MoldovAnn

My debut movie “Our own kids” will be shown tonight at 20:50 on the TV channel INTER. Igor saw a commercial for it Friday night, but I haven’t seen the ad myself yet.

You can read more about the film and my role here, here, and here.

A couple months ago I was contacted by the BBC Radio program “Woman’s Hour”. They were preparing a broadcast about women bloggers, they liked my blog, and they asked me to record one of my essays for the segment. They selected a few excerpts from this essay about one of my trips in the Chornobyl-affected area of Ukraine.

I went to the BBC Radio office in Kyiv, had a recording session (which was kind of cool), and pretty much forgot about it.

Well, thankfully Woman’s Hour didn’t forget! The feature will broadcast on 9 October 2007 at 10 am GMT. You can listen to the broadcast via the Woman’s Hour website.

Update: the program segment is archived at the link above, so if you missed the live broadcast, you can still listen to my segment over and over and over.

Peter and I had our second, and final, day of filming yesterday. We spent about 6 hours at a “shkola-internat” in the Podil neighborhood of central Kyiv. An “internat” is an orphanage, and I wasn’t sure what the difference was about a “shkola-internat” or “school-orphanage”. More on that in a separate post.

As for filming, it was MUCH easier this time, partially because we had more realistic expectations for the day, and also because there was only one scene Peter and I were in. We arrived a little bit earlier than the requested 12 noon, and we wanted until almost 2:30 before anyone was ready to use us. We got our make-up, which was a lot more than last time. I would have taken a picture of myself in all that make-up except for the fact that I think she made my lips ridiculous huge and I thought they looked stupid. We’d been told in advance the general request for what to wear, but my selection didn’t much fit the liking of the wardrobe girl. She searched through a couple piles of mostly kids’ clothes and finally pulled out a little yellow t-shirt and asked me if I could wear size small. “It’s very po-ukrainiski,” I joked, secretly horrified that she might make me put on this ridiculously tight shirt. She acquiesced and told me to button up my cardigan all the way to the top so my shirt underneath would not be visible. Geez, I didn’t think my shirt was that horrible!

During these preparations, we had the opportunity to meet Elena (who’s last name I forgot to write down, dammit!), the Russian actress playing the lead female role in the film. We also met Ira, a local Kyiv actress who is playing the role of the orphanage director in the film. Our scene was with Ira, so while we were waiting to be called to the set, we rehearsed our scene with her in the crew room. To be honest, I hadn’t read yet the 2-page script I had been given a few days before shooting, and when I looked through it, I learned that my “husband” now has a name, Jack Brown, and he’s a tanned man in glasses, with a gold Rolex. I also read that Donna (i.e., me) is big, clumsy, with a lot of hair in a braid, with a purse with a peace dove symbol on it, and she looks like an aging hippie. I guess she did pretty well for herself - a fat, hairy, aging hippie who married a guy with a gold Rolex. Only in the movies, eh? (I think/hope this was all written before they actually asked me to be Donna in the film, and that they just didn’t bother to change the descriptions to be closer to reality.)

In our scene, Peter and I are led by the orphanage director into a room adjacent to a classroom where a bunch of girls are having a “social adaptation” lesson, which to me looked like my high school home economics class - learning to iron, sew, cook, etc. Through a large window, we watch the girls at work, and the orphanage director tells us about a couple of the girls, including Lada, the star of the film. I translate some descriptions of the girls to my husband, we look horrified when we hear Lada’s story, then we discuss who we want to adopt, and finally we happily announce that we want Lada. Those 45 seconds of the movie took over 2 hours to film, from various angles and numerous slight alterations in dialog and movement.

So, my film debut should be ready in the fall. Director Sasha Kirienko kindly agreed to a photo with us, and then rearranged the composition for a second photo, and again for a third photo, which I think was the best one. Don’t mess with the director, he knows what he’s doing!

And thus ends my brief but illustrious film career - or has it?

Our day started about 8:30 a.m. in a small administrative office at Boryspil airport, the room being “on loan” to the film crew as a type of green room. I met my “husband” for the day, Peter, who is a British businessman living in Kyiv for 3 or 4 years. He happens to be friends with the producer’s wife, which is how he landed his part.

