EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL takes place within the banned 30 kilometer ”Dead Zone” –the irradiated area surrounding the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant after the nuclear reactor accident occurred on April 26, 1986. Despite an official ban, many residents secretly returned to their contaminated villages within the Zone. Baba Maria is one such survivor who decided to return and continues to live in her ancestral home. Along with other Chornobyl Zone survivors and workers, she celebrates the feast day of Epiphany in which water is blessed and according to their Orthodox Christian belief, washes away all evil–even radiation.

Pete and I created this film with footage taken from our documentary-in-progress LIFE IN THE DEAD ZONE. EPIPHANY won the “Redemptorist Storytellers Award” (Redemptive Storyteller Award, 2008, Redemptive Film Festival, Virginia Beach, VA) and was screened across the U.S. to capacity audiences at The Global Peace Film Festival, Sierra Club, Friends of Chernobyl Centers. U.S. (FOCCUS), Ola Fest, The Ukrainian National Women’s League of America (UNWLA), Nuclear Energy Information Service (NEIS), Ukrainian Medical Association of North America (UMANA), The Ukrainian Museum, New York, Florida Trails Association, The United Ukrainan American Organizations of North Port, FL, and numerous other organizations and schools. Even though it was widely viewed, we wanted to make it even more accessible to anyone who wished to learn about Chornobyl, and for teachers who may want to include this film in their curricula since we’ve had so many requests for it.

Whenever I presented EPIPHANY to a live audience, I was always asked about the haunting and beautiful soundtrack on the film—where did we get this music? Music is so important in filmmaking, and Pete I were searching for just the right score that would enhance and impact our film’s content in profound ways for the viewer. So when we heard the first mesmerizing notes (as you will when you click on to our film), we immediately knew we found the perfect song.

The song we used is called “Wave” and was composed by Mariana Sadovska who is an internationally renowned Ukrainian singer, composer, musician and actress. Mariana mentioned to me in an email that the inspiration for this song came from a Corsican melody and also from Ukrainian wedding and water ritual folk songs. Mariana is herself a famous and highly respected “song catcher.” She collects, resurrects and reinterprets Ukrainian folk melodies and has saved many from obscurity. She also composes her own original compositions and is open to diverse influences from other cultures in her music. She performs and conducts singing workshops throughout the world, and is currently collaborating on a new work with the Kronos Quartet which will have its New York premier in 2013. Mariana’s website is www.borderlandmusic.de

“Wave” is found on a fabulous CD called “THE RUSALKA CYCLE: SONGS BETWEEN THE WORLDS” that was composed by Mariana and performed by Kitka: Women’s Vocal Ensemble on the Diaphonica label.

About Kitka (from their website: www.kitka.org):  “Kitka is an American women’s vocal arts ensemble inspired by traditional songs and vocal techniques from Eastern Europe. Dedicated to developing new audiences for music rooted in Balkan, Slavic, and Caucasian women’s vocal traditions, Kitka also strives to expand the boundaries of folk song as a living and evolving expressive art form.” They are fabulous!

Prior to recording THE RUSALKA CYCLE, Mariana traveled to Ukraine with members of Kitka including the executive director Shira Cion, Kitka’s stage director and Ellen Sebastian Chang to witness the pre-Christian water rituals and collect the folk songs about the “Rusalki” – water nymphs from Slavic mythology. “Rusalki” represented women who died too soon and in order to appease them, village women sang special songs to them.

“Rusalki” are still revered by villagers mostly in the Polissia region of Ukraine, which incidentally is the region where Chornobyl is located. Pete and I did not know this history behind “Wave” until we read the CD liner notes and related links. It was truly a serendipitous and profound choice for our film on many levels!

To read more about how the “Rusalki” songs came to Mariana and Kitka go to: http://www.rockpaperscissors.biz/index.cfm/fuseaction/current.press_release/project_id/339.cfmYou can also hear some audio samples and buy the CD (which you should—it is amazing!!) on this page or at www.kitka.org

And don’t forget to watch Kitka’s fascinating SPARK KQED Documentary Short, which includes footage from Kitka’s and Mariana’s Rusalka Cycle Expeditions in Ukraine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44w_AJR5GKM

Wheat Street Productions, Inc.  is grateful to Mariana Sadovska and Kitka for their sublime music. We are honored that “Wave” is featured in EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL and is a fundamental part of our film’s success in reaching so many people.

And we hope to reach even more viewers on Vimeo. –Irene Zabytko

© 2012 by Wheat Street Productions, Inc.

As part of our fundraising efforts to continue filming LIFE IN THE DEAD ZONE, our documentary about the elderly survivors still living in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone, we created an award-winning short film using some of our footage from previous shoots called EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL (music by the extraordinary Mariana Sadovska and Kitka Women’s Vocal Ensemble www.kitka.org —more about them in an upcoming post). EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL was screened at fundraisers, film festivals and other public events generating more interest in Chornobyl because of the immense audience reaction and impact of our short film.

I mention this because the earliest screenings of EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL were held at the Global Peace Film Festival in Winter Park, FL where it was shown twice: in 2008 for the Peace Pitch Panel (along with Nelson Betancourt’s documentary in progress, CANNIKAN’S WAKE—more about that project in yet another blog) on films dealing with nuclear issues that was presented to Rollins College students; and then in 2009 where it was an official selection of the Global Peace Film Festival.

EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL is a 17 minute short about one of the elderly women still living in the forbidden and contaminated Chornobyl Exclusion Zone near the devastated nuclear power plant, and where she celebrates the feast day of Epiphany, the Eastern Orthodox holy day in which water is blessed. The Orthodox believe that all water is purified when blessed –even the waters of Chornobyl.

Exposure in film festivals like Global Peace enables a forum for serious topics and issues that are timely, important and thought provoking. We are grateful to Nina Streich, Executive Director of the Global Peace Film Festival and everyone there for continuing this great festival of films and hosting it in Winter Park, Florida and for allowing us the chance to showcase EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL.

Among the fabulous selections at this year’s Festival (Sept. 20-25) three will include issues of nuclear energy:
• “Atomic Mom” is an intimate portrait of the only female scientist present during atomic detonations in the Nevada desert who goes through a crisis of conscience.
• Robert Frye examines the story of nuclear weapons in his film “In My Lifetime.”
• “Into Eternity” explores the complex issues of storage of high-level radioactive waste created by nuclear power plants.

For more information about the Global Peace Film Festival visit: www.peacefilmfest.org

And if you or your organization would like to host a screening of EPIPHANY AT CHORNOBYL and selections from our longer film-in-progress, LIFE IN THE DEAD ZONE (about the about the elderly survivors in the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone), please contact me at info@lifeinthedeadzone.com

Meanwhile I will be in touch about our next film shoot in the Zone. Thanks for listening.

Peace,
Irene Zabytko (Producer, Co-Director, Writer)

Please visit our updated website at: www.lifeinthedeadzone.com and make a contribution online on or make out your checks to our non-profit sponsor organization: AWAKENING/Art and Culture and send to: Wheat Street Productions, Inc. PO Box 898, Apopka, FL 32704-0898. Please earmark the check as: CHORNOBYL FILM

All donors will be listed on our website and on the film credits.

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