The Women, Kids, Young Men, and Pastors of Ukraine’s Spirit.

Back to Bucha opens with a poem. A poem written by Phyllis Wheatley in 1784, an African American who captures the essence of what Ukrainians are fighting for: In every human Breast, God has implanted a Principle, which we call Love of Freedom; it is impatient of Oppression, and pants for Deliverance.

Unlike the original Trek to Bucha shot in the early days of the full-scale invasion, Back to Bucha is filled with women and their children. Beginning in April 2022 in the film’s opening scenes in Bucha we meet Tonya at a destroyed coffee shop, sweeping up broken glass and trying to reopen the shop at least enough to serve free coffee to the workers and neighbors who were still there.

Flash forward 10 months and we meet Tonya plus Julia, the shop’s owner. At the newly rebuilt Jul’s Coffee and Peace we get an upbeat and hopeful interview about Julia’s return with her family and the Spirit that drives them to rebuild. They believe God is watching over them.

Back to Bucha is filled with scenes of life in Ukraine during January and February 2023. From Lviv to Kyiv to Bucha we get the real-life realities of Ukrainians and what’s changed since we were there in April 2022 shooting Trek to Bucha – and what hasn’t. For instance we see at the Kyiv train station that the ubiquitous armed soldiers  - and their guns - are largely gone in what is a fully functioning, if underpopulated, Kyiv.    We see life going on pretty well actually, aside from the sirens and power outages which are part of the fabric of life.

Next in Kyiv the film takes us into a kindergarten where we get an interview with Andriana, a worker at the school. She tells us about the heartbreaking, though heartening day to day reality, of raising young children in Kyiv right now. We also get to meet several mothers of the students who talk about their experiences of first fleeing, and then returning to the city to raise their kids, in their homes, in their home country.

Next up is Father Roman of the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the first of several pastors in the film. He talks about how various faiths in Ukraine work together to support Ukraine. We also hear from the Ukrainian Orthodox rector of St. Andrew’s in Bucha, perhaps the most iconic building in Ukraine since the mass graves and atrocities on its grounds made international headlines after the Russian retreat in the early days of the war. Between the two interviews we get a good take on what is happening from a theological perspective. But they aren’t the only ones, We also run into a Presbyterian Texas pastor at his church in Lviv, as well as an online service conducted by a Russian speaking pastor who keeps his flock together online since fleeing Kharkiv with his family to Lviv.

We also reconnect with many of the young men from the first film. Young men of course have an added layer of concern to adapt to their new normal and “life interrupted-ness” that all Ukrainians experience. Young men in Ukraine live with the potential of being called into the military at any moment - and maybe even to the front lines. They are all ready.
A highlight is the return to the recently moved and reopened Match Bistro and an interview with Alex and Maxim whom we met in April 2022 when the previous Match was serving 1500+ meals a day with World Central Kitchen. We also meet up with Sasha at the Ukrainian Catholic University in Lviv. Last time we saw him he and fellow students were organizing supply donations from all over the world for delivery to front line soldiers.

In Bucha we got together again with Lyubimyr who heads up the Youth Council for the city of Bucha. The interview takes place in the same basement where he and his neighbors spent the early days of the full-scale invasion sheltering and Bucha’s occupation by the Russians. We also see how a new toilet in there will save them from having to use buckets should the need ever rise again.

All of these encounters take place with Ukraine and the war as the backdrop. This includes walk arounds in Lviv, Kyiv, Bucha, Irpin and Hostomel where sirens were expected as were the power outages.

The film ends with a bittersweetness that is Ukraine when we tour the Kindergarten basement bomb shelter and hear how the children have come to enjoy their time there. Thanks to the dedicated staff at the school whom we see singing and dancing with the little ones in the film’s inspirational finale.

We are very excited to announce the Alabama premiere of Back to Bucha on Sunday, June 4th, 2023 At 1:00 PM (9PM Bucha Time). We are especially pleased to screen the film in such a great venue: Wilson Hall Theater at the University of Alabama in Huntsville. The film’s director Steve Richards will be in attendance to lead the Q&A after the event that will also include Fr. Roman Nebozhuk online from Kyiv.

How this all came together so quickly shows just how spirit driven this documentary project can be. We premiered the film less than three weeks ago in Boston at the Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church on April 30th where Alex Gamota from Bear Witness was emcee. Bear Witness is the Executive Producer of the film.

The event was livestreamed on Facebook Live where Yaryna Zhurba from Global Ties Alabama was watching. How did she know about it? Alex had met with a friend of a friend at a Washington, DC event and told them about it. Within a few days we were confirming details with the University of Alabama in Huntsville. They are providing the theater, the staff, and much energy to make this effort a success. As a donation driven event this help is vital.

