May 19, 2008

Thanks to everyone who came out to our "Folk!" screening in Whippany, NJ! It was a great evening, and thank you for all of your kind words about the film!
Also, thank you EVERYONE for coming out to the 7th Street Ukrainian Festival and visiting the Brooklyn Ukrainian Group (BUG) booth! BUG has been a HUGE supporter of "Folk!" and we thank them for all they do for us!
Coming up this weekend, "Folkl" will be screening at KINO-Q, a film festival located at Soyuzivka Resort in Kerhonkson, NY. For those of you heading to "The Q" this weekend (Memorial Day Weekend), "Folk!" will be screening at 8pm on Sunday evening. Check out Soyuzivka.com for more details!
Hope to see you all this weekend!
Rox and Jerm

We are pleased to announce our first "Folk!" screening in Cleveland! April 11th and 12th at 7:30pm, Folk! will be screened at the Ukrainian Museum-Archives. $10 tickets may be purchased at the museum and a Q&A session will follow. There are a limited number of seats available so be sure to purchase your tickets soon!

In other news, KinoRox is back from Los Angeles, and excited about starting a west coast branch. That's right! We are going bi-coastal and setting up in the sun in 2008. We will be sure to make an announcement once KinoRox West is set up.

Also, "Girl On A Mission" is making some great headway with a new editor on board.

KinoRox is off to great start this year! Everyone on the team has been working hard on new and exciting projects. For a recent look at what Jeremy and Yarko have been up to, Click Here and check out The Little Penguin Wine commercial. It also features actress Alexa Kryzaniwsky.

The biggest project the team at KinoRox has been involved in is a test promo for the television show, "Girl on a Mission". For those of you who attended our Spring 2007 showing of "Folk!"
this would be the program we were alluding to in our Q&A. Details and info on that amazing gig will be posted over the coming weeks!

Our plans the next few months include adding a new "Folk!" page and adding videos and reels onto the general site. Screening details of "Folk!" will be posted over the coming weeks as well, as we are currently booking slots in the cities and communities where "Folk!" was produced.
Thanks for stopping by and don't forget to get your "Ukrainians Are More Fun" T-shirts on your way out : ) GO TO KINOROX STORE

Oh to be a fly on our wall! There's never a dull moment here. Whether its shooting for a project, editing a reel, or interviewing people, things just keep moving at a fast pace, then you realize how much you need to catch up!

These days, we have been working quite steadily. KinoRox projects include
the Voloshky Kimmel Center DVD which we hope to conclude by the end of this month, the Cardiff project, and an "in the works" music video. We also have been quite busy catching up on a lot of things regarding "Folk!", namely shipping and mailing back all of the wonderful videos, photographs, and personal info donated to us for the film.

This month we are preparing for our trip to the East Silver Market in the Czech Republic. The Market focuses on Eastern European documentaries and we aim to gain exposure for "Folk!" while there, as well as meet with as many filmmakers, producers, and distributors as possible. So far, the flights and rooms are booked. The rest of the planning will take place the next couple of weeks.

ONE LAST THING--the AWESOME photos taken at our NYC screening by Dave Scorsolini have FINALLY been scanned and will be online soon! Keep checking back! Roxy

Hope you are all having a great SUMMER 2007! Both Jeremy and I have been working on projects that have taken us out of NYC for much of the summer. He has been shooting for Milligrace in Illinois, Delaware, Pennsylvania and will soon be leaving to Maine. Although I was in New York early in the summer, much of my August has been spent in Connecticut working on a feature for Harpo Films.

Throughout the summer we began production on our next project, an as yet untitled short documentary featuring Jim Ridings, a ghost town historian in rural Illinois. Details on this film will be posted shortly, and post-production will begin in mid-September.

As f or "Folk!" we have some great news! We will be bringing the film to Prague in October!!! More details on screenings and film markets to come. Have a great rest of the summer! See you in the Fall!

Roxy T.

Hey Friends! Just dropping a quick note to let you know the state of everything! Pictures of the private screening will be up soon!

So what have we been doing the last few weeks? Eric is back in Toronto working on several television shows and his own 'secret' project, Jeremy has been traveling the country shooting for a plethora of companies, and Roxy just finished a gig producing red carpet events for the Tribeca Film Festival (go to www.tribecafilmfestival.org , click on videos at the top right, and watch the one with Elijah Wood...see her in action!). Kruno meanwhile has been touring the world! We can't put our finger on him but can swear he is composing away the final songs to Folk!

As for the status of Folk!, we have slowly started the festival submission process, and hope that May is THE month for us to submit to as many great fests as possible. We are crossing our fingers and hope to get into the best! We will also be at the Ukrainian Festival on 7th Street in NYC all this weekend with Brooklyn Ukrainian Group. Don't forget to stop by and get some KinoRox T-shirts, fake tattoos or great BUG stuff like Uki iced-tea! YUM! See you there!

