About Us

Andrew Kotliar, founder of Philadelphia based Kinofilm Project, is the leading visionary of Kinofest NYC. A proponent of the timeless tradition of remembering and telling peoples' stories, Andrew recognizes the role of digital and media technologies in bringing stories from Eastern Europe to the uninitiated filmgoer and American audiences overall. Andrew is pleased to be working with a team of individuals equally dedicated to Kinofest NYC, and is excited about the ongoing and future successes of the festival. Andrew currently lives in Brooklyn, taking up residence in New York City after spending several years living abroad in London and Kyiv, and stateside in Philadelphia.

Damian Kolodiy is a writer and independent filmmaker based in New York City. His award winning The Orange Chronicles is a feature documentary on Ukraine's Orange Revolution that has screened throughout North America and Europe. Damian's ex- periences and travels associated with producing and screening this film has led him to closely study the region and connect with other filmmakers working in Ukraine and other countries of the former Eastern and Soviet Bloc. From 1997 to 2007 Damian organized and programmed an annual art & film weekend in the Catskill mountains featuring experimental and underground films and music.

Hanya Krill is the Program Director at The Ukrainian Museum. In this pioneering role she has championed the use of new media technologies, among other things, to extend the work of the institution to an ever growing audience. In 2007 Hanya established the Museum's film program, and has been responsible for bringing to the Museum films by international filmmakers that complement the mission of the organization. In 1995 Hanya, with her husband, Max Pyziur, founded Brama.com, an essential news and information web resource focused on Ukrainian affairs. An East Village resident, Hanya serves as a vital link across the overlapping communities in which she is actively involved.

Natasha Mikhalchuk is a recent graduate of Parsons School of Design and is a freelance designer, the primary focus of her work is in graphic design and video editing. Born in Odessa, Natasha emigrated to the US in 1993 with her family after the collapse of the Soviet Union and is now a resident of Brooklyn. Though she has made New York City her home, she remains connected to her family tradition- in 1996 she produced her first short film Kolky, a biographical tribute to her grandparents who had lived through and survived the defining events of 20th century Soviet Ukrainian history.

Martha Duff lives in the East Village and works in the field of environment and health. Having a graduate degree in Environmental Politics from Kings College London, Martha worked for several years at Amnesty International's London office as an advocate for human rights, focusing on the crisis in Darfur. In 2007 she took time off to travel through Africa, India and Nepal; upon returning to the US she took on the role of Project Director for World Information Transfer (WIT), an NGO that has consultative status with the United Nations and concentrates on post-Chernobyl environmental and health issues.

Bohdana Smyrnova started her career as a filmmaker in Kyiv, Ukraine, where she was born and raised. Her films have been screened at numerous film festivals, including Rotterdam, Clermont-Ferrand, Taipei Golden Horse, and Slamdance. A filmmaker with a distinct voice, Bohdana explores complex human relationships, desires conflicting with reality, and situations that pose no right choice. A winner of more than 10 awards, Bohdana is currently pursuing an NYU MFA in Film Production on a Dean's fellowship- her thesis film Her Seat is Vacant (a short drama about Ukrainian immigrants in New York) is now in post-production and is a seedling for her first feature to be shot in 2010.

Dmytro Zakharevych is a native of Kyiv, Ukraine, where he continues to live and work. A graduate of Kyiv State University, he completed his undergraduate studies in History and Philosophy, and also studied experimental film production at Dovzhenko Film Studios. Dmytro currently works in commercial film sales & distribution, negotiating contracts between US/European film distributors and public and private Ukrainian television networks. After hours, he is an active participant in the Kyiv independent film community, taking on a number of roles, which include serving as public relations manager for the Kinofront film festival, organized by the Kyiv based UPV Art Group.

Olenka Denysenko is an independent filmmaker based in New York City. Olenka has written, directed and produced several short films, her latest piece The Summons having just celebrated its premier at the 2009 LA Shorts Fest. She has worked on 30 feature films in the last 5 years, and most recently she script supervised Cold Souls, starring Paul Giamatti, collaborating with director Sophie Barthes and director of photography Andrij Parekh. Olenka has also written a screen adaptation of Alexander J. Motyl's novel Who Killed Andrei Warhol, and an original work entitled Ielek the Rus. She was the recipient of the 2004 Hollywood Trident Scholarship.

Alexander J. Motyl is a writer, painter, and professor. His novels include Whiskey Priest, Who Killed Andrei Warhol, Flippancy, and The Jew Who Was Ukrainian. His art is represented by The Tori Collection. The author or editor of over 20 academic books and a specialist on Ukraine, Russia, and the Soviet Union, Motyl teaches at Rutgers University, Newark. He lives in New York City.