_________- American (working title)

UkrainianAmerican – Breathing the Past into the Present is an emotionally resonant, first-person participatory feature documentary that traces how war reverberates through those who live just beyond its reach. It asks what it means to inherit conflict—not through geography, but through memory, ancestry, and love - and how this experience serves as a point of connection between people around the world.

Rooted in my experience as a Ukrainian-American filmmaker in Buffalo, NY, the film unfolds through eleven years of collected fragments—journals, social posts, voice memos, and filmed moments that trace my own evolving relationship to identity and belonging. These personal reflections contrast with interviews from other members of the Ukrainian diaspora, revealing both the shared and divergent ways we metabolize inherited trauma and cultural memory.