"I never want to film anything like Mariupol again. But as this war continues, I will be doing this work in one way or another until it is done. " -- Mstylav Chernov

5 Questions #19 for the director of DGA-winning & Oscar-nominated doc 20 Days In Mariupol

We all need to see it with our own eyes.

More than ever before. In these days of fake news and disinformation and the collapse of mainstream media, the role of the journalist and filmmaker to bear witness is crucial. They become a crucial backstop to preserving democracy.

Everyone knew Putin would attack Ukraine. In some ways, you can say The West was complicit, as action was not taken to stop it. Yet, when the missiles were launched and the tanks rolled in… when the citizens were mercilessly attacked… children killed… hospitals bombed… information, truth, first hand witness were in too short supply. There are numerous reasons, but there is one thing that changes everything: committed teams. The brave, courageous, talented people who make sacrifices for the rest of us, who show the world truth.

We, the citizens somewhat safe in our homes elsewhere, in places of relative peace, make a mistake far too often. We think we know things. We think we know what it must be like. If we still watch the news or read the papers, we think we’ve heard it, seen it, or lived it already. Stop that. It is so not true.

I am incredibly grateful to Mstylav and his team for filming the siege of Mariupol, for bearing witness, for getting the footage out, and for putting it together so well. Watching this film, you live the experience but as devastating as it is, the inspiration that comes with such opportunity, the kind that defines what it is to be human, to be part of the world, for holding a commitment for others, for something greater than ourselves, for principles, for values, for the right of self-determination — there is nothing greater. You owe it all of us, and particularly yourself, to see this film too.

And thank you Mstylav for sharing some of your thoughts with us today.

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the director prepares for another day at work

So much is at stake with your film, it feels a bit foolish for me to break it down into components, but this newsletter is both about the art and business of filmmaking, so I hope you'll excuse me. As kinetic and visceral as the subject is, you apply several formal techniques to the structure and presentation, most obviously the linear timeline, but also the types of footage you use. Can you speak a bit about the alignment of form and content and what the aim is, where you feel it works best (be it in your film and others), and the process of finding that marriage?

As important as the material and footage and story is, you cannot just drop it on the audience and hope they will figure this out themselves. In order to keep the audience engaged, especially for a difficult story like this, we needed a dramatic arc in the story. We needed structure and pacing. Because of the fragmented nature of the material, you have to use tools that connect everything together, like recurring visual devices and musical leitmotifs. For instance, we have one for grief. We establish it in the scene with Kyril, the 18-month-old boy who dies in the hospital. Later in the film, when a doctor leads us downstairs, that music starts and the audience senses what to expect and helps to connect everything. We use a classic structure - three acts. We use intentional pauses after emotional moments, so the audience has time to process what they have seen. And to immerse the audience in the feeling of being in war and fear, intense emotion and feeling of being trapped together inside the besieged city, we use raw visual language. There is a lot of deliberate cinematic craft that goes underneath that. It’s a paradox, right? We are trying to be as naturalistic as possible. And in order to do that, we need a lot of craft.  All the tools that good narrative films would apply to tell a compelling story. So to achieve naturalism and a feeling of rawness, you actually have to be very deliberate. That’s the beauty of it.

What is the best or favorite advice you’ve received? How has it influenced your work going forward?

In the process of making the film, we incorporated various feedback to add more context and information. But toward the end, the best advice was to actually remove as much of that as possible. Anything that was not absolutely essential. The goal was to limit and narrow perspective, which ultimately made the film more personal and relatable. This helped to keep the audience engaged with the story, and identify with it more. 

Could you tell us about a collaborator or industry hero and why you respect them?

Ron Fricke. He started earlier with Koyaanisqatsi, of course, but what Samsara and Baraka did for the industry is truly amazing. The most inspiring thing is that these films proved that beauty could be the main drive of a film, the main story. They are striking in how different they are from what we expect. Humans search for stories everywhere. We try to find meaning in what we see on the screen. These sequences and visuals in order, we create meanings and engage much more. They are seemingly random, but there’s a lot of invisible craft going into building them. Knowing that these films exist and that they are successful is inspiring. You can go against rules, experiment and if you do that with clear vision, you can create something meaningful and important and achieve something great. 

"20 Days" is in many ways "bearing witness". It is one of the roles we say both journalism and cinema needs to do. Yet at the same time, the only thing we can film is someone being filmed. How does the camera affect the subject or influence events? I love how you weave this into the film, and we are very conscious of the subjects' awareness of the power of what you are doing, but can you unpack that further for us, on how it affects the day to day efforts to capture truth and your overall thinking in putting the film together.

Yes, this is one of the main themes of the film and a question we are trying to answer. How is the camera affecting reality? Both with its presence in the moment, and also the long lasting effects of the footage being shot and distributed to millions of people. In order to explore this, we make the cameraperson one of the characters. And by making the cameraperson part of community, they can serve as a voice of the community. We also include moments when the camera drops down, and when there are off camera interactions - it is underlining that events are unfolding even when the camera is not “rolling”. 

I believe this is your first feature, and that's really remarkable. You and your team risked your lives to get this made and seen. And it's been embraced and recognized. What are your plans to go forward from here? I can't imagine you will want to be in another war zone, but how do you contemplate further steps? And how do you do it while Russia's invasion continues?

I never want to film anything like Mariupol again. But as this war continues, I will be doing this work in one way or another until it is done. 

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Please follow to learn more of the film:

https://www.instagram.com/20daysinmariupol/?hl=en

https://linktr.ee/20days

And if you happen to be in NYC or LA, upcoming screenings:

• New York: Film Forum, 5:15pm Feb. 20 

• LA: American Cinematheque Aero, 7pm Feb. 21

Mstyslav Chernov | Director, Writer, Producer, Cinematographer
Mstyslav Chernov is a Pulitzer Prize winning video journalist at The Associated Press and president of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. Since joining AP in 2014, he has covered major conflicts, social issues and environmental crises across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Most recently, Chernov documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together with longtime colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, Chernov recorded the siege of Mariupol, showing the world eyewitness accounts of the Russian attacks on the city. Chernov’s courageous reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was named 2016 Camera Operator of the Year and 2015 Young Talent of the Year by the UK’s Royal Television Society. He is from Eastern Ukraine and is based in Germany.