Ukrainian Wine: Resilience in the Making
In February 2024, we directed a film for the Ukrainian Institute of America on Ukraine’s wine industry. That film is now publicly available.
Two years since the escalation and 10 years into the war, Ukrainians have shown their bravery, their competence, and their incredible capacity for innovation. And since people in general get overwhelmed with talk of constant bombing – although not nearly so overwhelmed as those experiencing the 3,200 missiles and drones Russia fired at Ukraine last month – the Ukrainian Institute in NYC decided to focus on resilience as the theme for their February 24, 2024, event. In particular, they asked Dean – our creative director – to make a short documentary on Ukraine’s blossoming wine industry.
As our views of mission-driven content have evolved, we’ve increasingly turned to the documentary form for meaningful communications that create opportunities for extended campaigns. While not every organization will have the capacity or resources to undertake longer term efforts, we’ve already seen how effective these films can be for organizations even at single events. In this case, roughly 600 people who came to the Institute that day saw Ukraine in a new light. And people join the organization when they see it producing this sort of work.
The turnaround time on this project was brutal, roughly 20 days. Luckily we had incredible partners in Ukraine to help. First, Sergiy Klimov, author of The Untold Story of Ukrainian Winemaking, agreed to an immediate interview and even provided a location. His knowledge of the industry is unparalleled and he offers excellent modern and historical context.
Truth Hounds, an NGO that documents war crimes and human violations in armed conflict, introduced us to Sergiy and provided the camera crew. And Ukraїner, is a media organization that broadcasts Ukrainian stories, history, and cultural context to the world in dozens of languages. They generously gave us access to images from Sergiy’s book (they are the publisher) and their film footage of Ukrainian wineries.
We take the collaborative part of our name very seriously, but we also approach it with joy because it means we get the opportunity to work with great organizations around the world. Without these partners, this film would not have happened. And thanks to Sergiy’s work, you can not only watch the film, you can also now try Ukrainian wines, which since February have become available to US consumers for the first time.
Drake Creative, LLC