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Porcelain War (Ukrainian, Russian with English subtitles)
Location
Fernand-Seguin screening room
Date
January 10th - 16th, 2025
Duration
87 min
Cycle
New releases

The mission of the Centre d'art et essai de la Cinémathèque québécoise (CAECQ) is to primary program Quebec-made documentaries and independent fiction, as well as international documentaries, animated and foreign films, while encouraging opportunities for meetings between the public and the artists. Its programming is presented in conjunction with the Cinémathèque québécoise’s under the label New releases.

Winner of the Grand Jury Prize - Documentary, 2024 Sundance

Porcelain War
Directed by
Brendan Bellomo, Slava Leontyev
Language
Ukrainian, Russian with English subtitles
Origins
Ukraine, USA, Australia
Year
2024
Duration
87 min
Genre
Documentary
Format
Digital
Synopsis

Under roaring fighter jets and missile strikes, Ukrainian artists Slava, Anya, and Andrey choose to stay behind and fight, contending with the soldiers they have become. Defiantly finding beauty amid destruction, they show that although it’s easy to make people afraid, it’s hard to destroy their passion for living.

Porcelain War
Awards

Brendan Bellomo

Brendan Bellomo was the recipient of a 2009 Student Academy Award for Live Action Narrative. Bellomo’s passion for storytelling was first sparked when he was a child. Beginning his career in visual effects, he supervised the 2012 Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner and Oscar nominee for Best Picture Beasts of the Southern Wild. Most recently, Bellomo was the executive producer on the Netflix Original Chupa (2023). Bellomo worked closely with Annie Leibovitz on the global exhibit Women: New Portraits and designed the curriculum for the first visual effects course at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, which led him on the path to eventually pair with his directing partner on Porcelain War, Slava Leontyev.

Slava Leontyev

Slava Leontyev is a first-time director born into a family of biologists in Ukraine. Merging his love of nature and art, Leontyev has spent his life studying painting, photography, graphic design and art theory. Alongside his wife and longtime collaborator Anya Stasenko, Leontyev now creates the porcelain sculptures featured in Porcelain War. He is also a former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces and a highly regarded weapons instructor for civilians who are currently defending their country against Russian aggression.