We met the 12-year Russian actress Liza who plays one of the lead roles. Liza and her mother had just flown in from Moscow, literally just, having arrived on a 7:00 flight (and they’d been up since 3:00 am). We met some of the film crew, like Margo (who was the woman who took my picture on Tuesday), who seems to be a jack-of-all-trades and the person responsible for finding and hiring the extras as well as making sure everyone is well taken care of. Oksana was introduced as the administrative, although I didn’t quite catch exactly what she did. Galya was the make-up person, who got to work on us pretty quickly. Although the make-up felt like a lot on my skin, it was actually much less than I had expected - no eye makeup, no lipstick, just foundation and powder. Poor Peter, who is bald, had his entire head covered with make-up, and a couple times during the day Galya did “touch ups” on him, calling it “anti-shine”.

We met the first and second directors, but I only remember the name of the first director, Aleksander (aka Sasha) Kirienko. He directed the film “Orange Sky“, which is quite well known here, often called the first modern Ukrainian film. However, most of the actors were from Russia, and most of the dialog is in Russian, which turned off most of the Ukrainians I know (and I have yet to meet a Ukrainian who has actually seen the film). Kirienko teamed up with Igor Volkov, a young Ukrainian producer, on both Orange Sky and this new movie, called “Our Own Children”.

We also met the main actor, Aleksei Serebryakov, a pretty famous Russian actor. He didn’t really “mix with the masses” much during the day.

The story revolves a young Ukrainian couple and an orphaned girl. The woman had been fostering the girl before she met and married the man. To make a long story short, he turns out to be very prejudiced about kids from orphanages, and rejects the girl. She goes back to the orphanage, and the couple try to have their “own” children. Only to discover that he is infertile and can’t father children. He and the woman separate, and she tries to get the girl back from the orphanage. We discover the girl has been so traumatized by all that’s happened, she’s become an “invalid” - wheelchair-bound, mute and unresponsive. The orphanage director won’t give her back to the woman since she’s “rejected” her already one time, and she doesn’t want to risk another devastating change of heart. The man, though, finally comes to his senses, gets back together with his wife and they want to try together to get the girl back. He goes to the orphanage to beg the director, only to discover that he’s just minutes too late - an American couple has adopted her and they are literally driving to the airport at that moment. He rushes after them, sees them checking in at the gate, crashes through all manner of security, and runs out onto the tarmac to talk to the girl.

Enter Peter and Ann, aka American Couple. We are seen taking the girl, Lada, in her wheelchair out of the bus and starting towards the plane. The Ukrainian man runs up to us, grabs the wheelchair and tries to take her away from us. Here is our moment to shine, as we act our pants off like we are scared, confused, and upset. We struggle with him for a few seconds, and then back off as he pushes Lada a few feet away to talk to her. He begs her forgiveness, pleads with her, but she is unresponsive. He is heartbroken, but realizes it’s too late. He starts to walk away. Peter and I rush to Lada and protectively start wheeling her again towards the plane. Lada suddenly jumps from her wheelchair, we look shocked senseless (we had no idea she could walk), and she runs after the Ukrainian man yelling “papochka, papochka!” (daddy, daddy!). She jumps into his arms. End of film.

So, our part is literally in the last two minutes of the film, and we are far from the focus of any scene. But hell, we’ll be in the credits!

To get those 2 minutes of film, we spent 12 hours at the airport yesterday. The shot each scene so many times! From this angle, from that angle, with the bus in the background, without the bus. Loading girl and wheelchair into the bus, unloading them. Over and over and over and over. Because we were out on the tarmac, in the secure area of the airport, we couldn’t just come and go as we were needed, and they weren’t allowed to bring out food or drink, and, of course, there were no toilets. About 40 extras and crew members were out there for about 7 hours - it was not a pretty site by the end. Everyone was tired, hungry, and REALLY cranky. When we finally went back to the terminal, the directors wanted to film a couple more scenes inside, but grudgingly agreed to let us eat some dinner first. Thank goodness!

They want Peter and me for one more day’s work in two weeks, when we’ll film the scene at the orphanage when we are picking up Lada. They say it will be a shorter day, but I’ll be prepared for another long one, just in case. I’ll bring a bottle of water and my own snacks this time!

