ECG Productions

09/26/2025

At the Ukrainian Festival this month we captured a powerful scene for our documentary CODE 450: our main character Marichka performing live with Daughters of Donbas. Equally unforgettable, Oksana Smilska gave voice to the heartbreaking stories of children kidnapped during the war—her words held the audience in silence. It felt as if the sky itself echoed the strength of her music—an unforgettable moment that will become a key part of the film.
We’re now moving into the final stages of production.
Huge thanks to Marichka for an incredible performance and for sharing her story with such courage.
Directed by our talented colleague Olena Tumanska.
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09/09/2025

🇺🇦 We Continue to Support Ukraine
https://www.facebook.com/share/174gB566oj/
We do this together with our friends whom the war has brought into our lives.
📅 For ten years now, month after month, we have been standing by those affected. As long as people keep dying, we cannot remain indifferent.
🙏 Join us in helping. Every action matters.

09/09/2025

Once an artist — always an artist!

After recording an episode of The Interview Hour with Oleksandr Borodulia, artist of the Pavlo Virsky National Ensemble.

Once an artist — always an artist! Even years after leaving the stage, you can still feel the breath of performance, the spirit of the ensemble, and the love for art in every movement and every glance.

Today, Oleksandr lives in Canada, but he remains Ukrainian — not just by passport, but in soul, in heart, in every gesture and every word. Ukraine lives within him, no matter where he is.

Dance is not just a profession. It’s a state of soul that stays with you forever.

09/09/2025

A Conversation with the Audience

On August 10, the day Giya Kancheli would have turned 90, a special screening of the film “Giya Kancheli: I Used to Hate the Clarinet” took place in Toronto.

It was more than just a film screening — it was a living conversation with the audience. Many shared the feeling that the silence in the film resonated as strongly as the music itself: “We didn’t want the film to end.”

The evening was made especially memorable by Julian Milkis, who had just returned from a tour across Ukraine performing Kancheli’s music. His recollections of friendship with the composer added warmth and intimacy to the atmosphere.

🙏 We thank everyone who joined us on this special day.
For us, it was more than a premiere. It was a tribute — and a conversation that continues.

09/09/2025

Virsky Between Stage and System

While working on the new version of our film about Pavlo Virsky, we discovered unique documents declassified in 2007.

They preserve his voice — short, sharp, sometimes bitter phrases that reveal his personality and the atmosphere of the time, reflecting the mentality of the Soviet intelligentsia: compromises, self-censorship, the game between sincerity and safety.

This is essentially a “living portrait” of Pavlo Pavlovych Virsky in the mid-1960s, captured through the eyes of an émigré and recorded by intelligence structures.

On one hand, he shows genuine interest in Ukrainian history and culture, asking for books by Hrushevsky, Yavornytsky, Avramenko, valuing émigré creativity, and seeking out the journal Suchasnist.
On the other hand, he is embedded in the Soviet system and forced to justify its restrictions: condemning “political additions” (as in the book Broken Strings), avoiding the topic of repressions, and defending the Party line.

This duality is a characteristic portrait of the Soviet intellectual, especially the leader of a large ensemble: inwardly aware of the value of Ukrainian culture, yet outwardly obliged to reject “dangerous” formulations so as not to harm himself or his dancers.

Yet Virsky is also a “bridge” between Ukraine and the diaspora. He clearly reaches for dialogue: accepts books, agrees on the need for cultural exchange, acknowledges the estrangement between Ukraine and the émigrés as a problem. And at the same time — he feels hurt: “I was not congratulated on my birthday,” “we are not valued, we are picketed.” This reveals his personal vulnerability and desire for recognition.

His political judgments are cautious. He speaks loyally of Party leaders, careful not to delve into sharp topics. The diaspora for him is both an enemy and a potential ally.

The value of this document lies in the fact that it:
— shows Virsky outside official rhetoric — in private conversations, with humor, grievances, sympathies;
— captures his reading, his circle of interests, his attitude toward books and authors;
— provides rare evidence of how Soviet artists interacted with the diaspora under KGB supervision.

Here are his words:

— “This book could stand on my desk. But this subtitle makes it impossible.”
— “The further we go, the more estranged we become from each other.”
— “I was proud and told my friends I would be congratulated by Ukrainians abroad. But I was wrong.”
— “The invasion of Czechoslovakia complicated all of Europe for us. I feared the Paris tour would be canceled.”
— “Sobor caused a storm. The book was withdrawn from sale, but none were burned. A new edition is being prepared: either Honchar will make changes himself, or they will be cut out.”
— “This is not the time for an interview.”
— “A brother should greet a brother as a Ukrainian greets a Ukrainian.”
— “We have broken the ice.”

These testimonies will become part of the new version of the film.
We will present Pavlo Virsky not only as the creator of the ensemble and a genius of dance, but also as a man who had to live and speak in an era where every word carried a price.

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09/05/2025

We’re excited to introduce a new project that began this summer, directed by our talented colleague, filmmaker Anastasiya Mateshko.

We’re mounting a portrait documentary about Ukrainian virtuoso violinist Vasyl Popadiuk 🎻 a Ukrainian-born virtuoso whose bow fuses classical mastery with Romani, jazz, and Latin energy into performances that feel like lived stories rather than “pieces.” Beyond the stage, his relentless touring and charity work for Ukraine make him a cultural bridge—proof that music can carry grief, grit, and hope across borders.

