A studio in Sydney’s inner city appears unassuming from the outside, but for over a year it has been the hub of a top-secret documentary project, for fear of Russian interference.
Sydney-based production company Songbird Studios is behind the Oscar-nominated documentary Porcelain War which follows three Ukrainian artists who take up arms to defend their country and their culture.
The secure facility was built in Paddington and fitted with an air-gapped server protected by firewalls — all in a bid to address safety concerns and hacking threats.
The film’s production started about a year after Russia invaded Ukraine.
In the documentary, footage shows streets of buildings ravaged in the throes of war.
It also highlights the juxtaposition of fragile, porcelain figurines being handed to Ukrainian soldiers preparing for battle.
These animal figurines were designed and painted by Anya Stasenko.
Instead of fleeing the city of Kharkiv amid the threat of warfare, Ms Stasenko and her husband Slava Leontyev decided to stay.
“When the war started, I found a new way to be alive,” Ms Stasenko said.
She wanted to create a peaceful world, while the reality she faced was anything but.
“Everyday there was shelling attacks and other terrible situations around me, and I started to understand my way was to keep making my figurines.”
Mr Leontyev became a member of the Ukrainian special forces.
“When I was on the [frontline], fighting villains, I felt life or death of these people in my hands, and I was focused on this when Anya painted figurines,” he said.
550 hours of footage sent to Sydney
Before Ms Stasenko and Mr Leontyev started filming their lives, they had no experience behind the camera.
The production studio sent a dozen cameras to Ukraine and the documentary’s director taught the couple and a third artist the principles of filmmaking online over Zoom.
“We were scared that we might be hacked, or the footage might be compromised somehow, and we had a huge responsibility to the artists and the other film participants living in Ukraine who were trusting us with this footage,” Camilla Mazzaferro, the documentary’s producer said.
For Mr Leontyev, he only saw an upside to taking part in the documentary.
“It was already very dangerous because Russia was shelling districts of apartment houses.
“Every night regular people were being killed in their own kitchens and bedrooms only because they were living in Ukraine.”
Those on the ground sent about 550 hours of raw footage to Sydney, and much of the material was sensitive.
“Everybody [on] the film team worked in complete secret for over a year,” Ms Mazzaferro said.
“We had a team of 10 translators, many of whom had escaped the war themselves and it was incredible, we had this little resistance effort here in Sydney.”
Their efforts paid off. Porcelain War has already won more than 50 awards including the Sundance US Grand Jury Prize for documentary.
It is also nominated for Best Documentary at arguably the most prestigious night in Hollywood, the Academy Awards, which are coming up on Monday, March 3 (AEDT).
Mr Leontyev and Ms Stasenko will be in LA for the ceremony alongside Ms Mazzaferro, who cannot believe how successful their film has been.
“We knew how special it was, and we knew how special the artists were, but this has definitely exceeded all of our wildest dreams,” Ms Mazzaferro said.
Once award season has wrapped up, the Ukrainians will return to their homeland where they face an uncertain future. Their hope is that the film will send a poignant message.
“Resistance is possible. It is possible for everyday people in any situation, even in [such] dark times, regular people are able to defend independence, to preserve humanity and even develop culture,” Mr Leontyev said.
Source: ABC News
