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We are delighted to invite you to the first In Conversation event of the year, between SDI Founder Noe Mendelle and acclaimed documentary filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, the director of 20 Days in Mariupol (2023).

By RSVPing to this event, you will receive the Zoom details to join us on the day.

Attendees will receive a private link to watch the film after the In Conversation event. 

Mstyslav Chernov is a Pulitzer Prize-winning video journalist at The Associated Press and president of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers. Since joining AP in 2014, he has covered major conflicts, social issues and environmental crises across Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Most recently, Chernov documented Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Together with longtime colleague Evgeniy Maloletka, Chernov recorded the siege of Mariupol, showing the world eyewitness accounts of the Russian attacks on the city. Chernov’s courageous reporting in Mariupol earned the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. He was named 2016 Camera Operator of the Year and 2015 Young Talent of the Year by the UK’s Royal Television Society. He is from Eastern Ukraine and is based in Germany.

20 Days in Mariupol | 94 min | Ukraine

The film draws on Mstyslav Chernov’s daily news dispatches and personal footage of his own country at war. It offers a vivid, harrowing account of civilians caught in the siege, as well as a window into what it’s like to report from a conflict zone, and the impact of such journalism around the globe.

On the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a team of Ukrainian journalists enter the strategic eastern port city of Mariupol. During the subsequent siege and assault, as bombs fall, inhabitants flee, and access to electricity, food, water, and medicine is severed, the team — the only international journalists left — struggles to cover the war atrocities and to transmit their footage out. Eventually surrounded by Russian soldiers, they shelter in a hospital, unsure of how they’ll escape.

Made in partnership with The Associated Press, 20 Days in Mariupol has had a decorated run on the 2023 film festival circuit — including winning the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for World Cinema Documentary and the Tim Hetherington Award at Sheffield Film Festival. The film was also honoured with DocEdge Film Festival’s awards for “Best International Director” and “Best International Editing.”

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Our In Conversation series hosted by Noe Mendelle features inspiring filmmakers delving into the journey of their career and the process of crafting a film - from developing an idea, working with participants, funding, editing and distribution. These free, interactive virtual events are an incredible opportunity to speak to award-winning filmmakers and learn key tools and insights for working in the industry.