Guest Speakers
Thursday, April 24th, 2025, 7:00pm - Under the Volcano
Join film director Damian Kocur, Doug Saunders and Andy Semotiuk for a Q&A about the film and a discussion about global immigration in today's world.
Damian Kocur (live-feed on screen)
Director (Under the Volcano), scriptwriter, and cinematographer. PhD student at the Łódź Film School. He is the author of several internationally awarded short films. His debut feature film BREAD AND SALT (2022) was awarded the Special Jury Prize in the Orizzonti competition at the Venice Film Festival 2022, Cairo IFF, Antalya IFF, Cottbus Film Festival, and many more. His last short film AS IT WAS was nominated for Palme d'Or at Cannes 2023.
Doug Saunders
Globe and Mail International-affairs columnist & author of Arrival City: The Final Migration and Our Next World (2011), The Myth of the Muslim Tide (2012) and Maximum Canada (2017).
Andy Semotiuk
Forbes Correspondent, immigration lawyer and author of four books, including Solomea: Star of Opera's Golden Age. Mr. Semotiuk is a former United Nations correspondent and served on the Tribunal Panel of the Canadian Human Rights Commission for three years.
Saturday, April 26th, 2025, 11:00am - Ride the Line
Filmmaker Ihor Volchii and Sebastian Schwesig will be joining us via live-feed after the International premiere of their film Ride the Line, a documentary about their bike ride along the 1,500km front line in Ukraine, which received funding from the Aid for Artists (Canada-Ukraine Foundation - CUF) Fund which TUFF donated to in 2023. Valeriy Kostyuk, Executive Director at CUF will be on stage as the moderator.
Ihor Volchii (live-feed on screen)
Director of Ride the Line. A 34-year-old avid cyclist, sports and adventure filmmaker from Ukraine. With the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Ihor is actively involved in volunteering
Sebastian Schwesig (live-feed on screen)
German, cyclist, volunteer in Ukraine, 57 years old, self-employed.
Valeriy Kostyuk
Executive Director at Canada-Ukraine Foundation (CUF) and producer of multi-disciplinary art projects, including Ukraine’s first immersive exhibition, Immersive Shevchenko: Soul of Ukraine, which has toured internationally to promote and raise funds for Ukraine.
Saturday, April 26th, 2025, 9:00pm - Scream of My Blood: a Gogol Bordello Story
Join Mark Marczyk from Balaclava Blues / Lemon Bucket Orchestra for a discussion about the power of music and culture with Eugene Hutz from Gogol Bordello.
Eugene Hütz (live-feed on screen)
Ukrainian-born singer, composer, disc jockey and actor. Frontman of the punk band Gogol Bordello.
Mark Marczyk
Award-winning Ukrainian-Canadian musician of Balaklava Blues and the Lemon Bucket Orkestra.
Sunday, April 27th, 2025, 1:30pm - A Picture to Remember
Director Olya Chernykh will be discussing her film A Picture to Remember, and the importance of Ukrainian women's storytelling in 2025. The film will be introduced by the film producer Nikita Kozlov who now resides in Toronto.
Olga Chernykh (live-feed on screen)
Ukrainian filmmaker and director. Born in Donetsk, Olga graduated with an MA from the Cinematography department of the Kyiv National I. K. Karpenko-Karyi University. After receiving a post graduate diploma in documentary filmmaking she works mainly as a director. Her first feature-length documentary, A Picture to Remember, was an opening film of IDFA 2023 and among other awards was honoured the Heart of Sarajevo for the Best Documentary.
Sunday, April 27th, 2025, 4:30pm - Porcelain War
Stay for a panel discussion with director/artist Slava Leontyev and members of the film team for a discussion on filmmaking and art as a Ukrainian cultural weapon.
Slava Leontyev (live-feed on screen)
Ukrainian artist, former soldier, and co-director of Porcelain War, winner of the 2024 Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Documentary.
TUFF Panel Discussions Moderator:
Natalka Semotiuk
Ukrainian-Canadian filmmaker and director.