Hope you all had a chance to watch the Oscar's this year. A lot of great films won, and it was a great year for documentaries. It's great to see such films being recognized, and we look forward to a letter from the Academy very soon! ;)

We're heading to Toronto on March 2, 2007 for our final editing session for "Folk!" It will be a big trip for us to lock the picture, supervise color correction, and incorporate all of the elements of the film into the final version. We're also looking forward to our Private Screening in NYC at the end of March, for supporters of the film and industry representatives. It will be great to show the film to our biggest supporters, in preparation for our year of film festivals and world-wide promotion! We look forward to seeing all of you at a festival screening in the coming year, so please keep checking back for info on where to see "Folk!" near your hometown!

Hey everyone! Things are going well here at KinoRox Headquarters. Over the past few weeks, we've finalized more plans for our post production, including signing on our sound mixer, Blair Wells. We're very excited to have Blair on board, and he comes highly acclaimed in the recording studio industry. Our composer, Kruno Spisic, has also been tirelessly working on the original score, Jeremy's been creating a new animated opening for the film, and director Roxy Toporowych and editor Eric Gold have been tweaking the edit to make it absolutely perfect. Also keep your eye out for the "Folk!" posters that our graphic artist, Paula Cyhan, is creating! We plan to have a limited number of them available for purchase in the coming month.

With all of the excitement around here, we're still working on fundraising for the remainder of the budget. Post production comes with a big price tag, and we can't do it alone. If you or someone you know is interested in seeing their name in the credits, email us! Hope you are having a wonderful February, and Go Folk!

It’s finally 2007 and we can’t believe how quickly time has passed this last year. For the last couple months of 2006, we spent the majority of our time concentrating on the fine cut of “Folk!” and working on our next project (to be announced soon!). We were in Toronto around Thanksgiving time and gave new life to the film...adding comedy, personality, and that spark that was desperately needed. Needless to say we are thrilled with the result.

Our overall plan for 2007 is to bring "Folk!" to the masses, starting with a cast, crew, and donor Premiere in New York City this Spring! Further on, we plan to be an awesome force on the film festival scene and secure a great distribution deal, bringing “Folk!” to the widest audience possible.

Further plans include building KinoRox Productions, and a return trip to Ukraine to screen “Folk!” and research and shoot a new Ukrainian production in the Summer/Fall of 2007.

It’s going to be an exciting year, filled with new ventures, new people, and hopefully a relaxing vacation thrown in there somewhere. Have a great year and as always, thank you all for your support! No one can make a feature length documentary alone, and we have had the greatest community support imaginable! Thank you!

Have a GREAT 2007, and GO FOLK!
Team KinoRox

Hey everyone! We’ve been back for about a week already and what a GREAT trip! The foliage, towns, and people all along the Blue Ridge of Appalachia were incredible. We got hooked on bluegrass music and clogging, and our minds became free and clear of all the clutter! Now that’s living!

As for “Folk!”, our hands are beginning to get tied as the funding is slowing down, but we aren’t finished yet! KinoRox will only release the absolute best product, so although it's taking quite a long time to finish, it is all worth the wait. Another trip is currently being scheduled to Toronto to tie up some loose ends with the edit. We can’t wait, as our editor, Eric, has been working in London for the last 3 months! It'll be great to have the whole crew back together!

This SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4, a few dancers from "Folk!" (including yours truly), will be appearing LIVE with the band “Diamond Nights” at the Bowery Ballroom!
For more information about the show, including ticket sales and music, check out: http://www.diamondnights.com

We are also working on a new website, to launch that in the coming months, which will also feature our new 'KinoRox Production Services' branch, offering full video production services for dance, theatre, and more!

The trailer for "Folk!" is also now available on YouTube, so if you couldn’t watch it before via our website, try it out at www.youtube.com!

Exhausted and tired yet we keep on ticking! We have been having mini-screenings of “Folk!” and gathering feedback from some of our trusty film friends and so far so good. We have been meeting with some really great people, from fest directors to other filmmakers to tv execs about the future of “Folk!” and KinoRox. We also had a small, unannounced screening of “Folk!” at Shevchenko Manor in Parma, OH with Roxy’s grandma and friends being the guests of honor.

However, before we continue the post process, we are going to take a much needed break/research trip through the Appalachian Mountains via the Blue Ridge Parkway. Some fresh air and a fresh perspective is much deserved and needed. We haven't taken a break from the movie in almost 2 years and now is the perfect time to step back before the final plunge.

On personal notes outside of KinoRox, Jeremy has been working hard as a DP on several projects, most recently shooting footage for a documentary on scientist and engineer Nikola Tesla and Roxy has been editing A&E Biography style docs for a new upstart production company in the city.

As always, thanks for checking in and please, if you have some inside info on finishing funds (we are in desperate need!) or PR opportunities, don’t hesitate to send us an email!

We are moving full speed ahead and on target with Folk! The edit is now at our goal length of an hour and thirty minutes, but what’s more important is that the story of Folk! is exactly what we had hoped it would be after all this time!

Eric, our editor, is off living a glamourous life in London for the next three months and we are only left with minor tweaking to the actual edit, so the famous question of “Is the movie finished yet” can finally be answered...“Sort of!” We have some details to get to (sound mix, master, photo effects, archival films, color correction, etc), but it's all in there, start to finish.

