I am excited to announce the dates for the upcoming Beyond Bucha Production Tour.

This tour will take me and my camera across Ukraine, with a particular focus on the eastern regions. As the third installment in the Trek to Bucha series, which began with a shoot in March 2022, this film aims to document the faithful and their places of worship near and at the front lines, helping to counter Russian disinformation about religious freedom in Ukraine. All dates and locales are, of course, subject to change depending upon conditions on the ground.

Warsaw - September 16-17
The first stop is Warsaw, which was also the starting point of my original trek in March 2022.
 
Kyiv - September 18-22
Kyiv is always a highlight of my trips to Ukraine. I look forward to catching up with those from the previous films before heading out to Bucha.
 
Bucha/Irpin - September 23-25
Ground zero for all three films in the series, I’ll be getting updates from those featured in the prior films.

Kharkiv - September 26-29
Kharkiv is a top stop where I plan to connect with the Evangelical church whose pastor we met in "Back to Bucha."
 
Dnipro - September 30 - October 6
Known as “Rocket City” during the Cold War, Dnipro is Ukraine’s tech hub on the Dnieper River and a center of Ukrainian Jewish life.
 
Zaporizhzhia - October 7-8
Heading south, I hope to visit the site of Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, which was a target of Russian shelling in the early days of the war. This site was a key reason for my original trip to Ukraine.
 
Mykolaiv/Kherson - October 9-13
Southwestward, Mykolaiv offers access to Kherson, which experienced heavy fighting early in the war and was liberated in November 2022. Both cities' proximity to the Black Sea is of strategic importance.
 
Odesa - October 14-16
Continuing west along the Black Sea coast, Odesa is a cultural gem and home to the Transfiguration Cathedral, one of the most notable targets of Russian attacks on holy sites.
 
Vinnytsia - October 17-20
On my way home, I'll return to Vinnytsia, where I spent part of my holidays earlier this year. We plan to interview clergy at the first Orthodox church in Ukraine that broke away from the Moscow Patriarchate.
 
Lviv – October 21-23
The shoot concludes in Lviv, the first city I visited in Ukraine. Home to the Ukrainian Catholic University, it was here that I reformulated my plans, which ultimately led me to Bucha as the Russians retreated in April 2022.

The journey promises to be an enlightening and powerful experience, shedding light on the resilience and faith of the Ukrainian people amid the ongoing war.

Thank you so much to everyone who has donated funds to get us to this point, especially Alex Gamota and Bear Witness, the Executive Producers of all three films in the series. Major donors also include Tony Taylor and Yaryna, as well as Robert Weiss and his generous friends. Thanks to all!
 
We are currently at just over 60% of our $42,738 funding goal for the film, so there is still much to be done to reach our target and complete the project.

Join us in bringing this vital project to life and amplifying its impact on audiences worldwide.

"Beyond Bucha" is the third film in the “Trek to Bucha” series, which began with the original film shot in April 2022 after Russia’s full-scale invasion. 2023’s follow-up, “Back to Bucha,” continues to impact audiences with its ongoing American outreach campaign.

The new film will continue to document Ukraine’s resilience by focusing on pastors, chaplains and their flocks in cities like Odessa, Kherson, Kharkiv, and the Avdiivka/Chasiv Yar areas. It will highlight the experiences of Ukraine's religious communities amid ongoing violence to them and their houses of worship.

Through screenings, social media campaigns, potential PBS distribution, film festivals, streaming services, and educational markets, Beyond Bucha can counter Russian propaganda and deepen Americans' understanding of their newfound Ukrainian brothers and sisters.

Inspired by the acclaimed 2024 Oscar winner, "20 Days in Mariupol," a groundbreaking film shot in the heart of Ukraine during the early stages of the full-scale invasion, we are driven by the same guerrilla filmmaking ethos that characterizes our projects. With meticulous editing, evocative music, and other enhancements, we aim to create a film that resonates with audiences both in the USA and around the globe.

We are reaching out for help with the production and promotion of Beyond Bucha through:

• Fundraiser screenings of Back to Bucha and Trek to Bucha (In-person and virtual)
• Grants and Partnerships with organizations
• Donations from those that want to help

With your help, we can create a film that captivates audiences globally! 
​Together, we can make a difference!

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Simple Steps:

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2. On the next page enter your name and email address and upload a picture! Click on “Sign Up as a fundraiser”
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Introducing our new Beyond Bucha campaign as we gear up for filming in Ukraine this summer.
Titled "Beyond Bucha – From Churches to the Front," this installment marks the third chapter in the Trek to Bucha documentary series, continuing to illuminate the inspiring resilience of Ukraine's spirit. Expanding beyond the previous locales of Lviv, Kyiv, and Bucha, this journey will now encompass Vinnytsia, Odessa, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, and the Avdiivka/Chasiv Yar regions, contingent upon prevailing conditions.

