Radio Kultura has launched the Voices of the Frontline project, which consists of radio essays by Ukrainian military and veterans. This was reported on the corporate website of the Public Broadcasting Company.
Six veterans of the Ukrainian-Russian war took part in the project. They recorded 10 essays especially for Radio Culture, and the project team adapted them for broadcasting on the radio.
The project was attended by:
Vitalii Kyrychenko, frontman of the band NUMER 482, a member of the Cultural Landing unit;
Pavlo Pashtet Belyansky, writer, screenwriter, junior sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
Artur Dron, writer, junior sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
Yelyzaveta Zharikova, poet, musician, combat medic, junior sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine;
Oksana Ponomaryova, director of the international charity foundation Res.Publica, sergeant of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, military leadership instructor;
Borys Ryabukha, colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, participant of the battles for Donetsk airport, Avdiivka, Pisky, Kharkiv.
For most of the participants, this is the first time they have participated in such a project.
“When I was thinking about the idea of a veteran radio essay, I relied on the experience of our previous project, The Air Element. In it, Ukrainian authors gained a voice and sounded out loud, with all their breaths, sighs and sobs. The texts of the military are very suitable for this kind of sound, they are extremely frank. The women and men who risk their lives every day are able to write directly – and this is also a certain risk. That’s why Voices of the Front is broadcast on Radio Kultura – loudly, out loud, in the first person,” said Iryna Slavinska, executive producer of Radio Kultura.
In her commentary to Chitomo, she said that the genre of radio essay was chosen because of Radio Kultura’s experience in working with audio non-fiction, as well as because of the peculiarities of essay as a genre: “Essays, like poetry, in the contemporary Ukrainian context are a very dynamic genre that allows you to respond to reality quickly and do so in a perfect artistic form. It is easy to see how many authors work with essayistic statements, telling about their reality.”
Iryna Slavinska emphasised that it was important for the Radio Kultura team to create content that would form a non-stereotypical image of female and male veterans.
In order to select the texts, the radio announced an artistic competition and received three applications from curators who each proposed their own list of authors and topics. The commission chose the proposal of curator Tatiana Shamshetdinova.
“Each essay, if translated into the language of production, is a very long and labour-intensive process. Firstly, our authors are military men, so they prepared their texts while performing combat missions, having to find time for creativity even in extremely difficult conditions. Secondly, it took some time for the team of editors to help the texts to be transformed into the ones that would sound best in the audio format. I know that the final edits were made literally during the recording in our studio. Thirdly, the Radio Kultura team adapted to the schedule of the team of authors as much as possible, so we did a lot of work on weekends, catching free hours during our authors’ holidays and business trips. This part of the work is also quite intimate – it involves words and voice, nothing else. Fourthly, the whole post-production process, i.e. working with the raw recording, turning it into a radio essay, where all the radio magic can be heard. We have vast experience in this area. That is why you will not be able to listen to each of the already published essays indifferently-they pierce and touch your heart,” noted Iryna Slavinska.
Olena Huseynova, the project’s producer, said that it was extremely valuable to her that the authors of this project include people who had not previously been involved in essay writing. In her opinion, when people who have never expressed their feelings in this genre start doing so, it makes it possible to better understand and feel common experiences.
The project was created by:
Olena Huseynova, project producer;
project curator – Tetiana Shamshetdinova;
sound producer – Hanna Malienko;
Yulia Zahoruyko, producer of Radio Kultura;
Iryna Slavinska, executive producer of Radio Kultura.
You can listen to the project here. The project was implemented with the support of the International Renaissance Foundation.
Source: Chytomo