With the edit being where it is, we are able to breathe a little and work on new projects as well as a new Press Kit for Folk! We finished it up last week and its ready to go! We also have our lovely Post-Production Assistant Sonya Borys back from Italy to help us expedite returning all those photos and videos we had sent to us over the last 2 years. There is also one more “new” person working with us, however we will keep his identity under wraps until things come together.

Another article about Folk! appeared in the magazine “Donegal Culture” and we finally have a copy of it! Click HERE to see it! Also, along with IMDB, KinoRox has made it onto the Filmmaker Magazine website! YAY US!

Go to http://www.filmmakermagazine.com/filmsites/ and click on the letter “K” to find KinoRox

All for now! Roxy and Jeremy

Since our last update, things have skyrocketed for us at Team KinoRox! We have spent over 2 years working on the edit, and now can concentrate on the other fun and creative aspects of the greatest folk dance film of all time. From working on our photo effects to designing a new website and posters, things at KinoRox are really picking up speed.

Eric was in town for a week of intensive editing in late July. Working 10-14 hour days at the KinoRox headquarters for 6 days straight garnered some amazing results, the first of which is a cut of the documentary that is at 1 hour 45 min. in length…getting close to the final goal! We were also able to brainstorm with Eric about some new projects that collectively will fall under our “Working Vacations” banner. Don’t worry KinoRox fans, that just means we’re going to create more films, shows and projects, some of which are strictly ours, while others will cover a broader scope!

More articles will appear online soon, as the buzz for Folk! continues to build; with a fundraising party on the horizon, as well as the much anticipated premiere party! With our scriptwriter and composer working on their aspects of “Folk!” and with the days drawing nearer to a finale, we are left with one big thing hovering over our heads…

Q. What will we do with all that ‘free time’ when the movie is done!?!?!

A. Make more films, of course!

FYI: We can use all the press we can get, so if you are interested in writing a story about us or “Folk!“ or know someone who is looking for an indie doc to write about, please contact us!

Keep checking back!
Roxy and Jeremy

The article about Roxy and Folk! has come out in Foggy Notions Magazine! The hippest, coolest mag in all of Ireland and the UK! It’s an amazing 2-page spread with a killer graphic created by the magazine and an article written by the genius and hysterical Derek O’Connor! He may have gotten a few things wrong (like that I’m from OHIO not IDAHO!) but we forgive him completely and are grateful for being featured as the mother of all DIY filmmakers!

To read the article CLICK HERE!

To see what Foggy Notions is about, check out their website: www.foggynotions.ie
You can purchase your very own copy of Foggy Notions, featuring the "Folk!" article, online through their website!!!

Hey everyone! Just got some cool news that an interview with Roxy is featured in TWO MAGAZINES! We found out when our friend, Mickey, in Dublin, texted and said he just picked up and read an article about Indie Documentary filmmaking in the Irish magazine “Foggy Notions” featuring "Folk!" and an interview with Roxy! Once we get our hands on a copy we will post it up for all to read! The other mag is based in Donegal (Ireland), and when we get more details we will get it online as well!

The edit for "Folk!" is really coming along, and although we didn’t want to spend too much of the summer editing, we do anticipate it will be a little while before it is fully finished. Until then, enjoy the summer, check for the articles, and have fun watching the World Cup...Go Ukraine!!!

WOW! What a crazy month! Since our last posting, we had our photo shoot for the posters! It was insane and really fun! We started out with an informal meeting the night before the big shoot. Our models, Yarko Dobriansky and Larissa Steinhagen, arrived along with our photographer Robert Gill and photo/art director Pavlia Cyhan. At first it took a while to set up and Jeremy had his hands full lighting the interior studio while the rest of us went on the studio rooftop and shot great moments with Yarko and Larissa in full Poltava gear jumping with Manhattan in the background! Oeverall, the photo shoot consisted of both interior and exterior shots (lets just say that the ice cream guy in McCarren Park won't soon forget them!). It was a long day, but we got the shots we need.

We also spent a lot of May ironing out details of Part 1 of Folk! as well as attending various screenings at the Tribeca Film Festival. We were also featured artists at the BUG (Brooklyn Ukrainian Group) table at the Ukrainian Festival on 7th Street. Great festival with some serious characters attending! We had a blast and will sell some of our merchandise from that fest online soon! Keep checking back!

One other great piece of news: Folk! is now listed on IMDB (Internet Movie DataBase)! Check it out: "Folk!" on IMDB

We have big plans for June and working on Folk! is a pleasure these days. It changes and grows on a daily basis and keeps getting better. Will try and post some photos of the photo shoot soon!

THANKS FOR CHECKING IT OUT! Feel free to drop us an email!

Back from Cleveland and diving straight into work. The Kashtan Zabava was a lot of fun and was a great time to reconnect with dancers in the company and get the folk dance boots back on! Our board featuring “Folk!” looked great and we answered a lot of questions on the doc. Hopefully the word is out in Cleveland.

This weekend is the big photo shoot for our posters! Our model Larissa arrives tomorrow night and immediately is being whisked off into a production meeting with our photographer Robert and Art Director Paula. We are very psyched about this shoot, our poster design, and merchandise!