Fortunately, everybody likes the film and feel like it’s one that Americans should see. Why? Because it is hard not to support the Ukrainian people after the empathy the film engenders. The film shows people just like us dealing with Russia’s mayhem - especially the moms just trying to raise their families, in their own homes, in their own country, after returning to Kyiv and Bucha after the war’s early months.

There is no charge to attend the screening though donations are encouraged with 50% of the net proceeds going to: Global Ties Alabama, Project Cherkasy, and Bear Witness.

Tickets are available on Eventbrite where donations can also be made by clicking here. 
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For more info contact Steve Richards at 305.310.2634 (SteveR@TheoEco.org).

We had a wonderful premiere in Boston (standing room-only) on Sunday complete with a performance of the film’s theme “The War We Didn’t Ask For” from Valeriia Vovk and a Q&A session with some of the film’s stars live from Kyiv.
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To celebrate we are making the film available for free to all through Sunday May 7th for those that missed the event, and for everybody who would like to watch the film at their leisure. 

​We are also allowing downloads for this period for those that might want to drop it to a thumb drive for others that can’t stream it.

To see the Facebook livestream of the entire two-and-a-half-hour event click here.

Woo hoo! The day is almost here and we are SO looking forward to the premiere of Back to Bucha: Finding the Spirit in Ukraine at the place where it all began, Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Boston tomorrow, Sunday the 30th. The screening will take place at 12:30 PM Boston time (19:30 Bucha time), and several of the film’s “stars” in Ukraine will participate in the Q&A afterwards via Zoom. The entire event will be live streamed on Facebook Live at facebook.com/TheoEcoOrg so that all can join us worldwide live from Boston and Ukraine.

By Steve Richards

This past January when I made it to Kyiv I posted a video (Hello from Kyiv! Wish You Were Here) showing how normal – if somewhat empty – Kyiv seemed. Shops open; people on the streets; plenty of restaurants to choose from; Ubers available; trains running, it was a far cry from my first visit in April 2022, a month after the full-scale invasion. The post triggered a somewhat alarming reply on Facebook though. A question being asked increasingly in America: “Why should we bother to help Ukraine?” This was my reply:

“Imagine the USA with the east coast and Florida under Russian control but you're in Chicago and everything is open. But the Russians are also best buddies with Canada and have already launched an attack from there that almost succeeded but was repelled, but still threatening to happen again in the coming months. Also imagine ongoing missiles and drone strikes. Then imagine a tourist coming and taking pics for a week while things are good. So, try to take my video in context.”

Since then I’ve thought A LOT about this question. Because as obvious as it is to me, it’s not obvious to many in the USA. So let me give it a more thoughtful try.

A Cold War Kid
A Cold War Kid means I was brought up in the time before Gorbachev and was already 30 years old at the time Ukraine achieved its independence in the aftermath of the Soviet Union’s break up in 1991. The Cold War began at the end of the second world war and was framed as an ideological, political, economic, cultural war between capitalism and democracy on one hand, versus communism and autocracy on the other. All in a new technological age of missiles, nuclear weapons and the resulting nuclear arms race as the menacing backdrop. It was deemed “cold” because the USA and the USSR didn’t fire shots at each other. Rather we fought largely through our proxies and our spies.

If you want to do the math I am 62 now and for each of those years I’ve been under threat from nuclear attack by Russia. All of us in the USA have been – and still are. When I was born in 1960 ICBMs were a new thing and the Soviet Union and USA had enough pointed at each other, along with bombers and submarine-based missiles, to wipe each other out. Growing up in the cold war meant we all knew we were under constant threat and there was nothing we could do about it. I personally remember coming to this realization in middle school. We knew that Russia and the Soviets were not our buddies. In fact, if not for all our weapons and NATO they might kill us all if they could. They still can:

Putin controls around 5,977 such warheads as of 2022, compared to 5,428 controlled by U.S. President Joe Biden, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Around 1,500 of those Russian warheads are retired (but probably still intact), 2889 are in reserve and around 1588 are deployed strategic warheads. About 812 are deployed on land-based ballistic missiles, about 576 on submarine-launched ballistic missiles, and around 200 at heavy bomber bases, according to the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Factbox: Russia's nuclear arsenal: How big is it and who controls it? | Reuters

Intriguingly, a lot of those missiles used to be based in Ukraine. But, In the aftermath of the Soviet breakup Ukraine voluntarily gave up their nukes in return for security guarantees from the USA, the UK, and, incredibly, Russia. This deal was memorialized in the 1994 Budapest Memorandum. Russia took control of Ukraine’s nuclear stockpiles. Those nukes are still meant for one place though; the USA and its allies, as we are frequently reminded by Putin, his generals, the Russian press, milbloggers, etc.

