Antonina Gotfrid
«Place of Peace»
Location:
Berlin
Self-description, education & work experience:
Antonina Gotfrid graduated from the Kyiv National Theatre, Cinema and Television University named after I. K. Karpenko-Karyi (specialisation: Film, Theatre and Television).
Since 2000 she has been working with various Ukrainian television channels and productions. As a director, she has made more than 10 documentaries in cooperation with ICTV channel. The film «Volunteers» (2015), for example, was held in the out-of-competition international program of the film festival «Molodist».
Antonina staged her first theatre production, dedicated to the life of Ukrainian opera singer Vasily Slipak, in Paris (2019). In 2020, she shot the first film as an independent director: «Ruthenia: Return of the Nations Code», which tells about the history and meaning of Ukrainian symbols, writing, alphabet and calligraphy. Her second theatre production, the play «Not Themselves /Fellow Travelers», premiered in Kyiv (March 2021).
In February 2022, Antonina completed work on the second auteur film «War(m) Faces», which tells about the experiences of Ukrainian soldiers with PTSD. She has been living in Germany since March 2022. In May 2022, «Ruthenia» was shown at the Filmmuseum Düsseldorf. With the support of the Düsseldorf Theater Museum, Antonina also led a theatre group for Ukrainian youth in the summer of 2022. She also held a theatre workshop for scholarship holders of the Cusanuswerk e.V. in Münster, as well as led a film camp for German and Ukrainian youth in cooperation with BUNT – Stiftung Bildung und integrative Arbeit gGmbH.
Introduction to the project:
Since 2022, theatre and film director Antonina Gotfrid has been living in Berlin. Her residency research plans on dealing with the topic of personality destruction as a result of traumatic events. Many important questions will be covered during the project, such as: how and with what methods can civilians who have witnessed an armed conflict restore their image of the world and feel safe? When can a person call their new place of residence «home»?
Description of the project:
Antonina would like to address the issue of personality destruction due to traumatic events in her artistic practice. In the research she aspires to deal with such questions: how does war affect people’s perception of reality? How much time does a person need to restore their emotions, restore personal boundaries, to feel safe? When is a person allowed to call their new place of residence «home»?
In her last work «War(m) Faces» Antonina has already started to explore the effects of war on mental health. Now she wants to broaden the topic and shift the focus from soldiers to civilian society. In doing so, Antonia would also like to include the issues that affect refugees.
Contact information:
gorina.gotfrid@gmail.com
Link to the trailer of Antonina’s work
https://youtu.be/VpVfNx_4KGI