As for the infamous question “So, where are you in the process?” All I’ll say is that we are still editing and smoothing out story details. We have a way to go but it's all going great!

Thanks for stopping by!

A lot of things are cooking up here at KinoRox, with the Kashtan Zabava in Cleveland this weekend (look out for our “Folk!” advertisement and Roxy dancing) and our photo shoot occuring next weekend, its hard to keep up with all the other tasks, but somehow we are doing it. Having spring in the air gives us a lift, and the film is really coming together with many details finally being attended to!

Be on the lookout for merchandise coming out this summer and future project announcements. We will also post photos or video from this weekend on the site. Should be good kicking up the heels with some old friends and alumni dancers!

Thanks for stopping by!
Roxy and Jeremy

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In this update, we would like to extend our sympathies to the family of George Bohachevsky, Pani Roma’s husband, who passed away last week. Although we never had the opportunity to meet Mr. Bohachevsky, we know that he, like Roma, was an artist, and an accomplished singer with the Metropolitan Opera in New York.

The entire Bohachevsky family has given so much to the Ukrainian community and to Ukrainian culture. Please keep all of them in your thoughts, perhaps if you have time, take a moment to look them up and learn more about Mr. Bohachevsky’s music, or Pani Roma's schools and choreographies. For samples of Mr. Bohachevsky’s click below:
http://www.smithsonianglobalsound.org/containerdetail.aspx?itemid=2579

Four scenes away! It's an amazing feeling and accomplishment to think that we have only 4 scenes left to send to Eric, our editor—and once he has those scenes, he will have the entire film in rough cut form. It's amazing how one year ago we spent pretty much every waking moment either watching and logging the footage, planning additional shoots, even trying to plan how to edit, and now we are past all of that. Are we close to being done? We can’t answer that, but we can say that our efforts and work have paid off. This week, if all goes well, the 4 scenes will be shipped off, and Eric will have all he needs to make his cut of the film. We can’t begin to explain how much having a great editor with a vision and an awesome sense of humor has helped shape “Folk!”

Since the trailer has been online, tons of people have emailed us and asked us about the music. We are happy to pass along the information that Kruno Spisic, our composer, has his website up and running. Please check out www.Kromatika.biz to learn more about his business and hear additional samples of Kruno’s work.

Hey Everyone! We’re trying hard to keep up with the website updates here! I thought this time we’d add some links and give you some info about NEW people helping our film along!

For starters, we have an awesome friend, Bobby Brady (that’s right, Robert Brady Gill, AKA Bobby Brady) who has not only taken photographs for the film, but is also retouching ALL of our archival photographs. At last count, we had 468 photos in our library that we will potentially use in our film (ALL DONATED BY YOU GUYS AND UKRAINIAN MUSEUM-ARCHIVES in CLEVELAND!). Bobby is going through each photo, cleaning up dust and scratches, repairing any damage, and color correcting them to give to Jeremy, who then animates them in After Effects. To see samples of the animations, check out our AfterEffects page. Also check out Bobby's site: www.robertgillphoto.com

ALSO, remember to check out the FUN page for photos of our fundraising event, 'Koliada Kaos.'

Our awesome production assistant Yarko has also been over helping us find stills for our posters. This past week he even made us dinner! Like a true Kozak, it featured kobasa. What a guy!

That's all for now! At this exact moment, Jeremy is working on a grant application, Bobby is retouching 1930's Ukraine photos, and Roxy is editing scenes from Workshop 2004. The fun never stops around here!

THANKS FOR STOPPING BY! Email us anytime!
Roxy and Jeremy

HAPPY NEW YEAR FROM TEAM KINOROX!!!

Hey everyone! After a much needed Christmas and New Years break, we are back at our office, chopping away at "Folk!" Actually, we are doing tons of things...more archival research, working on grant applications (yes, we still need money), getting a handle on all our photos/photo effects, creating some awesome posters, and basically doing everything we can to finish the film in the coming months.

As the New Year rolls in, we are anxious to get the film off the ground, have screenings, and ship it off to some film fests. People keep asking,“what's taking so long?” and the simple answer is that there are only so many hours in the day and tons left to do --- SO, if you are reading this and want to know how to help or can donate some time, mad skills, and talent then please contact us. A little help really goes a long way!

Just an FYI, yes, we applied to Sundance, and no we didn’t get in. No big deal to us as we sent in a rough cut of selected scenes. What does that mean? It means that we can enter next year, no problem, with the finished film in our hands! We haven’t applied to any other festivals as of yet, but we will let you know when we do.

HAVE A GREAT 2006 and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all you old calendar folks!