So, in keeping an eye on our own personal self-interest let’s not lose sight of America’s #1 nemesis for the past 78 years.

It is Russia.

I am excited to announce that Valeriia Vovk (ValeriiaVovk.com), composer of The War We Didn’t Ask For, will be performing at the Boston premiere of Back to Bucha on April 30th. Valeriia donated the use of her song which is featured in the film and the film’s trailer. Originally from Odessa, Ukraine she uses her music as a foundation for her activism for Ukraine. She has Boston ties as a recent graduate of Berklee College of Music and as a member of Bear Witness where I was introduced to her by Alex Gamota. Bear Witness is an Executive Producer of Back to Bucha.
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As she describes it: “The War We Didn’t Ask For is an aggressive song about the beginning of war. It translates the anger, fear, sadness, and readiness to fight”.  

When I first heard it I was blown away even though I didn’t understand the words as she sings them in Ukrainian. When I watched the video with English captions I noted the softer elements of the song with phrases like: “You could hear how everyone in the country had a prayer on their lips”; “We’ve been told that we’re the flowers of Ukraine”; and perhaps most of all: “Because freedom is everything to us”. I also love: “That the children of Kozaks fight” and “Ukraine you are alive!”.
Непрошена Війна (The War We Didn't Ask For) | Valeriia Vovk - YouTube

Valeriia’s performance and Back to Bucha’s premiere screening will take place at Christ the King Ukrainian Catholic Church in Jamaica Plain at 12:30 PM Boston time (18:30 Bucha time). We are also hopeful that a star or two in Ukraine will be able to participate in the Q&A afterwards. The entire event will be live streamed on Facebook Live.

To reserve a seat at the premiere click here. 

Our new documentary Back to Bucha: Finding the Spirit in Ukraine is in the final editing stage and will be ready at the end of April - and ready for screenings starting in May.

What’s it about? Executive Producer Alex Gamota at Bear Witness sums it up this way:

"Back to Bucha is a snapshot of Ukraine's resilience at the most human level: lives, livelihoods, and homes being rebuilt, religious faiths of all types being tested and strengthened, families, including with children, adjusting to the new..."normal."

I shot the film in Ukraine in January and February a couple months back. While there I was struck by the moms I encountered talking about God and how He is looking out for them. Women are the biggest difference between now and last Spring when I was there shooting Trek to Bucha. They are back. Why? Because they want to raise their kids in their own homes in their own country.

Check out the trailer and you’ll see what I mean.

Screenings are appropriate for churches, community centers, schools, universities, and any organization interested in sharing these unique stories from Ukraine with their community. Screenings can take place both in-person and virtually. Almost all in the film speak English making the film ideal for American audiences.

So, if you have a group that wants to be informed, inspired, and entertained I personally welcome the opportunity to show Back to Bucha to your community.

Just go to the Screenings page and fill out the form for more information.

Thanks!
Steve Richards

By Steve Richards

I am very pleased and honored to announce that we have received a grant from Bear Witness to help fund the production of our new documentary Back to Bucha and get it to the promotional phase. It is a real boost not only to the film’s finances but is also a vote of confidence in TheoEco and the film.

​Here’s what Alex Gamota, President of Bear Witness, had to say about the non-profit’s reasons for bestowing the grant:

​Once again, we are honored to be recipients of this grant and look forward to bringing the film to audiences beginning in late April.

This St. Patrick’s Day in 1776 was being celebrated in Boston like no other because the British were finally leaving after an eight-year occupation (Boston campaign - Wikipedia). Massachusetts had been in a “kinetic” war for a year, ever since the first shots were fired at Lexington and Concord in 1775.

We like Ukrainians because they fight so hard with so little – and win! We love them because they are so much like us with their love of country, their families, and their liberty.

It is sobering to note that while we celebrate the defeat of the British in Boston we have to note that the war was just getting started. It would be another five years of hard fought battles in the colonies until Yorktown and another two years before the war was finally over. American Revolutionary War - Wikipedia

The biggest source of angst in Ukraine is not whether Ukraine will win. Rather it is the question of when. How much longer will it last? We hear it repeated over and over in our new film Back to Bucha.

​If America’s Revolution is any indication, it could be a while. 