I don’t know when the film will be released, but I’ll ask what the tentative plan is during our next shoot. And I’ll keep you posted about my film debut!

I got home at 9:30 tonight, after nearly 12 hours at Boryspil airport filming the last few minutes of the film. I’m exhausted, but man was it interesting! I’ll write more about it tomorrow, after a good night’s sleep.

I got a really weird phone call today. An American woman I only vaguely know (I think we’ve met once) called me on my cell phone and asked if I would be interested in being in a Ukrainian movie. “Depends on what kind of movie,” I said. She laughed, and proceeded to tell me what little she knew about the deal. It seems she’d been contacted by a scout looking for an American woman to play a small role in a movie currently being filmed in Kyiv. This American woman had first called a friend of her’s, who declined but suggested they contact me. I thought, what the hell?

So a young Ukrainian woman came to my office this afternoon to take a couple pictures of me, which she said she would show to the director. If he liked me for the part, she would call me around 6:30 or 7 with more details. She asked if I could be available to be on site all day tomorrow (Wednesday), and she gave me a very brief overview of the project. It seems this is the latest project of Aleksandr Kirienko, who directed Orange Sky, a love story set during the 2004 Orange Revoluion in Kyiv. This new story involves an American couple adopting a child from Ukraine. The young woman mentioned the name of one of the stars of the film, but of course I have no clue who she is, so unfortunately, the “wow” effect was completely lost on me. She gave me two pages of the script, which include the very impressive four words I would have in the film as the American woman adopting the child. Clearly, the adopting parents are not the focus of the film!

Well, 7:00 came and went, and I figured they must have picked someone else for the role. Lo and behold, the phone rings about 9:15 tonight and it’s the young woman from this afternoon. She said the director wants me! I’m to report to a certain metro station at 8:15 in the morning, where she’ll meet me and take me out to the airport where shooting is taking place for the day. She asked me if I have jeans - ha! I’m an American, I said, of course I’ve got jeans! I’m to wear jeans, tennis shoes, a jacket that is not black or white (the camera doesn’t like those colors, she said), but I didn’t quite understand what she said about the shirt. I asked her to repeat it, and in the jumble of words I heard “t-shirt”. I hope I got it right!

I may not be the star of the movie, but who knows? Maybe this will be the start to a whole new career.

The OSU College of Humanities did a short profile of me in the Humanities Express newsletter.

When I was home last month, I participated in a College of Humanities 10th Annual Career Night as an alumni panelist. Despite nasty weather, a good number of undergraduate students in a variety of majors joined us at the Faculty Club. For the first hour, we panelists responded to questions from the students, sharing our experience and perspectives on the value of a humanities degree. Then we split up into “theme groups”, and spoke with small groups of students. I was in the “foreign language” group, having majored in Russian at OSU.

I talked to five or six students majoring in foreign languages, several of them with a second major in the works as well. They all seemed so nervous about what they could do with a foreign language major. One of the other alumni panelists had majored in Spanish and ended up with a career in business. She talked about how her Spanish ability had been invaluable at her first job, with a small company that had some oeprations in Latin America. Having someone with whom they communicate in their own language was a huge boost for the Latin American affiliates, she said, and the business started booming there.

It took me nearly ten years to put my Russian skills to regular use. But my Humanities skills have been invaluable from the start - critical thinking, cultural understanding, analytical skills, writing skills, communication skills. These skills seem so intangible, yet they are so very important. I, too, struggled with trying to understand what I would do with a Russian degree, and perhaps it’s an understanding that only comes with experience and context. The career path for a Humanities major is not as clear-cut as for an engineer, or a marketing major, or an architect. What once seemed like an overwhelmingly vague career trajectory now seems to me like an amazingly rich and diverse array of career opportunities.

When I was home in November, I was interviewed by the Ohio State Alumni Association magazine. The profile was published in the January/February 2007 issue.

I was and am flattered that they wanted to interview me. The profile is pretty accurate, except for two rather glaring errors - (1) neither I nor Chernobyl are located in Russia, and (2) I don’t live “in Chernobyl.”

This week was the UN Youth Summit 2006, with the theme “Development of Volunteerism and Social Partnership in Ukraine”. UNVs participated in several events throughout the four-day summit, which brought 150 high school and university students from all over Ukraine to a conference center just outside Kyiv.