Roxy and Jeremy

Who knew that singing Ukrainian Christmas carols on the 6 train would be so profitable? This past weekend we had our third annual KOLIADA KAOS event to raise money for the doc. We had some great support from the following organizations: Brooklyn Ukrainian Group which supplied all the talent and costumes for the night; Joe at Karpaty/Ukrainian Restaurant; and the Ukrainian Institute’s ‘Yalynka,’ with support coming from Ivan Durbak and the Engineers Society. Joe let us crash his place and sing to the customers, while the Institute gave us a room full of listeners at their event. Sure, we didn’t rake in a ton of cash , but in the end it was more worth it to see a goat, devil, Cossack, Queen, 2 sheepherders, Baba Yaga, a wheat woman, and two Ukrainian Ladies singing Feliz Navidad on the subway…it was killer, check out the FUN! section to see a picture of the night!

Back in production land, another month has passed and in that time we have concentrated solely on the edit process. Eric, Jeremy, and I are now on hiatus from our respective TV shows and working full time to get “Folk!” into its final stages. We’d love to get it done sooner, but considering the funds needed, it still will be a few months away…but like I said in the last posting, there will be a lot uncovered at the screening!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE!
Roxy

The past few weeks have been GREAT for KinoRox and Folk! We have received generous donations from two wonderful organizations: Self Reliance Ukrainian Federal Credit Union of New York and The Ukrainian Studies Fund. These two donations total $7000, and we thank those organizaions deeply in their continuing support of "Folk!". Keep an eye in the credits of the film to see their names! We hope to have more details about these organizations on our website soon!

So, now that the picture edit is coming along, we have time to concentrate our efforts on some really fun mini-projects for "Folk!". On the top of that list is creating the posters and postcards for festival submissions. With our graphic design team in place and our gorgeous folk dancer models saying "yes" to our proposition (Larissa Steinhagen of Voloshky and Yarko Dobriansky of Syzokryli) we are readying ourselves for what will be a great photo shoot for "Folk!" We are working on securing our photographer (we have someone in mind and hope to finalize the details soon) and setting the date, but hopefully first looks for the 'Folk!" poster will happen before the end of the year. Our other mini-project is preparing for the preview screening of "Folk!" in New York City in early 2006! We havent secured the date yet, but its going to be one big celebration for everyone who has been a part of this film. We have looked at a few venues and hopefully can send out those invites in the coming months!

Aside from our continuing fundraising and post-production, we are also beginning to prepare ourselves for our next endeavor. That too will be revealed in the New Year so we have alot of planning to do, but as you can see its pretty fun stuff!

On a more personal note, this is one of the most exciting times for us at KinoRox. We are starting to see "Folk!" gel together into an incredible feature film and we have our entire team, all our donors, and our incredible family and friends to thank for it! We're seeing the scenes come together, one by one. We have weekly teleconferences with our editor, Eric Gold, and upload scenes back and forth through the power of the internet. It's great to see the film really taking shape!

We're back in New York, after a 3-week editing binge in Toronto. A lot was accomplished, and we have finally handed the film over to our editor, Eric. Its a sigh of relief to make it to this point, but there is still so much to do!

Our biggest obstacle now? Funding. I hate to throw it out there like that, but we're down to a mere few dollars. We estimate needing approximately $16,500 to finish "Folk!" from here. That includes editing, up-res/online, sound mix, color correction, marketing, and archival footage rights.

We really need to raise money immediately! Important film festival dates are passing us by, and the film deserves to be seen at these festivals!

THERE IS STILL AN OPENING CREDIT TO BE AWARDED TO THE BIGGEST DONOR!!!

Hey everyone! We made it to Toronto and are doing well. The film is really shaping up! We've realized that many people don’t really understand the exact process to editing, so here is the scoop on how we are doing it. There are many different methods and our method took shape basically from my past editing experience, as well as trial and error.

After we shot all 180 hours (that’s right! 180 which includes all dancing, interviews, exteriors, etc) we spent about 6 months working full time winter 2004 and spring of 2005 on logging and capturing. That meant we watched every bit of footage, took notes and chose the best stuff to capture into our editing system. Logging and capturing is the most time consuming and tedious, and when we were done, 85 hours of footage was captured into the G5. During that time as well, Sonya and Yarko would come to our place and log all the VHS tapes people have sent us and do the initial search for the best quality footage to use as archival material. In addition to footage, amazing archival photographs were scanned and labeled. To give you an estimate on the scanning process, it took Jeremy and myself about 8-10 hours to scan all of our Pani Roma photos at her daughter, Ania's house. (All photos will be digitally cleaned up, and later effected using After Effects. This will be a majority of work left for us this fall.)

Once the footage is captured in the computer, it is separated into long sequences. (For example: a Syzokryli show at FIT (2004) was at 4.5 hours in its original sequence. It is now a scene that is 25 minutes). After having our morning briefing on the film, Jeremy and I would each choose a sequence and work on cutting it down on our own. We would try to get things cut down to an hour, getting rid of any shots that look bad or have no use. This would take several days of work. Once a sequence is at an hour, we would project it on our movie screen and discuss what exaclty scene is about, what advantages it has to the film, which characters are standing out, and how the scene would flow with the rest of the movie. Based on that discussion, the two of us would work together to cut those scenes to about 30 minutes.

After all this time, it is safe to say that we have most of our scenes at under 30 minutes each. What does that mean? Well, it means that the movie, from start to finish, featuring ONLY the New York troupe Syzokryli, is about 6 hours long. The additional scenes of Voloshky, Virsky, Kashtan and the historical vignettes total to approximately 2.5 hours.

