Meet the Pinchuks - A Ukrainian Family in Rhode Island, While Dad’s on the Front

A New Documentary Currently in Production.

A Ukrainian military family rebuilds their lives in coastal Rhode Island while their father fights on the front lines, revealing how love, resilience, and community endure across oceans and war.
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A Ukrainian military family’s connection to Rhode Island began long before the full-scale invasion. In 2017, the father, an officer in the Ukrainian Navy, studied at Newport’s Naval War College at the invitation of the U.S. Navy. The family built friendships and a temporary life in the quiet seaside community before returning to Ukraine.
 
Years later, war shattered that peace. A Russian missile strike in Odesa left their son with a traumatic brain injury, forcing mother and child to seek safety and treatment back in Rhode Island. Now they have returned to the place where their American story began—near the U.S. Naval War College—as their husband and father continues to fight for Ukraine. Combining personal testimony and daily life, this documentary follows a family torn between two continents, united by love, sacrifice, and survival. 

​The film will weave together intimate, character-driven moments from both Ukraine and Rhode Island, including:

• Archival and contemporary footage of the family in Odesa
• Everyday life in Jamestown unfolds through classrooms, playing fields, after-school pursuits, and even nights around the Boy Scouts campfire
• Aerial drone cinematography piloted by Sasha
• Viktoriia’s woodcraft training at IYRS in Newport
• The family’s origin story in Rhode Island through the Naval War College in Newport
• Interviews with leaders from the Jamestown and Aquidneck Ukrainian Relief Projects and key community sponsors
• Sasha’s All-State flute performance
• An in-depth exploration of Sasha’s medical journey
• A potential visit to Ukraine’s front lines and to meet the rest of the family including daughter/sister Yana and Holly, the family dog, in Ukraine

This multi-location structure emphasizes resilience, displacement, community, and the enduring bonds of family under wartime conditions.

Meet the Pinchuks: Impact
Beyond documenting one family’s journey, Meet the Pinchuks seeks to deepen Americans’ understanding of Ukraine and of a people who have become our newest democratic allies. By placing viewers inside an intimate, transatlantic family story shaped by war, displacement, resilience, and community, the film humanizes a global conflict through the lens of childhood, sacrifice, and hope.

The impact strategy for Meet the Pinchuks builds on the proven success of the Trek to Bucha trilogy and is amplified through a multi-platform distribution and engagement plan that includes:
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• Curated in-person and virtual community screenings
• Pursuit of a national broadcast distribution via PBS and partner networks
• Strategic film festival participation to drive awareness and reviews
• Availability across streaming platforms
• Targeted educational distribution for schools, universities, and civic organizations

​Together, these outlets position Meet the Pinchuks to reach broad national and international audiences while fostering dialogue, empathy, and sustained engagement with Ukraine’s ongoing struggle for freedom.

Join Our Cause!
Stand with us in telling this urgent story. Your support helps bring Beyond Bucha to audiences around the world—through screenings, broadcasts, education, and advocacy—amplifying the voices of Ukrainian families living through war. Whether through a donation, a partnership, or hosting a screening, you become part of a growing movement using film to inform, inspire, and mobilize. Together, we can ensure these stories are seen, heard, and never forgotten.

The Director
Steve Richards directs and produces all of TheoEco’s documentaries. He first traveled to Ukraine in March 2022 to film Trek to Bucha, returned in January 2023 to shoot Back to Bucha, and completed additional production shoots there in 2025 for Beyond Bucha. With seven documentaries to his credit, he co-founded TheoEco in 2015.