Ukraine

As you can probably see, I've been cheerily marching along on this blog, writing posts of both a frivolous and contemplative nature, despite the fact that a massive war has broken out in Europe.

Having a backlog of posts I had written but not yet posted does not excuse the behavior entirely. I've also written new posts that were time sensitive or have only occurred to me within the past week.

This is not to say I have not been thinking about Ukraine. And it's only responsible for me to finally relay those thoughts to the public on my blog, even though they do not relate to the movies as such.

I've been struggling to put the Russian invasion in the proper context in my head. On the one hand, I wonder how different this is from similar awful situations in Afghanistan or Syria. On the other, I know that anything involving one of the world's biggest military powers and most dangerous bad actors has potentially worldwide ramifications, up to and including World War III, though I still can't quite bring myself to believe that's a possible outcome. I also know that unlike those two other conflicts, this involves a foreign state invading another state, and the U.S. isn't even involved. (Yet.)

I never know quite how to behave in these situations when it comes to social media or this blog. There are certain things that happen in the world that disqualify a person from engaging in the sort of light banter I like to participate in on Facebook, or talking about what actor has appeared in the most best picture winners on this blog. I'm trying to figure out if this is one of those situations.

But even when we can definitively identify situations that qualify as that, I am never going to devote all my time on social media or this blog to them. "The show must go on" is the appropriately drama-related cliche that applies here.

I also, though, cannot just keep writing these posts without a post like this one, letting you know I'm not some heartless monster who isn't even thinking about these things. I hope I didn't need to post this for you to know that about me. 

And there is, actually, a way to relate this to the movies. My wife was the Australia-based producer on a 2019 film shot in Ukraine called A Family. She had a relationship with its Australian director and cinematographer, who shot the film in Kyiv in 2017 or thereabouts. They had a Ukrainian producer organizing all the day-to-day logistics of the shoot, while my wife did all the things like get the film finished back here and get it into film festivals.

The still above is from A Family, and feels appropriate to the hope for peace we all share. Well, all except Vladimir Putin I guess. 

As far as we know, everyone associated with the film is alright. My wife has been in touch with the Ukrainian producer and some others who worked on the film, who are displaced from their homes in many instances, actually taking up arms in others, and in all other ways showing the absolute courage, pride and determination of a group of citizens under a dire threat to their way of life and their very lives.

So yes, I'm thinking about Ukraine. I don't know when I will post about it again. Tomorrow I will surely go back to posting something frivolous. It doesn't mean I'm not thinking about it.

You know this. But I thought it was worth saying anyway.