Cinema Salem's Stand With Ukraine Campaign Marches To Washington

SALEM, MA — The "Stand With Ukraine Through Film" campaign that began with a screening of "The Guide" with music and a speaker discussion on the Russian invasion of the country at Cinema Salem earlier this spring headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Salem) was among those who spoke at the Washington D.C. premiere for the film, which has been shown across the United States, Australia, Canada and Holland to raise money for Ukrainians displaced during the Russian invasion.

"Ukrainians are thrilled that so many people in America are seeing the film and now that it's going to Capitol Hill," Marshall Strauss, managing partner of Cinema Salem and lead organizer of the film campaign, told Patch from Washington D.C. on Wednesday. "Because they understand the symbolism of Americans saying they stand with Ukrainians."

Joining Moulton on Wednesday were Anton Greene, who was the 9-year-old star of the film and who now attends the University of Michigan, as well as Ukrainian government officials in Washington and Yuri Shevchuk of Columbia University.

Cinema Salem launched the Stand With Ukraine Through Film campaign on May 13 in an event that raised $12,000 for refugee relief. Since then, it has been shown nearly 700 times, raising more than $130,000 in grants for the World Central Kitchen, International Organization on Migration, Plast, Razom and Ukrainian Studies Fund.

"People in the cinema business saw what I was doing and they stepped forward and said they would like to help distribute the film nationally, and then internationally, and it took off very quickly," Strauss told Patch. "By the end of the following week (in March) 600 theaters around the country had joined the effort and said that they were going to show the film. And they did."

The 2014 film takes place in 1930s Ukraine as the Soviet Union attempted to starve out millions of Ukrainians. It was selected as the Ukrainian entry for Best Foreign Language Film for the 87th Academy Awards in 2014.

Before its Salem premiere, the film played outside of the Ukraine only at festivals, private screenings and academic settings.

"On a personal level it's very satisfying," Strauss said. "It's delightful to see again and again people stepping forward with complete selflessness. Just stepping forward and saying: 'I'm going to help.'"

Strauss said along with the money raised he estimates that more than $100,000 of time and services have been donated to the cause.

"People remain really concerned on behalf of Ukraine," he said. "We are just using this one film as a way symbolically to say that Americans care."

Good Morning America featured Cinema Salem's Stand With Ukraine Through Film campaign in April here:

Kyiv-based Pronto Films, which owns rights to the movie, endorsed the Stand With Ukraine Through Film and waived all fees campaign on the condition that ticket proceeds from the showings go toward humanitarian aid for Ukraine.

Strauss said The Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University and Pronto Films have provided critical assistance during the campaign.

Strauss said he hopes the next step in the campaign is to take it beyond theaters and show the film in university settings or at professional sports venues to bring it to an even wider audience.

A full list of sponsoring organizations can be found here.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)