From 9–15 August I was in Toronto for a week of in-depth archival research at HREC and UCRDC. The project “Animated Testimonies from Ukraine in the Holodomor” is part-funded by a Research Grant from HREC, the Holodomor Research and Education Consortium. The idea to visit Toronto was from Marta Baziuk, Executive Director of HREC. I worked with the archives and collections from HREC Special Collections and the Ukrainian Canadian Research & Documentation Centre. This includes survivors’ stories and materials collected for Harvest of Despair, the first feature film about the Holodomor, produced by UCRDC. This was a fantastic week including meeting Roman Waschuk, Iroida Wynnyckyj, the team at UCRDC and a fantastic insight into the collections from Bozhena Gembatiuk. I met and worked with Karolina Koziura, from the Munk School at the University of Toronto and met and spoke to Michael Cherkas, author of Red Harvest. I spent one day at the Petro Jacyk Central and East European Resource Centre at the University of Toronto where I met Ksenya Kiebuzinski who, as well as an introduction to the collections also introduced me to Substack posts which I have been reading avidly from Paul Krugman and Heather Cox Richardson. Both a fantastic overview and insight into American economics and history in a contemporary context. At PJRC I viewed material from the Maps Collections, animations directed by Volodymyr Honcharov and Natalia Marchenkova, a short from the diaries of Oleksandr Dovzhenko directed by Andrii Donchyk (1988) and read work from Anna Shternshis and Oksana Kis.
I managed to fit in a short trip to Niagara Falls, a visit to Casa Loma, a trip to Kensington Market and an evening of bliss in Robarts Library. This was one of the most fantastic weeks of my academic career and thank you to Marta, the teams at HREC and UCRDC and everybody else who I met and spent time with in Toronto, some of whom I haven’t mentioned here. Thank you.
Archival materials at UCRDC on video tape.
Archival materials at UCRDC on film.
Archival materials at UCRDC – Holodomor Survivors.
In the Shadow of Stalin, graphic novel about Mr. Jones based on the film. By Andrea Chalupa and Ivan Rodrigues.
Viewing station at Robarts Library, University of Toronto with collections from PJRC.
Bozhena Gembatiuk, me, and Roman Waschuk (seated).
Important and missing ideas from Marta Baziuk and Yana Khalik.
“Niagara”. Film with Marilyn Monroe, 1953, return train to New York viewing.
