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Please join the Harriman Institute for a screening of Chubai. Speaking Again, followed by a discussion and Q&A session with the Director, Mykhailo Krupiievskyi. Introduced by Mark Andryczyk.

At the close of the 1960s the talented, young poet Hrytsko Chubai arrives in Lviv. His poetry speaks to the youth and vexes Galician city-dwellers. Chubai is invited to read his poems at intimate gatherings and at evenings of poetry. He is taken under the wing by the poet-dissident family of Ihor and Iryna Kalynets.

Chubai and his friends publish their first samvydav literary-artistic almanac Skrynia (The Chest). At the start of January 1972, the KGB unleashes a special operation against the almanac. Chubai, Ihor and Iryna Kalynets, and many other representatives of the Ukrainian intelligentsia, are arrested. Ihor and Iryna receive 9-year sentences in a prison camp. Chubai is released but his life transforms into a living hell.

The film has an innovative format and was made as a combination of the documentary film and TV show genres. Its actions unfold in the studio-basement of Hrytsko Chubai. The video projection pushes out the walls of the studio and transports the viewer into the featured time and place.

The Ukrainian poet Serhiy Zhadan is formally the host, and, in essence, the guide through Hrytsko Chubai’s life. Like Hrytsko Chubai, Serhiy Zhadan is not just a poet, he is a missionary. Serhiy today, like Hrytsko in his time, transforms the context of his existence: he reads his poems at the frontlines of the war, creates radio programs, volunteers, shares his personal convictions with society, and speaks frankly. Serhiy passes through the film through the corridors of Hrytsko Chubai’s life and observes it from the distance of time.

Mykhailo Krupiievsky is a Ukrainian director and producer of non-fiction film. He is a director and stager of concerts, theatrical productions, festivals and television broadcasts.  He has received the Merited Artist of Ukraine award. Among his achievements and that of his company FILM PLUS are the following projects:

• The documentary film Moia Ukraina (My Ukraine)(made for the 25-year anniversary of Ukraine’s independence)
• The documentary film “Spell Your Name” (Director. Serhiy Bukovsky, Producer Steven Spielberg and Viktor Pinchuk)

Concerts and stagings:

• Nashe Rizdvo (Our Christmas) Festival
• Concert by Sir Elton John on Maidan Nezalezhnosty (Independence Square)
• The Eurovision 2005 Song Contest
• Pope John Paul II’s celebration of the Divine Liturgy in Kyiv
• The Taras Chubai concert Svitlo i Spovid (Light and Confession)
• The Skriabin: Memorial Concert
• Ia vernuvsia zhyvym (I Came Back Alive): A Concert in memory of Serhiy Kuzminsky