November 29th 2022 - 9.00pm | Museo Spazio Pubblico, via Curiel 13/d, Bologna

What Shall We Do With These Buildings? (screening in presence)

Proiezione in anteprima nazionale del cortometraggio “What Shall We Do With These Buildings?” di Jonathan Ben-Shaul.
Il film è stato girato nel settembre 2021, in un momento in cui la prospettiva di un'invasione da parte della Russia sembrava remota, ma il fantasma del suo precedente dominio rimaneva scritto nel cemento attraverso il paesaggio urbano. Il film mette in scena una conversazione aperta e divisiva sugli edifici sovietici della città: cosa si dovrebbe fare con loro? Dovrebbero essere conservati, distrutti, riadattati? Che potere hanno sul modo in cui le persone pensano e interagiscono con il loro ambiente? Dopo l'invasione, il film funge da capsula del tempo: un'istantanea di un'Ucraina indipendente e speranzosa che cerca di trovare i suoi piedi, in un momento in cui tale indipendenza non è mai stata così minacciata.

“What Shall We Do With These Buildings?” is a documentary-dance film which explores the legacy of Soviet architecture in Kharkiv, Ukraine. The film was shot in September 2021, at a time when the prospect of a full-scale invasion from Russia seemed remote, but the ghost of its former rule remained written in concrete across the cityscape. The film platforms a divisive and open conversation about the city’s Soviet buildings: What should be done with them? Should they be preserved, destroyed, repurposed? What power do they hold over the way people think and interact with their environment?
Interwoven within this patchwork of opinion is another kind of exploration. Dance runs through the film in playful counterpoint, providing another language to articulate the ways in which buildings move bodies.
Since the invasion, the film serves as a time capsule - a snapshot of an independent, hopeful Ukraine trying to find its feet, at a time when that independence has never been more threatened. It captures tensions embodied in social space right before the city descended into war. We hope it can provide an insight into how Kharkiv was before the invasion; how much it has lost and stands to lose. We’ve also now committed to using the film as a fundraising tool for humanitarian efforts on the ground.