Anatomy of a Scene from "Porcelain Wars" with Brendan Bellomo & Slava Leontyev

Top Docs: Award-Winning Documentary Filmmakers

We invited directors Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev back to “Top Docs” to discuss the unique art that animates their Sundance award-winning documentary “Porcelain War,” an intimate portrait of three Ukrainian artists and their responses to the Russian invasion of their country. Brendan and Slava analyze one of the film’s magical moments, about halfway through the film, in which Anya (Slava’s creative partner and wife) transforms memorable experiences from Slava and Anya’s lives in Kharkiv into scenes and characters that she paints on small porcelain figurines.

Over the course of this extraordinary three-minute scene, Brendan and Slava discuss the highly imaginative animation that brings Anya’s drawings to life on the surface of a small porcelain owl. The scene brilliantly encapsulates the filmmakers’ idea that art and metaphor can be used as a powerful expression of empathy in time of war.

“Porcelain War” is playing in select theaters. You can listen to our original interview with Brendan and Slava from earlier this year.

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