Part 1 of Double Feature | Film Screening of "Rule of Two Walls"

Film Synopsis: This raw and atmospheric portrait documents the lives of artists who remain in Ukraine. Their creative practices, whether in visual art, music, or performance, become acts of survival and defiance, offering a glimmer of hope and resilience in the face of adversity.

Director’s Statement: “Everyone in my family is from Ukraine. In April 2022, a little over a month into the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, I got a one-way ticket to Warsaw with the intention of entering Ukraine by bus. In Warsaw, I interviewed Ukrainians displaced by the war, thinking I would make a documentary about Ukrainians who, like my family, left. But by the time I crossed the border into Ukraine, it was clear to me that I was going to make a film about Ukrainians who stayed. 

Since completing the film, I find myself preoccupied with one shot in particular. In this shot, firefighters try to put out a fire in a local market, recently bombed by a Russian missile. Minutes after the bombing, the shelling continues on the same market, again and again, to prevent rescue workers from saving people. A Ukrainian cameraman holds the shot as the shelling continues. Bombs are falling within ten feet of him as the ceaseless assault continues. But the cameraman holds still. He refuses to run. He will wait out the shelling, as the camera rolls. Why would the cameraman risk his life for this? The answer to this question is what the Russian media and government failed to understand when predicting that Kyiv would fall in three days. When the cameraman risks his life to document the atrocities, he is also saying, “I, as a Ukrainian—exist.” 

Rule of Two Walls has received multiple international accolades including winning the Special Jury Mention Award at the 2023 Tribeca Film Festival.

This screening is presented as part of our ongoing programming for Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine. 

We are grateful to the International Folk Art Foundation, Friends of Folk Art, and donors to the Museum of New Mexico Exhibition Development Fund, including Mark Naylor and Dale Gunn, Gwenn and Eivind Djupedal, Rosalind Doherty, Barbara Forslund, David Vogel and Larry Fulton, The Gale Family Foundation, and TOKo Santa Fe for their support of Amidst Cries from the Rubble: Art of Loss and Resilience from Ukraine and its related programming.