Film Forum

Mstyslav Chernov is a Ukrainian war correspondent, filmmaker, photographer, and novelist known for his coverage of the Ukrainian revolution, the Russian invasion in Ukraine, the war in Iraq, Syria, and Nagorno-Karabakh, and Afghanistan under Taliban rule after the U.S. withdrawal, as well as for his art installations and exhibitions. Chernov is an Associated Press journalist and the President of the Ukrainian Association of Professional Photographers (UAPP). He has won several prestigious awards, including two from the Royal Television Society for his coverage of the downing of flight MH17, and the Georgy Gongadze Prize, ICFJ Knight awards, and DW Freedom of Speech Award for documenting the siege in Mariupol as one of three remaining international journalists in the city. He was nominated for international prizes such as the Livingston Award for his work on the civil unrest in Belarus in 2021, and the Rory Peck Award for his coverage of the Battle of Mosul. He was Ukrainian Photographer of the Year in 2013 and 2015. Chernov's first novel The Dreamtime was published in October 2022 by Cherry Orchard Books in Brookline, Massachusetts. The book draws heavily on his experience as a war correspondent, including his coverage of the 2014 Russian invasion of Ukraine. Chernov and his Associated Press colleagues Evgeniy Maloletka, Vasilisa Stepanenko, and Lori Hinnant were awarded the 2023 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in Journalism. Photo credit: Associated Press / Evgeniy Maloletka

Michelle Mizner is an Emmy-winning documentary producer and film editor on staff at FRONTLINE PBS. Her work for the series has been recognized by the Peabodys, World Press Photo, duPont Columbia Awards, and SXSW. Select titles as a producer and editor include Life in Baghdad (2015) and Inside Yemen (2017), with correspondent Martin Smith, and The Last Call (2020) with director Marcela Gaviria. In addition to films, Mizner has produced several acclaimed interactive documentaries, including Inheritance (2016), The Last Generation (2018), and Un(re)solved. (2021). She is the producer and editor of the documentary 20 DAYS IN MARIUPOL (dir. Mstyslav Chernov).

David Fear is a film critic and senior editor at Rolling Stone and was a critic/editor at Time Out New York from 2004 to 2013. His work has been published in the New York Times Magazine, Esquire, Village Voice, Film Comment, Spin, NY Daily News, Nashville Scene and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, among others. He's a member of the New York Film Critics Circle and the National Society of Film Critics. He lives in Brooklyn, as all writers must.

Supported by a Humanities New York Action Grant

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