New Mexico filmmaker tells the stories of war-torn Ukraine
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NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – New Mexico has been at the cutting edge of filmmaking since the silent movie days of Tom Mix. Now one New Mexico filmmaker’s inspiration has led her to war-torn Ukraine.
On February 24, 2022, Russia invaded the neighboring country of Ukraine. The unprovoked and largest humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II. It’s also not the first time the super-power has waged war on the former Soviet Republic.
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As the Soviet Union crumbled, Ukraine passed its declaration of independence in August of 1991. As the years progressed, so did Ukraine’s alliances with western nations and members of NATO.
President Vladimir Putin saw this as an act of aggression toward Russia, threatening western countries with retaliation if they encroached too much in Ukraine.
In 2014, Russia covertly invaded and annexed Crimea, a move they justified as a “rescue operation” for Russian Nationals living in the southeastern parts of Ukraine. Less than 10 years later, Putin launched his full-scale attack that continues to this day.
“When the full-scale invasion happened, I felt compelled to help. And so I used basically all of my background experience, to help in what I’m doing now,” said Genevieve Trainor.
Half a world away, filmmaker and media strategist Genevieve Trainor watched with millions of other Americans as the brutal invasion took place. Images were fed back to American news outlets of bombed-out buildings and military campaigns. Trainor couldn’t help but think of the innocent, anonymous voices of Ukrainians living in the war zone. “We see we see the bombed out buildings in the news, but we don’t hear the people’s stories,” said Trainor.
Trainor, who received her undergrad in Communications and Journalism from the University of New Mexico, felt she might be able to give a voice to those living through the conflict.
So in the fall of 2022, she sold her car, stepped away from her career in film and public relations, and planned her first trip to Eastern Europe. Landing in Warsaw, Poland in 2022, she convened with filmmakers based in Poland, Ukraine, and colleagues working state-side.
“It felt a little bit extreme for my first trip to Ukraine, to go to the eastern part of the country, where that’s where most of the action is,” said Trainor.
Compelled by her Polish colleague, Trainor crossed over the border to Ukraine making her way east to the occupied Donbas region and the city of Kharkiv. “And so we spent time in there, in that region and, in Kharkiv and the way that people, they don’t take their days for granted, they wake up, you know, not everybody, of course, but generally speaking, they wake up appreciative of waking up for another day,” said Trainor.
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New Mexico Frontiers: New Mexico filmmaker tells the stories of war-torn Ukraine
As you head further east into the country, the roads deteriorate, destroyed by Russian tanks and bombings. In some parts, you can see reflections of a time when the country wasn’t at war. It’s within these confines that thousands of Ukrainians make their best effort to live a normal life and at the same time, voluntarily take up arms against their invaders. “It’s a civilian war, you know, most I believe most of the military members. Right now fighting were civilians before the full-scale invasion. The people helping on the ground are every day, everyday Ukrainians,” said Trainor.
Since December of 2022, Trainor has taken six trips to the country with a seventh planned for the summer. There she meets, listens, and relays the daily struggles triumphs, and tragedies of the nation’s population. Among them are people like Yevegeny, a Ukrainian-born basketball enthusiast who is working to provide free camps for kids displaced by the war. Then there is Fuminori Tsuchiko, a 76-year-old transplant to the country, arriving just weeks before Russia attacked. He has helped with humanitarian efforts, distributing food, developing a mobile children’s library and establishing a cafe.
Trainor herself has sacrificed much to help bring the untold stories outside the borders of Ukraine. But one sacrifice in particular made her decision difficult but necessary. ” I have two girls, and, that said, it’s certainly not something that everybody understands in terms of why I’m spending time in Ukraine, particularly as a mother and with kids. And I know that it’s okay for me that people don’t understand. but it had I’ve sacrificed time with my girls. That I won’t get back. So, that’s that’s probably the hardest thing,” said Trainor. ” I think that time with my girls that I won’t get back has been hard, but I hope…. I hope that my my work there shows them that they can they can pivot their lives if they feel compelled to do something in their life that they’re not currently doing. That they don’t have to stay in something that you know doesn’t make them happy or know that they can also chase what they want in their life.”
The Domino effect on global stability cannot be understated and while thousands of miles separate the US from Ukraine, Trainor stresses no one is immune from the conflict.
Trainor has also been working ith Ukranian media overseas as well as in the United States, combatting with what she calls Russian propaganda. Her producers are currently in post-production on their first episodes of the docuseries.
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