aaus-list @ ukrainianstudies.org -- [aaus-list] March 27 7 PM Shevchenko Sci Society NYC: Introducing anew Ukrainian FilmTalent

[Bohdan Oryshkevich <bohdan_oryshkevich@verizon.net>]

During my work with USA/USA students, I have come across other students here in America who have shown not only outstanding talents but remarkable abilities to realize them on their own.

One such student is Bohdana Smyrnova.  She is Born in Kyiv, Ukraine,

Currently she is a Dean's fellow at the Masters Program (MFA)
of New York University. She is already a graduate of the Karpenko-Kary 
Kyiv Institute of Dramatic Art. The films that Bohdana directed have 
been shown at more than 70 film festivals in twenty countries around 
the world. Les Demarches des Papiers was her thesis work at Karpenko-Kary Kyiv State Institute of Dramatic Art and won her numerous awards. 

Bohdana Smyrnova has also worked as a journalist, translator, assistant director, award winning actress and held other positions in film production since early age.

Bohdana found her own way in Ukraine to obtain tuition funding for her education at the NYU Film School at the Tisch School of the Arts.  

Her predecessors in the MFA program in this top film school include the following Academy Award winning directors: Martin Scorsese (The Departed), Joel Coen (Fargo), Oliver Stone (Midnight Express and Born on the Fourth of July), and Ang Lee (Brokeback Mountain).  

She is shortly putting one of her first events for the Ukrainian public at the Shevchenko Scientific Society in New York City on March 27, 7 PM. 

She is willing to make presentations of her own films and the films of other young directors in Ukraine in other cities of North America.

As the biography of the internationally known Indian film director, Mira Nair (Harvard College ’79) demonstrates, we can develop film talent here for Ukraine.  We have to develop mechanisms of doing so.  

The existence of the Columbia School of the Arts with its renowned film program, the rise of Film Studies at Harvard, in addition to the NYU Film School gives us plenty of venues in which to develop a Ukrainian footprint. 

Bohdana Smyrnova is a wonderful talent with which to begin this process.  

I hope to read about her appearances in Edmonton, Toronto, Cambridge, Philadelphia, Washington DC, Chicago, Detroit, and elsewhere. 

Thank you for your attention.  
 
Bohdan A. Oryshkevich, MD, MPH 
Founder, USA/USA Program
New York City

Shevchenko Scientific Society
63 Fourth Avenue New York, NY 10003
7 PM March 27, 2009
Admission: $10 or more
www.herseatisvacant.org
info@herseatisvacant.org
1-347-581-5347 (m) Bohdana Smyrnova