From the director’s notebook: no single portrait can “contain” him—only hint at a life of road-worn luck, constant travel, and the uneasy peace we make with the imperfections of the macro and micro worlds. And the music… For everyone else it’s his gift and vocation; for Vasyl himself it’s something beyond labels—certainly not “karma” or “a cross” (he’d wince at that). For him, music refuses definition or cliché. Like Vasyl himself.

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Directed by: Anastasiya Mateshko
Produced by: ECG Productions Canada

09/01/2025

🎙 On Creativity, Self-Discovery, and the Challenges of the Digital Age

A new episode of “Interview Hour” features an open and honest conversation with Ukrainian animator, director, and producer Adrian Sakhaltuev — son of the legendary Radna Sakhaltuev, a pioneer of Ukrainian animation.

💡 How can we preserve authenticity and human dignity in a world where technology increasingly replaces personal experience?
🎨 How did working in animation and advertising shape his identity as an artist?
🤖 Why is artificial intelligence both a powerful tool and a potential threat?
📉 What is happening to attention, creativity, and entire professions in the age of short-form videos?

⚡ A sincere dialogue about how to remain true to yourself in a world that’s changing faster than we can comprehend.

📺 Watch the full episode on our channel:
https://youtu.be/0ZmDhSVjS4c

📄 Full English transcript available at: https://www.gregoryantimony.com/adriansakhaltuev

08/05/2025

🎬 Toronto Premiere to Mark the 90th Anniversary of a Musical Legend
On August 10, 2025, Gia Kancheli would have turned 90. On that day, a special screening of the documentary “Gia Kancheli: I Used to Hate the Clarinet” will take place in Toronto — a poignant film in which we hear the composer’s own voice, his music, his pauses, and his silence.
“Gia Kancheli: I Used to Hate the Clarinet” is more than just a musical portrait. It is an intimate story about a brilliant composer — the author of symphonic and chamber works, whose music became beloved by millions through unforgettable soundtracks for films such as Mimino, Hanuma, Kin-dza-dza, Passport, and Don’t Grieve.
Kancheli himself jokingly called his most recognizable melody — the theme from Mimino ("Chito-Gvrito") — “venereal,” as it was too catchy and light for his taste. Yet it made his name known to a wider audience.
This is the last film made during Kancheli’s lifetime — a project he actively participated in, down to suggesting the final title. There is no narrator. Just Gia and his friends. Among them — renowned clarinetist Julian Milkis, to whom Kancheli once said: “You’re a charming young man… but I hate the clarinet.”
📍 The special screening in Toronto will take place on August 10 — the day the composer would have turned 90.
Trailer: https://vimeo.com/1106580478
The event will feature the film’s creative team and Julian Milkis, who recently returned from a concert tour across Ukraine with the music of Kancheli.
This is more than a screening.
It is a warm tribute — and a conversation that continues.
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08/04/2025

https://ecgproductions.ca/filming-code-4-5-0-daughters-of-donbas-at-the-scarborough-folk-fest

Filming “Code 4.5.0” – Daughters of Donbas at the Scarborough Folk Fest https://ecgproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_2697-1024x758.jpg 1024 758 ECG Productions ECG Productions https://ecgproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/IMG_2697-1024x758.jpg August 4, 2025 August 4, 2025 A...

08/03/2025

🎬 RISING BEYOND THE LIMITS — DOUBLE VICTORY IN LOS ANGELES! 🇺🇸✨

We’re proud to share that our film has received two top awards at the prestigious Los Angeles Film Awards:

🏆 Best Documentary Feature — awarded to director Olena Tumanska
🏆 Best Picture — the festival’s highest honor across all categories

This recognition is a huge moment for our entire team, and we extend our heartfelt congratulations to Olena Tumanska, whose vision and dedication brought this powerful story to life.

Bravo to every single person who contributed to this film — your passion, courage, and craft made this possible.

Thank you to LAFA for honoring our work and for supporting independent voices in global cinema.

08/01/2025

BEHIND THE SCENES: "The Renaissance That Never Happened"
Filming for the episode “Executed Renaissance” of the documentary series “GULAG. Witnesses”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HC7upd1U00

Together with production designer Dmytro Khilchenko, we recreated the prison cell interior, capturing with actor Anatoliy Mateshko the moment of arrest of Ukrainian literary scholar and writer Anatoliy Kostenko, who miraculously survived the Kolyma camps.

The reconstruction is based on his authentic writings from a rare edition of the memoir “Does the Past Ever Pass?”:

“In prison, you can quickly see who’s who.
They bring in the newly arrested so-called ‘British spy’ Zhukovsky, who just yesterday was the head of the Southwestern Railway...
Among the senior party officials, I met only one true, fearless Bolshevik in Lukyanivska Prison — Stepan Varfolomiyovych Handzei.
Neither in the cell nor in the investigator’s office did he lose his dignity...
Two weeks later, once he recovered, they took him back in.
We never saw him again.
Rumor had it that he had been beaten to death, carried out wrapped in a blood-soaked sheet, and thrown into a prison van...”

🎥 We aim to convey not only the facts — but the breath of that era.
The camera does not just record — it gives voice back.

08/01/2025

https://ecgproductions.ca/behind-the-scenes-of-echoes-in-metal-and-stone

Behind the scenes of “Echoes in Metal and Stone”! https://ecgproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/echos1-1024x576.jpg 1024 576 ECG Productions ECG Productions https://ecgproductions.ca/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/echos1-1024x576.jpg August 1, 2025 August 1, 2025 August 1, 2025 no comments Th...