of stairs, walking by ancient doorways and heavy framed paintings, we felt this place strangely familiar. And then, when we got the student cafeteria, it all made sense: This is where Harry Potter lives!

Arriving to King's College, Cambridge

The view from Sarah's... bathroom

The river where the famous punts take visitors to see the different colleges from the water

Структура події у кожному місті:
1. Ознайомча передмова режисерів
2. Демонстрація фільму (хронометраж 90 хв.)
3. Дискусія (відеозапис)

ОРГАНІЗАТОРИ У МІСТАХ:
Благодійний фонд ДАР, Благодійний Фонд імені Митрополита Андрея Шептицького, Харківський осередок Фундації Регіональних Ініціатив» (ФРІ), Єврейський культурний центр «Бейт Дан, Чернівецька Міська рада, Обласна громадсько-політична газета «Чорноморські новини».
ІНФОРМАЦІЙНІ ПАРТРЕРИ:
5 Кана¬л, ТVІ, ZAXID.NET, Історична Правда (Вахтанг Кіпіані), «Чорноморські новини», «Наш Собор», Медіапорт

Вебсторінка фільму: http://www.threestoriesofgalicia.com
Трейлер фільму: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZWGdjuHbc9U
Графік показів: http://www.threestoriesofgalicia.com/find-a-screening

За детальною інформацією щодо участі у презентації та дискусії просимо звертатися:
Катерина Неліпович (Київ, Харків, Одеса, Чернівці): +38063 405 71 51, sheptytsky.foundation@ugcc.org.ua
Анастасія Войтюк (Львів): +3806 6626 13 57, a.voytyuk@gmail.com

За детальною інформацією, та з питань акредитації ЗМІ просимо звертатися:
Любов Михайлюк, 05033173354, lmykhalyuk@gmail.com