02/03/2022
We're at war - and Putin is killing my friends!
Then I pet my little darling Diik because that gives me comfort, because he has this grace and only knows what's going on here in the forest and whether Toni is annoying again and I bought the right food.
And yet I'm not really feeling well.
Through many small coincidences, I met Maryna Dymshyts in 2018, who was still studying documentary film with Pepe Danquart at the HFBK (Hamburg University of Fine Arts) at the time.
So it happened that I was able to create the documentary "Ice of Chernobyl" with her as director and editor and I as producer.
We had a mass of material. We had to clarify a lot of legal matters because they wanted to cheat her out of their material, and we managed to do it together and with the help of Hamburg media lawyer Kirberg.
There were plenty new cut versions and we had more than one unspeakable argument, but we got along again and continued to work on the "Picture Lock" version that was available at some point.
What a tangle of colors and then came the Munich Scanwerk, their owner Peter Deinas and the colorist Marcus Adam and made such an incredibly great color grading. For free.
But something crucial is missing for a great documentary, the music. And again such a miracle happened. I had previously worked with composer Yann Kuhlmann and asked him to watch the documentary.
First I didn't hear anything for a few days and when I called him, I got the answer: "I'm already on it"!
Yann composed music for the entire documentation for the images and cuts. Quite a complete soundtrack.
Ice of Chernobyl doesn't have a single test-tube music.
We finished the documentary at the end of 2019 and had a wonderful little cinema premiere in Lüchow at the beginning of 2020.
I went to the Berlinale and the EFM (European Film Market) in good spirits, to sell the documentary internationally and to bring it to the cinema together with another work. Because it is "only" 44 minutes long.
In the meantime we also had them "for sale" on Amazon Prime Video.
But then the pandemic struck. Cinemas closed and everyone fell into a state of shock.
And we decided to put Ice of Chernobyl on Prime.
Ice of Chernobyl became the most successful German documentary in this segment in 2020 with over 250,000 views and a CER acceptance value of 96-98% and an IMDb rating of 7.2 stars (out of 10).
So I was bold enough to submit this documentary for the 2021 Oscars. What a hiccup whether we were too early or not on a streaming service and the Covid exceptions applied or not. In the end, the Academy decided that we had been on the streaming service about 1 month too early. In 2021 it was exactly 35 years since the catastrophe - but it probably shouldn't be.
Economically, the release on Amazon Prime Video was a disaster and as a producer I was allowed to write off massive losses. But this little documentary caught on and so Maryna and her boyfriend Tim (cameraman) hatched the plan to make an 8 part series.
The exclusion zone, Pripyat and Chernobyl from 7 different perspectives. 6 different stalkers and a police unit, as well as an introductory film about the exclusion zone.
Then came the idea of shooting an 8+1 series. So one of the films completely in 360°
We planned all of this in February/March 2021. Many discussions with Maryna and Tim about how we want to implement it and lots of budget planning later, I had it all figured out. As a concept and as a film budget.
But NO channel was interested. No ARD, no ZDF, not even ARTE and even Pro7 as well as Sky and Netflix canceled.
A relevant person in sponsorship/product placement put me off until May 2021, only to then not understand it and flimsy cancel it.
Old, sluggish, too rich... like the German TV stations. Everything is incredibly sad.
But a dear friend of mine, Stefan Jonas helped out and the owner of the Speeech Audiolingual Lab, Stephan Kleinschmidt was so taken with the work and offered to create a German VoiceOver version for us for free.
Stefan Jonas took over the language direction, Alexander Schulz the recording manager and we were able to win Tobias Ziegler and Florian Burgkart as speakers.
A fantastic mixture and really extraordinary cooperation and understanding then characterized the work of Florian Faltermeyer as sound engineer and sound mixer.
And Yann Kuhlmann sat down again on the final song "Darkness" and also performed magic.
After all the rebuffs we had experienced, we agreed: "then we'll just do it ourselves". We put it on YouTube, collect a lot of views and make Ice of Chernobyl available to the whole world for free.
And if you like, you can donate something via a Paypal button and we will shoot the 8+1 series ourselves.
That was the status in December 2021...
And in 2022, the situation around Ukraine deteriorated more and more due to the despot Putin.
But we didn't want to believe in a war and we carried on. Nevertheless, we also talked to possible co-production partners - who to this day have not even asked how the director or the team in Ukraine is actually doing. Well, the German media industry. Always act badly affected, but actually go through life very self-centered.
Why am I writing all this in such detail?
Because it's not just black or white. Yes, there are these aloof TV stations or platforms that know everything better, as well as arrogant production companies that actually only belong to a studio anyway and do commissioned work for television.
And then there are all these great people who see and understand what is dormant and are there.
I chatted with Maryna today. Not for long, because the siren sounded again in Kyiv.
And I didn't want to ask if she is healthy and everyone else is healthy too. So this stupid "how are you" came out of me.
"WE HAVE A WAR - how should I be?! The boys, Tim and Oleg went to a hotspot in northern Kiev today and I don't know if I'll see Tim again."
A couple, just 30 and on the way to building something in the film business. Really my friends now, not only are they in a country that was forced into a war by that wa**er Putin, but there's a good chance I'll never see them alive again.
And just thinking about it makes me sick and tears run down my face.
I will finish the documentary with the German VoiceOver and all other subtitles and put it on YouTube.
And I will activate the PayPal donation button!
I believe in an AFTER. I believe that after this unspeakable war we will come together again and shoot something moving. Even though we've all changed, as has the exclusion zone.
And if that doesn't exist, if my friends don't survive it, the money goes to a project for new young filmmakers in or from Ukraine. Then they have to carry the torch on.
I will inform you as soon as this new version goes online and you are welcome to share it and carry it out into the world.
It's the least I can do for my friends Maryna, Tim and Oleg.
Alexander MacG
Producer & Admin Ice Of Chernobyl
***
THE DARKNESS
Yann Kuhlman
https://open.spotify.com/track/0lIFYBXkrbwOA3KNVHTaox?si=Hr0l3mvDSQqA-5ye4RqAeg
Yann Kuhlmann · Song · 2020