The film is now at a stage where we can view it in an order similar to what we feel will be the final product. We are now here, with Eric, in Toronto. With him editing and shaping the film with us, we will be able to take this “Lord of the Rings” version of Folk! down to the length of a feature film. When the film reaches a total length of approximately 4 hours, Eric will take the reigns and edit the final cut of “Folk!”.

I know this is a lot of information, but for those interested in the process it's just a brief overview of what we are trying to do. Its an awful lot of work and we are trying to finish it as soon as possible.

We are staying in Toronto until we have the 4 hour rough cut ready. We will then return to NYC and continue doing post work, paperwork, archival research, and rough scene screenings among other things. We will also be handing the film over to Kruno to compose the music and Borys to help with any additional animations we have on the movie. SO, although it is safe to say we will have a rough cut by the end of September, we still will have quite a few months ahead of us before we have a final preview screening for all of you.

That’s it. That’s what we are doing. Wish us luck! -Roxy

Its been a few weeks since our last update, and we've been quite busy. We've just returned from a week trip to New Hampshire where we met with our editor, Eric Gold. A bit of a 'working vacation,' we were able to get a lot of work done on the edit, and at the same time take a breather from the hustle and bustle of NYC. Our goal is to send a rough cut to Sundance Film Festival by the end of September, and we're working day and night to make sure that happens.

A BIG Thank You goes to all who have donated old VHS tapes, pictures, and miscellaneous archival materials! We have finished logging those materials, and are in the process of getting them back to you.

We'll be taking another trip to Toronto next weekend, where we plan to work another two-weeks, intensively, with Eric and our archival team up there. In preparation for that trip, we've been watching rough scenes and editing 12-15 hours a day! That doesn't leave much time for anything else, and we're really trying to secure more funding to help out.

We're hoping to put more still images from the film on the website, and maybe a few scene montages. We're also thinking of having a 'Clip of the Week' on the website, so keep checking back! We'll try to find time to keep you all more updated!

Changes and new features are in store for the website, and fun times to be had by all! Look out for a new photos page, and a still-yet-to-be-determined Fun page! Not sure what that will mean, but I'm sure it will rule.

Editing, editing, and more editing here in Folk! land...and as if 170 hours of footage didn't seem like enough of a mountain to climb, we decided to shoot another interview this past weekend. That's right...we've finally gotten our Stefan Calka interview...sure to please. Stefan is a professional ballet dancer who does 'freelance Ukrainian folk dancing' as he calls it. I'll leave it at that....you'll have to watch the movie for more!

Hey Folksters! We’ve been taking a well deserved, desperately needed break since Toronto. In all honesty we are dead tired, feel like we were hit by a semi, run over by some cars, and laughed at by some kids on razor scooters who then spit their gum out on our faces. Its been a long, rough 3 years and many things were put on the wayside to concentrate all our time on the documentary. We can’t get that time back in two weeks, but a mental vacation has really helped us.

Anyways, the few weeks of break are up, and now we are back at work! We have decided that the doc will be finished when its finished, and unfortunately it will take a lot longer due to the fact that we just don’t have any funding left. SO, for anyone reading this, if you have an idea, a funder, or someone you know who wants to get involved then PLEASE email us! We have a GREAT film on our hands, but it won't be completed without more funding...plain and simple.

The months of July and August will be dedicated to the edit, and we plan on taking our second trip to Toronto to work with our glorious editor, Eric Gold. We're hoping to time our trip with the Bloor Street Ukrainian Festival in Toronto, where we hope to raise more funding and drum up support for the film. The Toronto crowd has already helped us out tremendously, and we are excited to see so many people excited about our film! Stay tuned for more developments from the "Folk!" front, and look for a new Photos page on the site soon!

OH CANADAAA! Things have been going GREAT for "Folk!" up here in Toronto! We've been working very hard with our editor, Eric Gold, and have been making HUGE strides for the production.

Yesterday, we were fortunate enough to interview Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky, Director of the Ukrainian Folklore Centre at the University of Alberta, Canada. We've been in contact with Andriy for about a year or so, and he just so HAPPENED to be in Toronto when we were! Andriy is our Ukrainian scholar, and is THE resource for anything relating to Ukrainian history, folklore, folk dance, and ethnography. The information and interview we got from Andriy pushes "Folk!" to a whole new level, and we're very excited about this new step for the movie.

So many other things up here...new leads on post production, an AWESOME translator, film festival directors, etc etc! Things are really shaping up for us! Stay tuned for more AWESOME news! :)

It's been a while since our last posting...and we've been quite busy! This week, we're in Toronto with our editor, Eric Gold. We've been working day and night on cutting our 168 hours of footage into an hour and a half movie...and you can imagine what a task THAT is! :)

Last week, we had a chance to see some preliminary opening credit animations from our Titles Animator, Borys Jarymovych. Let's just say...AWESOME! Borys does amazing work, and I can't wait for you all to see it!!!

