Events › Documentary: UNAFF presents Porcelain War

Amidst the chaos and destruction of the brutal Russian invasion of Ukraine, three artists defiantly find inspiration and beauty as they defend their culture and their country. In a war waged by professional soldiers against ordinary civilians, Slava Leontyev, Anya Stasenko and Andrey Stefanov choose to stay behind, armed with their art, their cameras and, for the first time in their lives, their weapons. See the trailer for this Oscar-nominated 87-minute documentary from Ukraine here.

Brendan Bellomo was the recipient of a Student Academy Award for Live Action Narrative. Beginning his career in visual effects, he supervised the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild. Most recently, Bellomo was the executive producer on the Netflix original, Chupa. He worked closely with Annie Leibovitz on the global exhibit Women: New Portraits.

Slava Leontyev is a first-time director. Merging his love of nature and art, Leontyev has spent his life studying painting, photography, graphic design and art theory. He is also a former soldier of the Ukrainian Special Forces and a highly-regarded weapons instructor for civilians who are currently defending their country against Russian aggression.

Aniela Sidorska is a filmmaker and visual effects composer for Captain America: The First Avenger. She also worked as a compositing supervisor on the Oscar-nominated Beasts of the Southern Wild and as a visual effects producer on Lee Daniels’ The Butler and The Expendables 3. Most recently, she was involved in creature development for the Netflix original Chupa.

Paula DuPré Pesmen is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning producer who produced the Oscar–winning feature documentary The Cove. Pesmen launched her film career on the producing teams of such as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Rent, Mrs. Doubtfire, Home Alone 2 and Stepmom. She produced the renowned documentaries Chasing Ice, Keep On Keepin’ On, and Quincy.

Olivia Ahnemann has been producing award-winning documentary films for over twenty years. She produced Youth v Gov, which was released globally on Netflix; The Human Element, featuring photographer James Balog, Stephanie Soechtig’s Under the Gun and Louie Psihoyos’ Racing Extinction. She was nominated for an Emmy Award for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking. She co-produced the Oscar–winning feature documentary The Cove.

As one of the oldest solely documentary film festivals in the US, UNAFF has grown and earned the respect of audiences and filmmakers alike for its fearless independence and integrity. It was founded in 1998 by Stanford educator and film critic Jasmina Bojic in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.