The current issue of the Virginia Quarterly Review takes a look at the legacy of Soviet rule in Eastern Europe, and the journal recently released a short film by New York-based producer Maisie Crow as a companion piece. "Half Lives: The Chernobyl Workers Now" follows a few residents of the Ukrainian city of Slavutych, many of whom still work dismantling the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the site of one of the worst nuclear accidents in modern history.
In his first post on the VQR blog, newly hired publisher John Peede offered a few musings on what goes into a documentary like Crow’s: "During the interview, Viktor Koshevoi, the retired chief electrical engineer at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, says, ‘I am spent material’… It is a raw, heartbreaking moment. To gain such access, journalists must first gain a subject’s trust. This is not easily done."
If you’re anything like me, you spend your first encounter with a print issue of VQR just flipping through and taking in the visuals, and Crow’s camera work is worthy of the brand. The soundtrack was composed by Adam Brock, of Invisible Hand and Borrowed Beams of Light.
Half-Lives: The Chernobyl Workers Now