A couple weeks ago, Brooklyn Ukrainian Group had a booth at the 7th Street Ukrainian Festival in the East Village, NYC. Being members of BUG (Roxy was a co-founder), we were able to take part in the festival and have information about "Folk!" handy. The response was great; we raised some much needed funding, and had a lot of interest in the film. Thank you to all our new supporters we met at the festival, and please keep in touch!

A EXTRA special thanks also to Ukrainian Selfreliance Federal Credit Union of Philadelphia, as they recently presented us with a very generous donation! We received a wonderful letter from their CEO, expressing their appreciation of what we're doing, and stating how important this film is to the Ukrainian-American community.

Support is definitely ramping up, and we thank ALL of you for ALL you have done for "Folk!" We couldn't do it without you!

The month of April has been great for Folk!, and there's LOTS to tell you about!

Through proceeds from the Maria Burmaka concert (produced by BUG), individual sponsors, and hopefully through donations of a couple other credit unions (we won't name them for fear of jinxing ourselves), we will be able to complete the film in time for our summertime deadline. Thank you VERY much to all of you!

In other exciting news, we got a GREAT new intern, Sonya Borys, who has been helping us go through a lot of footage and photos that people have donated to the project. We also were able to secure some amazing images through the Cleveland-Museum Archives, and researcher Darren Chase has found some extraordinary information regarding the history of folk dance, as well as additional photographs. We have also received historical research written by Dr. Andriy Nahachewsky of the Ukrainian Folklore Centre at University of Alberta.

This weekend, we will return to Philadelphia to collect more archival photos and films, as well as conduct our sit-down interview with Voloshky's Artistic Director. We have a few other people committed to helping with research and video donation, and if you know of ANYONE who might have a gem of a film sitting in their basement or some beautiful archival photos of folk dancing, please don't hesitate to contact us!

To those who have helped us throughout the film and this great month of April...THANKS!

Finally, in other cool news, the David Duchovny/Robin Williams film "House of D" has finally come out in NY and LA...and Roxy's scenes MADE THE CUT! You can see her in the picture dancing with Two-time Tony Award Winner Frank Langella! At the NYC premiere, David had some great Q&A...even though he insisted on continually putting Roxy on the spot.

Easter weekend was spent with family, but we still managed to fit in a little work. Special thanks to the Ukrainian Museum-Archives of Cleveland for contributing archival pictures, programs, and other Uki folk dance memorabilia.

Before we left for Easter, we FINALLY finished the log and capture phase of the production! We watched literally every minute of footage we've shot in the past 2 1/2 years, and captured it in our editing systems. For those not familiar with the process, each hour of footage requires about 3 hours of time to log and capture! Of the 150+ hours of footage, we've managed to cut about half of it out to about 83 hours of usable footage! That's still a HUGE fish to fry, but a tremendous accomplishment and sigh of relief to have it completed.

In other news, Brooklyn Ukrainian Group is bringing Ukrainian pop star Maria Burmaka stateside this week for a few acoustic concerts, and has offered to donate partial proceeds to "Folk!" As a gesture of thanks, we will be shooting footage of Ms. Burmaka's studio recording session here in NYC for inclusion in a future music video! A win-win situation for us all! Info on the concerts to come soon...keep checking back!

Moving right along! In addition to our primary logging and editing, we've recently been gathering even MORE material for "Folk!" A BIG thanks to all dancers and supporters who have loaned us archival footage, pictures, old programs, and many other pieces of Ukrainian Folk Dance memorabilia! These items help add depth to the film and show off the determination and commitment of the dancers and their supporters!

On a more business note, we are still actively seeking sponsors and donors to help cover our costs in producing this film. Even though we have a very modest budget, it still places a very large weight on our personal wallets (or credit cards). We are SO thankful to all of you who are helping out, and hope others will soon join in your generosity.

We have a few remaining interviews, which will round out our footage to over 160 hours! That's what three years in the making will do for you...give you a BIG fish to fry! :)

February 17, 2005

Response for the new trailer has been GREAT! Thank you all SO much for your kinds words, and for telling your friends about "Folk!" We've had over 2000 visitors to our website in the past two weeks alone!

Our days are now spent editing, gathering archival footage, and above all, fundraising. Unfortunately, we start a lot of our days making a decision on whether we can keep going without more funding. We've got a lot of wonderful moral support, and not enough financial support. We are spending so much time each day trying to secure more funding, we don't have enough time to actually make the movie. We are hoping more donors step up soon, so that we can continue making the film that many of you, in your own words, are "falling in love with."

February 1, 2005

We returned to New York today from Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Aside from a short emergency room visit for our stomach-flu-infested associate producer, Yarko Dobriansky, things went off without a hitch. We saw some great films (and some not-so-great films) while at Sundance. We also met and talked to a lot of people excited about "Folk!", and made sure EVERYONE had a button!

Today, we also put our BRAND NEW trailer on the website! We cut it in time for promotion at Sundance, finishing up around 2am the night before we flew out. Check out the TRAILER page to see the latest!