I participated in the plenary session “Development of Volunteerism in Ukraine”, which was part of the opening events, which were held on December 5, International Volunteer Day. Seven of us UNVs participated in the plenary session, and three of us were asked to make presentations – Mietek, Igor and me. I get extremely nervous when making presentations in Russian, but not long ago I made an early New Year’s resolution to work on overcoming my apprehension, so I reluctantly agreed to prepare a short speech.

When we arrived at the venue, Anna (our UNV Country Office program assistant, who had organized our participation in the summit) said some of the local media would like to interview a couple of UNVs. I HATE media interviews, I get even more nervous than I do during public presentations, and you put that camera in front of me and I get so afraid of saying something stupid and/or wrong. I tried to “disappear”, but Anna hunted me down and said she wanted me to do an interview. First, the reporter talked to Igor for about 5 minutes. Then she turned to me. I tried to convince her to interview Mietek, who is a natural public speaker and who comes alive with a microphone in front of him. “No,” she smiled at me. “We interviewed a man already, so it would be nice to interview a woman.” I couldn’t get out of it. I didn’t die, but I sure did want to. I understood almost everything that she said to me, with only one quick sideways glance to Anna for clarification of a word. I rambled a bit, and must have said something comprehensible as they got enough material for a quick clip on the evening news. It was weird to see and hear myself on TV – what an accent I have! The next day, I joked with my colleagues that I sound so great in my own head – no accent, everything perfectly conjugated, and sentences beautifully constructed. What happens between my brain and my mouth?

I called Anya in Tvarditsa that evening because the TV interview that day reminded me of the last TV interview I did in Russian - after our Swearing-In Ceremony in November 2004. I could hardly remember how to say my own name then, I was so nervous! Anya and I had a good laugh, remembering that day. We chatted a bit longer, and I was glad to hear that everyone is doing well in Tvarditsa. They have a new Peace Corps Volunteer living with them, and it sounds like they are getting along well.

I participated in a round table about volunteerism on the final day of the conference with Anna and a couple other volunteer “activists.” The discussion started very slowly, but bit by bit, more people trickled into our room and the conversation got livelier and livelier. I was asked to compare and contrast volunteerism in the U.S. and Ukraine, which I thought was a pretty big topic to tackle. I always find it difficult to talk in such generalizations – “volunteerism in American is…, and in Ukraine it is….” – so I used instead an example from a conversation we’d had in the car on the way to the conference center. Anna had told me that her sister had offered to help (to volunteer with) the conference planning committee. The organizers said Yes! They would love to have a volunteer to help with the preparations. When the young woman arrived at their office, the staff was totally unprepared for her, had no work identified for her to do, and spent about an hour discussing and debating what exactly they could give her to do. In the end, they asked her to make a few phone calls. She left that afternoon disappointed, discouraged, and definitely not planning to return. Anna felt this was an example of the Ukrainian “management” style of not wanting to actually delegate anything to anyone else. There is a mentality, she said, that it is easier to do it yourself than to explain it to someone else. Personally, I think there is also a distrust of others, and a fear that a subordinate might actually do something better than you. There is also a widespread inability to plan and prepare in advance. For our discussion, I suggested that an organization should consider their volunteers as they would any other staff, meaning you should recruit, interview, manage and reward volunteers, just as you would for any other staff position. True, your volunteers don’t get a salary, but this led to a good discussion of how you can reward your volunteers (free internet usage at the office, participation in seminars and conferences, tea and cookies, certificates, and other ideas).

The conversation went off on a variety of tangents, some controversial and all very interesting. In the end, no one wanted to end the discussion and the conference organizers were begging us to stop talking so the next session could begin! I wrapped up with an analogy – the volunteerism movement in Ukraine is like our round table, starting slowly, with a few people, but becoming energetic and fun and hard to stop!

Igor and I wrote an article about some local volunteer activities in Korosten. UNDP/Ukraine posted it on the web. There was also an article in the Korosten local newspaper - as soon as I find time to translate it, I’ll post it here too.

I am happy to report that our events on International Volunteer Day went really well! You can read about it and see some great photos on the UNDP/Ukraine website: http://www.un.org.ua/?p=news&article=622.