ALIEA Documentaries About Outstanding Albertans
Mentoring Eternal Optimism:
Dr. Ehor William Gauk
During 2021-22 this first ALIEA film project created the documentary Mentoring Eternal Optimism: Dr. Ehor William Gauk about a pediatric neurologist and a Ukrainian Canadian who provided voluntary leadership and mentoring to aid children and counsel physicians in Ukraine after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. The project created a script, did a dozen filmed interviews, and edited a 17- minute video which has been posted online. This collaborative endeavour met ALIEA’s educational/historical, community building, and archival objectives. The documentary is now featured alongside other short profiles on URDC ‘s oral history website The website is a stable, long-term venue where the documentary is disseminated to prospective viewers and future researchers. It has also deposited archived research documents and unused filmed interviews in the MacEwan University Archives. Mentoring Eternal Optimism was the first documentary film co-produced by ALIEA in what will be a series of films exploring the lives of individuals who have made significant contributions both to the Ukrainian Canadian community and to people and organizations in Ukraine. The project is recognized by the local Ukrainian community for its historical and documentary significance as a growing archive on Ukrainian history in Alberta.
The film is available for viewing on YouTube
Myrna Kostash - In Process for autumn 2023
ALIEA’s documentary about nationally recognized author Myrna Kostash highlights her literary exploration of several topics including: the political and cultural complexity of immigration to Edmonton and Alberta from 1892 to post World War II; Kostash’s relationship with Orthodoxy; dissent,revolution and war in the former Soviet Bloc; the history of feminism and New Left in Canada; and events in Indigenous-settler history, including the Frog Lake Massacre and the Battle at Seven Oaks. Kostash has continually drawn on her Ukrainian Canadian background to investigate how she, her family, and community are intertwined with the subject at hand. Rather than a purely biographic film, the documentary will map sites, events, and histories within Edmonton and the surrounding regions that have provoked, in Kostash’s words, “moments of astonishment”, which she investigates in her work. A central theme within her work is the complexity of identities and how they are constantly evolving as we make connections, build relationships, and encounter those with different experiences than our own. Our documentary aims to stimulate conversation about the value of exploring complicated histories and forging intercultural connections. We hope that viewers will be encouraged to think with one another, as Kostash does in her texts. For example, a central question within much of her recent work has been the relationship between Indigenous and Ukrainian communities, from the beginning of Ukrainian immigration in 1892 to the present.
IN PROCESS OF PRODUCTION FOR NOVEMBER 2023.
