20 Days in Mariupol Film Screening & Panel Discussion

Thursday, October 19, 2023

6:30 pm -

FotoFest, Holocaust Museum Houston, and the Institute for Global Engagement co-present the Texas premiere screening of 20 Days in Mariupol, a visceral documentary following journalists covering the destruction of Mariupol, Ukraine by award-winning Pulitzer Prize recipient and Ukrainian photojournalist Mstyslav Chernov.

The program includes a video-introduction by Director Mstyslav Chernov, a screening, and a post-screening discussion featuring a panel of journalism, Eastern European history, and public health experts curated by the Institute for Global Engagement.

The documentary follows an AP team of Ukrainian journalists trapped in the besieged city of Mariupol as they struggle to document the atrocities of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. As the only international reporters who remain in the city, they capture what have later become defining images of the war: dying children, mass graves, the bombing of a maternity hospital, and more.

After nearly a decade covering international conflicts, including the Russia-Ukraine war, for The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol is Mstyslav Chernov’s first feature film. The film draws on Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

This screening is held in conjunction with FotoFest’s exhibition Fighting: Ukrainian War Photographers, which features over 255 images of the Russian invasion by sixteen members of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers and is presented at Silver Street Studios at Sawyers between October 5–November 18, 2023. For more information about the exhibition, visit www.fotofest.org /fighting-ukrainian-war-photographers.

For free tickets to the Texas premiere screening of 20 Days in Mariupol and the post-screening panel discussion visit the ticket portal here. Prior signup is required.

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