Zoya was born in Mariupol, in a working class family in 1984. Zoya first appeared in the world of documentary cinema as a character in the film “Ma”(10’) in 2017, and a year later made her first short documentary “Diorama” about the mined sea at the Mariupol area. The film won an award in the MyStreetFilms category at the “86” festival (Ukraine) in 2018, has participated in numerous European film festivals (DOKLeipzig, Ji.Hlava, Cottbus etc), and was released in cinemas in Ukraine in 2019.
In 2021, Zoya premiered her new short “Territory of Empty Windows” (10’) at DocudaysUA International Human Rights DFF, and showed it in cinemas at Molodist IFF in Kyiv, received a special award from the Ji.Hlava festival at the Obirok 2021 festival and the main award at the documentary competition of the French-Ukrainian festival MIST 2021. International premiere was held at MakeDoxIFF, North Macedonia.
Before the start of a full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine (2022), Zoya lived in Kyiv and worked as an independent artist and documentary filmmaker. She works with themes of war, memory and personal stories.
My trip to the residency in Bucharest was driven by the idea of getting to know the local culture and history. After all, it was my first visit to Romania in general and to Bucharest as well. However, when I got to Bucharest, I realized that it reminds me very much of Ukraine and Ukrainian cities. For example, Mariupol, where I was born. It was very much in tune with my project that I started in Vienna this winter. This project, called Unheritage. I am trying to recreate the archives that were lost to me when Russia destroyed and captured my hometown. This is not just a repetition, but a kind of reenactment. Thus, I decided to buy black and white film, they helped me find an old Zenit camera, the same one that I had in my childhood and with which my father took pictures of me. The photos that were taken in Constanta will eventually become part of this project. Moreover, during our stay at the gallery of Anca Poterasu, we decided not only to do an artist talk and show my previous video works, but also to make an exhibition. Currently, this exhibition, which we called “Memory Practices’ , which will last for a month, shows my films, videos and photos that were made before and also photos that were already made in Romania. In addition, Anсa arranged a meeting for me with director Alecu Solomon, who works with local archive centers. This meeting helped me form the idea of a new film, part of which I would like to shoot in Romania and use Romanian archives. I also met the documentary filmmaker Vlad Petra, who works in a similar style to mine. At one of the exhibitions, I met Dana Bunescu, an editing director and documentary filmmaker, whose work with Radu Jude really impressed me.
It was a very rich and useful residency that has already influenced my artistic life.