The film aims to leverage the momentum generated by the promotional campaign of "Back to Bucha," fostering a deeper understanding between America and its battling Ukrainian ally. Throughout the upcoming summer shoots, our focus will be on embedding with chaplains to capture Ukraine's heroes in prayer, while also shedding light on misinformation surrounding the state of religious groups in the country.

To support our endeavors, we're launching a comprehensive initiative, including a new deck, webpage, and reel to provide insight into our mission. 

​The new deck provides a quick presentation (4 slides) of the Beyond Bucha project and what we are striving for including what the film is about, its potential impact, ways to join the cause, and clips from the Beyond Bucha shoot from the recent holiday season. Click here to take a look.

​The new 5-minute video reel blends footage from the original Trek to Bucha (filmed in April 2022), Back to Bucha (filmed in January 2023), and glimpses from our recent Beyond Bucha shoots during the 2023/2024 holiday season. Click here to take a look.

​All of this and more is on the new BeyondBucha.com website.

The new feature length documentary is already in production and set for release in early 2025.
By Steve Richards

I am excited to unveil the new poster and webpage for Beyond Bucha - From the Churches to the Front, the third film in the Trek to Bucha series.

The original film Trek to Bucha, was shot in April 2022, just a month after Russia’s full-scale invasion shocked Ukraine – and the world. People were beginning to move back to Kyiv and Bucha after Ukraine’s early victory in the Battle of Kyiv and Russia’s retreat from Bucha. In it we meet resolute citizens – coffee shop workers, a DJ, college students, an insurance agent, hotelier, civil engineer, etc. – all forever changed and thirsting for a return to normalcy.

In January 2023 I returned to film Back to Bucha, revisiting those I met before plus women and moms who moved back to raise their children, in their own homes, in their own country. The film also features Ukraine’s diverse Christian community and a cross section of young men who were beginning to be called up.

On Christmas Day 2023 I went back again to document the 2023/2024 holiday season. Much of this footage will be included in the new film and several clips are available on BeyondBucha.com.

To finish Beyond Bucha a production tour is being planned for the summer of 2024 and will go beyond Warsaw, Lviv, Kyiv, and Bucha to include:

• Vinnytsia
• Odessa
• Kherson
• Zaporizhzhia
• Kharkiv
• Avdiivka/Chasiv Yar areas

​Over the coming weeks we will provide more information as we prepare to revisit Ukraine and finish shooting the film. By continuing to document the violence targeted upon Ukraine’s citizens and religious communities, we expect to continue to play a part in bringing their stories to light.

It’s not often that one gets to witness an actual schism unfold where it began.

​In this short video we get a quick tour of the Transfiguration Cathedral in Vinnytsia from Archdeacon Demetrios of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. This includes a visit to the undercroft which doubles as a bomb shelter, well as the meditation garden which has been used for centuries by monks and priests. Originally a Dominican monastery when founded in 1630, to say it has a fascinating history would be an understatement.

The deacon begins with an explanation that this is the first church in Ukraine that transferred from the Moscow Patriarchate to the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine. A schism brought on by the war and is at the center of the conflict in many ways. Metropolitan Simeon was one of two bishops who came from the Moscow Patriarchate in 2018 to officially consecrate the new denomination as we see in a few photos of the historic signings creating the new church. The cathedral is the center of the Eparchy of Vinnytsia of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, with Metropolitan Simeon, its bishop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfiguration_Cathedral,_Vinnytsia  

The tour ended in the sanctuary which, at the time, was being used for the funeral of one of Vinnytsia’s heroes recently killed in battle.

The fact that there are so many soldiers dying for their country necessitates the use of the cathedral for such occasions several times a week.

The role of religion in Ukraine’s war against Russia’s invasion is increasingly evident as we hear about the treatment of Protestant churches and pastors in Ukrainian occupied territory. It is an ongoing story of Russian hypocrisy and terror. Just this week USA Today published an important article all those interested should read.

It’s despicable to see how Russia’s rationale for the war has increasingly moved to the theological. Ridiculous claims of the need to “de-Nazify” Ukraine have evolved to the need for a full scale “de-Satanization” as they ramp up disinformation campaigns for their internal – and international – audiences, including the halls of the U.S. Congress.

​Nowhere is the fight more apparent than in Ukraine itself where the Orthodox Church schism between the Russian and Ukrainian churches started in earnest with Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and accelerated with Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. 