January 15, 2005

The past few weeks have been GREAT for KinoRox...three newspaper articles, and a few more on the way! See our new PRESS page and read all about us! With the trip to Ukraine behind us, we are able to get back to our 15-hour days of logging footage, editing, keeping touch with our communications, and doing whatever else can (and DOES) come up.

This week, we received our first original track from our composer, Kruno Spisic. He is a wonderfully talented composer/sound designer that we are extremely grateful to have on our team. You can look forward to a wonderful soundtrack with "Folk!".

We also received our "Folk!" buttons, exclusively for all you donors!

December 30, 2004

We're back from Ukraine, and WHAT an adventure! We were there for 9 days as International Election Observers through the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, UCCA. Overall, the trip was extremely rewarding. Being in the center of Kiev during the rallies and the Orange Revolution is something that cannot be described. We sincerely believe we made a serious impact as observers at the polling sites. In general, the election commission did not know their laws. Every step of the way, they did something wrong...but we stopped them, read them the law, and made them do it right.

We've decided to make a page dedicated to our experience and share stories and photos of the trip.

Click here to go to the Elections page.

December 15, 2004

Post Production is in full swing...lots of logging, capturing, watching, editing, etc. We're very busy now, and somewhat sidetracked from work on "Folk!" with the events unfolding in Ukraine.

With a new round of Ukrainian presidential elections scheduled to take place on December 26, we've decided to fly to Ukraine to help out as International Election Observers. Within the past three days, we've received word that we're approved to go, bought tickets, organized transportation within Ukraine...and we're leaving in five days. This is sure to be an adventure like none other!

If you are unfamiliar with the situation in Ukraine, check out the following website:

There is also a wealth of information on your favorite news site.

November 27, 2004

This past week has been big for Ukraine. The Presidential runoff election between Viktor Yushchenko and Viktor Yanukovych on November 21 was marred by fraud and falsification. Protests and demonstrations are sweeping across Ukraine, the US, and beyond. We attended a demonstration here in New York City on the 23rd, which traveled from the Ukrainian Consulate, to the Russian Embassy, then to the United Nations. The demonstrations were peaceful and powerful.

Click for photos of NYC Demonstrations

November 15, 2004

Post Production has begun. On November 13th, the 40th Anniversary show (of Roma Pryma Bohachevsky's choreography) was performed. Although we had some trouble regarding venues and shooting, the show itself went off without a hitch and we are confident that the footage we have and can acquire will make for an amazing finale to "Folk!”

At the moment we are taking a week off and will resume working full time in post-production by the 20th. Our goal of finishing December 17th is still a priority, but we will not compromise the documentary if it isn’t up to par. We do have a few interviews left to schedule and shoot, and are working on obtaining rights to archival footage…it’s still a long road ahead.

November 7, 2004

Schenectady will never be the same…and neither will we after shooting backstage with Virsky. Not only did we get an all access pass to the company, but we were treated to seeing up close the best Ukrainian Folk Dance company in the world…how they prep, perform and KEEP REHEARSING once the curtain closes…We had a great time. Thanks to Kurowyckys Meat Market for donating kobasa and making us the champions of the night among the dancers.

November 1, 2004

Traveling the Midwest during the elections was a bonus for us and made for interesting conversations during night drives through Indiana cornfields and small town Ohio…
Our first stop on the doc trail was in Cleveland where we saw Virsky in concert (Amazing!) later we moved onto Chicago and returned once more to shoot footage with Kashtan School of Dance in Parma, Ohio. In both cities we worked hard on finding funding and scheduling meetings with potential donors. We had a great time shooting with the dancers of Kashtan, the kids, alumni, and founder of Kashtan, Markian Komichak.

October 27, 2004

We've hit the road! Spent a couple days packing, calling our publicist (Talia ROCKS!), and arranging meetings...we are hitting Cleveland and hope to come back with some great footage of Kashtan Dance Ensemble among other things. With the road trip in full effect (we dont know where the next town will be) through November 6 we hope to return with fuller pockets, and more friends on our side. Go Folk!

October 25, 2004

This past week, we shot footage with the Voloshky Dance Ensemble in Philadelphia. From an intensive late night rehearsal to a full blown performance in Scranton, PA., Voloshky welcomed us into their family. After the show, we won the 2004 Scranton Polka Festival "Chicken Dance Contest!" Not only did we beat ALL the Voloshky dancers who entered, but we danced as if our lives depended on it! The grand prize? 100 bucks.

While in Philadelphia, we also shadowed Syzokryli instructor Krissy Izak and met with Kruno Spisic, who is composing the original score for "Folk!".

Sunday night, we were back in NYC and shot footage of Golem, Syzokryli dancer Annette Ezekiel's Klezmer-Rock band.

October 18, 2004

Last Friday, October 15, was my (Jeremy) last day of work at my 'day job.' We are now working full-time on "Folk!" and already have a full schedule! Lots of shooting, editing, fundraising, etc etc etc.

This weekend was full of big rehearsals with Syzokryli, with dancers flying in from as far away as Michigan and Canada. Three rehearsals over three days in three different locations, and a lot of footage to prove it.

We also had a still photographer, Joe Howarth, join us to capture some amazing still photos for the production.