I went looking for Satanists but all I found were Christians.
​When I went back to Ukraine in January I had in my mind to do three things:

1. See how things were going since I was there in April 2022 shooting Trek to Bucha.
2. Premiere Trek to Bucha for Ukrainians.
3. Shoot the sequel Back to Bucha.

Additionally, while there I thought I would try to find some of the “Satanists” that Putin, Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, and others in Russia have been talking about to justify Russia’s invasion. See: Satanism, De-Satanization, and Exorcism in Contemporary Russian Rhetoric: Historical Reflections - Cornell University Press

​Alas, all I found were Christians. 

Like the USA Ukraine is a largely Christian nation (Ukrainian Orthodox mostly with a large segment of Ukrainian Greek Catholics), though all the major religions are represented (President Zelensky is Jewish, for instance). Unlike the USA there are relatively few Protestants, though I did find a Charismatic church forced online by the war, a Lutheran church with a lady pastor in Kyiv, even a Presbyterian minister from Dallas leading a Reformed congregation in Lviv!

​All in all though Ukrainian Christians see the world very much in unity when it comes to the war. The Ukrainian Orthodox community has broken with the Russian Orthodox church. Ukraine is an ecumenical laboratory as described to me by Father Roman Nebozhuk, a priest at the Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in Kyiv. We get a glimpse of him in the trailer where we also meet his daughter Andriana who gives us a tour of a Kyiv Kindergarten and its bomb shelter. 

Ukraine is a nation much like the USA in terms of the practical nature of Christendom that thrives there. Like the USA most were raised Christian. Also, like Americans most don’t go to church regularly though many do. I definitely attended some packed services while I was there. I also encountered several priests and pastors whom I was able to interview for the film. 

What I was most struck by were the moms I encountered talking about God and how He is looking out for them. Women are the biggest difference between now and last Spring. They are back. Why? Because they want to raise their kids in their own homes in their own country. It is safe enough except for those on the front lines, notwithstanding the ongoing missile attacks. Children go to school; grocery stores are stocked; shops are open. You can see a movie, get your hair done, and go to restaurants. Rebuilding has begun – especially noticeable in Bucha.

​For instance, we saw in Trek to Bucha that Jul’s Coffee shop was completely blown out during the Russian occupation. It has since been rebuilt and we get to meet the owner Julia, an Orthodox Christian mother of five who could easily fit into any PTA in the USA. She couldn’t wait to get back to Bucha to start rebuilding their lives - a story I heard repeatedly from moms I met.

No one gets to live a “normal” life in Ukraine.
​​In Kyiv I immediately noticed that while there were still many soldiers about, few were carrying guns – a big change from before.

Life can actually feel pretty normal once you get accustomed to the sirens. You get used to things like a nationwide curfew and intermittent blackouts. Hot water can be a luxury. And those living in Bucha, Irpin, and other formerly front-line areas are living amongst devastated areas. It is normal. Of course, living in Bucha means you also live in the midst of sites of unspeakable war crimes - and the risk that the Russians will reinvade.

No one gets a “normal” life in Ukraine which has lost 35% of its GDP by some estimates See: Ukraine: Gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate 2022 | Statista. All airports are closed. And many of those with family ties to Russia no longer speak to their loved ones there. All know someone fighting and those of fighting age know they can be called up at any time. Many know someone who has died or disappeared. All long for things to get back to normal.

Like Julia at the coffee shop, rebuilding and hope are also the norm. As is planning – and investing - for the future. Like Alex and Maxim at Match Bistro in Kyiv. Last April they were serving up more than 1,500 meals a day with World Central Kitchen. Since then they have moved to a bigger space down the street and are planning a renovation. It is the hippest place in town. And the Viktoria Park Hotel in Bucha is back and open for business featuring the best restaurant in town. It was wonderful to hold our Bucha premiere in the packed ballroom on February 5th.

Conclusion
Ukrainians want to be part of Europe. They voted for it and have been fighting for it since the Euromaidan uprising in November 2013. Ukraine has rejected Russia and will join the EU, something Putin cannot abide. As if he really has a choice. He doesn’t; Ukraine has been independent ever since the Soviet Union’s breakup in 1991. It will never go back.

Ukrainians have grown up in peace. Their country was built on the concept of being peaceful. In 1994 it gave up one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals when it left the Soviet Union and signed the Budapest Memorandum. Yet, they have been invaded by those they thought were their brothers. Now, there is an existential threat to their country. Their and their family’s liberties are at risk. They have faith – but can’t be positive – their country will win, nor have any idea when it will end. It makes planning tough. Though planning and building they are.

Mostly, spirits are high with hope the war will end this year.

​Back to Bucha captures all of this.