All of which leaves many of the faithful in Ukraine a bit unmoored as they try to navigate changing church calendars and competing claims and loyalties of clergy and congregations. It is a dynamic and evolving situation that I plan to delve into all the more in Beyond Bucha, the third film in the Trek to Bucha series.

In this latest preview from the new film, we go into an Orthodox village church where Vinnytsia’s master blacksmith Roman created some of his best work, including the church’s steel door and candle case. We even get a tour of the inner sanctum behind the doors to the altar where we see the priest put away his robes.

If you’ve never seen the inside of an Orthodox church they are wonders to behold with religious art from floor to ceiling. Everything is ornate and divinely inspired including the vestments/clothes, the bibles, the rugs, the ceilings, etc.

​Even iconoclasts have to marvel.

In this War Artisans Put Their Art to the Side to Keep Soldiers Warm in the Trenches

Anyone following my posts from Ukraine knows that Ukrainians are a hardworking and faithful group. Today we see this in stark relief through two short videos about Vinnytsia’s master blacksmith Roman and his American apprentice Ben who we first met making “staples” to keep logs together in the trenches. Beyond Bucha - The Forge (Staples)
​
This Good Friday it seems fitting to show how the war has changed so much for the faithful in Ukraine. In this case we see how a tremendous artisan like Roman has moved from creating exquisite metal work for churches to making trench furnaces for soldiers from scrap metal.

Next, we feature Roman’s village church (Ukrainian Orthodox) where we marvel at the glorious metalwork from his Forge. It amazes me how anyone can do such things, but as I found out this is just the beginning of what they do. Or used to do anyway.

Ben Hoerber from Lake Worth Beach, FL narrates these pieces. Ben packed up his van last summer and shipped it to Belgium whereupon he drove it to Ukraine to help in any ways possible. He found Roman and the Forge and has been helping produce these furnaces and other items for front line troops ever since.

These grass roots efforts keep Ukraine in the fight and exemplify the Ukrainian Spirit. Roman and his family will be producing these items until the war is won. All at no charge, like countless Ukrainians – and their supporters - inside and outside of Ukraine. Hard work, patriotism, faith. These are also American values, of course. Religious freedom is at the heart of Ukraine’s war for independence – as it was in America’s quest for its religious freedoms going back to the Pilgrims.

Let Ukraine’s faithful remind us of who we are as we all pray together this weekend.

A Blacksmith in Vinnytsia and his American Apprentice
By Steve Richards

“Thank God for technology” is a statement that means so much in Ukraine right now. From naval drones that are helping feed the world - and Ukraine’s economy - by decimating Russia’s navy, to a blacksmith in Vinnytsia. Ukraine is a high-tech country in so many ways, and their innovations on the battlefield, using the mish mash of NATO weapons they’ve received, are schooling the west on how vulnerable Russia’s army is.

But to a blacksmith technology means something else altogether as we see in this latest short video. Here we are introduced to “The Forge” where they make “staples” to keep trenches intact. To a blacksmith and soldiers on the frontline trying to survive the winter, technology comes down to bending and putting points on small sections of rebar through sheer force. The technology? A press and a gas fire. A big improvement over old blacksmithing technology which came down to a hammer, an anvil, and a bellows like we see in old westerns.

As we see in the video, staples are produced by the hundreds by two men in close quarters surrounded by scrap metal and other tools. Work that at one time would take nine brawny guys pounding all day for the same output. By the way, this is the first bit of video – first of three from the “Forge” – that will find its way into our new documentary Beyond Bucha - the third film in the Trek to Bucha series.

​Recap and New Video
By Steve Richards

“Welcome home”, the customs agent told me when I arrived in Miami late last week from Warsaw, the last leg of my latest trek to Bucha. A flight that had me sitting next to a Warsaw native who told me about his last trip to Miami when he had to dive under a table when a shooting interrupted his dinner on South Beach. We “joked” about how life in the USA is not so different than life in Ukraine when comparing the chances of catching one’s demise from random, uncontrollable violence. Of course, in Ukraine the threat is a missile/drone strike, something I experienced for the first time this trip.

That is how we begin the short video (two and half minutes) we are posting today; a collection of clips from my trip that documents a bit of the holidays I experienced. It is set to Christmas music all are familiar with; the Carol of the Bells which is Ukrainian.

Since heading to Ukraine on Christmas Day, I’ve left a trail of posts from the road including Christmas in Kyiv – Lights, Trees, Songs and Missiles about the missile strikes I witnessed, New Year’s Eve in Kyiv – As Quiet as Could Be about the subdued New Year’s festivities in Kyiv, and Christmas in Vinnytsia about the ongoing Christmas celebration in Ukraine. All of these are represented in the new reel.

But the main reason I went to Bucha this time was to screen Back to Bucha for the stars of the film there. We premiered on January 5th with the sponsorship of Bear Witness at Jul’s Coffee and Peace, a place that all who have seen the film know well, especially its owner Julia, who has taught me so much about the holiday traditions there. Julia was raised in the Orthodox church and is a proud and patriotic Ukrainian from Donetsk. There is a readjustment for Ukraine’s Orthodox faithful to move the celebration of Christmas from January 7th to December 25th and most are still getting used to the idea, including the carolers we see in the Vinnytsia village.

Julia is a mother of five, including three young girls whom we see in the picture below with one of her sons and husband in front of the tree on New Year’s Eve, the time when gifts are often found under the tree. Here’s what she said about the festivities:

January 7th had me in Vinnytsia where my friend Ben introduced me to the local blacksmith he is working with for a traditional Christmas Eve dinner, an excellent night’s rest, then a Christmas Day breakfast with his family. Next a visit to the shop and a visit to a local Orthodox church where I caught villagers caroling house to house in the freezing cold morning.

The Ukraine premiere screening was in front of an enthusiastic audience including representatives from Ya Buchanec to whom I presented a $1,150 check from a fundraiser/screening at St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Boston. Being that they had no idea what to do with a paper check I went shopping the next day with Liubimyr Janov, head of Bucha’s Youth Council, to buy a powered speaker and camera for the local youth center to replace items pilfered by Russian soldiers during Bucha’s occupation. The remaining funds are being held on account which also includes additional funds raised at another St. Andrew’s screening, this time at the Episcopal church in Lake Worth, FL.

The video ends with real church bells from St. Michael's Golden-Domed Monastery. Framed in stark juxtaposition to destroyed Russian armor in front of the church, they are a fitting summation of Ukraine during the holidays where I’m pretty sure the Christmas trees are still up.

My first Ukrainian Orthodox Christmas Included Gifts, Feasts, Churches, and Angels Made From Shell Casings

​Yes, I know; you thought Christmas was over two weeks ago. And they were certainly celebrating the occasion around here then. But Orthodox Christmas was yesterday, January 7th and the celebration goes on. The trees are still up, and the store decorations are still out.

Back to Bucha’s Ukrainian Premiere on Friday included a ceremonial check presentation from the October 1st screening in Boston at the St. Andrew’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The next day had me using the funds to personally buy a new video camera and powered speaker for the local children’s center which replaced equipment pilfered by Russian soldiers during the occupation.

Then, I was on my way to Vinnytsia with my friend Ben to a small village outside of the city and a Christmas Eve feast with a blacksmith that Ben is working with, and his family. They also celebrated on the 25th with a more traditional western X-Mas when they all watched Home Alone together, a holiday favorite here too!

I’m keeping the names and exact locations a bit vague just in case anyone confuses their humanitarian work with something more offensive in nature.

We had a Christmas Eve feast that included hot borsht and an assortment of meatless dishes.

Then after some conversation with Ben providing translations - and a mammoth log thrown in the furnace – it was time for bed. The next morning, we had a breakfast of nothing but meat dishes it seemed. 5761

Then outside to the “forge” a few steps away to make “staples” and “furnaces” for the front lines. The staples are used to keep logs together inside trenches and the small furnaces they make out of scrap metal are used to keep soldiers warm. A difficult task when the thermometer will drop to -3F (-21C) tonight where I am in Lviv. This kind of volunteering is happening all over Ukraine to support the war effort in a myriad of ways. The blacksmith and Ben receive no remuneration for this work.

Before the blacksmith started making things for the soldiers, he made artisan craftsman work including churches nearby. He still creates artistic works like angel candle holders out of 30mm spent artillery casings. Before the war he also made metalwork for local Orthodox churches like those we visited on our way into the city. 

It was here that we met three village ladies caroling from house to house in the morning hours. I had heard to look out for these caroling groups in Ukraine but figured with the bombings of Kyiv I would be out of luck. These ladies definitely made my trip! 

Then back into Ben’s van (he brought it with him from the USA when he came five months ago) on snowy streets to the Transfiguration Cathedral in town.

We then got a tour of the church and also witnessed the funeral for a Ukrainian soldier there. They average about one per day we were told.

After a promise to come back I was promised a proper interview with the archdeacon host – including a discussion of their rather recent break from the Moscow Patriarchate and a Metropolitan still under house arrest.
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​All this in less than 24 hours. Then we piled back into Ben’s van and off to the train station for the next leg of my journey home.