How do you make a home when you've had yours taken away?
ANOTHER
SUMMER
AFGHAN AND UKRAINIAN STORIES OF EXILE
a feature documentary film by David Edwards & Alzbeta Kovandova-Bartonickova
How do you make a home when you’ve lost your home? What future can you have when your past has been stripped away?
What is left when what was yours has been stolen or destroyed?
To address these questions, the directors of Another Summer provided training and equipment to a group of Afghan and Ukrainian first-time filmmakers who had taken refuge in different European countries after the Taliban takeover in 2021 and the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Following a week together learning about filmmaking and each other, the student filmmakers were divided into teams and sent to seven cities in Europe and Turkey to record the stories of people like themselves who had fled violence and repression. What they brought back demonstrates something different than the usual cameraman/subject relationship at the heart of most documentary filmmaking. Throughout, one senses the bonds of people who recognize in each other both what they have lost and the humanity they refuse to give up.
WHO MADE THE FILM?
Another Summer (104', 2024) captures the stories of Afghan and Ukrainian refugees in Europe. It is unique not just because of the stories it tells but also because of how it was done.
The film was shot in July 2022 by first-time filmmakers from Afghanistan (from the American University of Afghanistan), Ukraine (from the Central European University), and the US (from Williams College). The Afghan and Ukrainian students were/are refugees in various European countries, and none of the students had ever made a film before.
The footage they took was then edited by two directors, David Edwards and Alzbeta Kovandova-Bartonickova.
The film is thus a partial record of what the students saw, what they heard, and what they experienced – interpreted by David and Alzbeta.
You can find more about all of us below.
AND HOW?
We first spent a week training our students in basic filmmaking skills. We did several practical exercises in the streets of Geneva, led many discussions, and watched examples of films – most importantly, the Chronicle of a Summer (1961) by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, which is our huge inspiration. In this process phase, students were taught not only by Prof. David Edwards and Alzbeta Kovandova-Bartonickova but also by Prof. Victoria Fontan from the AUAF and Prof. Alessandro Monsutti from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, where the training took place.
The students were then divided into seven teams of three (one Afghan student, one Ukrainian student, and one Williams student) and sent to seven different countries (Czech Republic, Germany, France, Poland, Spain, Turkey and the United Kingdom) for two weeks. The only task we gave them was to meet, observe and interview refugees displaced by war.
Two weeks later, we met again at the Ethnographic Institute in Prague. We spent another week there, reviewing the footage and discussing what our students experienced.
Later that year, we, David and Alzbeta – with the students' permission – took the footage, organized it and started editing it into a feature film. It was a lengthy process since there were over 100 hours of footage in several languages (Ukrainian, Russian, Pashto, Dari, Persian, Spanish and English), which was done long distance between London (where Alzbeta lives) and Williamstown (where David lives) whenever we were free.
The first cut was finished after a year. We contacted Martin Styblo, a great sound designer based in the Czech Republic, who did the audio postproduction in Autumn/Winter 2023.
And we welcomed the 2024 with a final version of our film.
WHERE CAN YOU SEE OUR FILM?
The film has just been finished, and we are submitting it to film festivals. So, it is not online yet, and we are waiting to see whether and where we are successful and if we can screen it at a film festival.
However, in the future, we would like to show it to high school and university students, at academic conferences focused on migration, education and other related topics, to NGOs helping refugees, etc. It's a non-commercial film.
If you would like to screen our film, know someone who might be interested in it, or know just the perfect place where they would appreciate it, please don't hesitate to contact us – Alzbeta or David! We want to show our film to as wide and diverse audience as possible.
WHO ARE WE?
DIRECTORS
ALZBETA KOVANDOVA-BARTONICKOVA
Alzbeta Kovandova-Bartonickova is a documentary film director and researcher, based in London, originally from Prague, Czech Republic. She works as a full-time Lecturer in Film & Media Practice and studies a PhD in Film: Practice as Research at the University of Kent. She has made several short documentaries and experimental films, which were screened and in competition at international film festivals, and shortlisted for awards such as the Best Czech Short Documentary Award or Magnesia Award for the Best Student Film. Alzbeta has completed her Bachelor's degree at the Department of Documentary Film at FAMU in Prague and subsequently studied Master of Research in Art and Design at Liverpool John Moores University. She is a co-founder of the first Autism-Friendly Screenings in the Czech Republic.
More details can be found at Alzbeta's website.
DAVID B. EDWARDS
David Edwards is the co-director and producer of the film, Kabul Transit, which was an official selection of numerous film festivals, including the Los Angeles Film Festival, the International Documentary Festival - Amsterdam, and the Independents Night film series at Lincoln Center in New York City. An anthropologist and specialist on Afghanistan, Edwards is the author of three books published by the University of California Press, the most recent of which (Caravan of Martyrs: Sacrifice and Suicide Bombing in Afghanistan) was awarded the Senior Book Prize from the American Ethnological Society.
Edwards has degrees from Princeton University and the University of Michigan and has received research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, the Fulbright Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation of New York, which named him a Scholar of Vision in 2002
Here we are with Victoria Fontan, a professor of Peace and Conflict Studies and Provost at the American University of Afghanistan, and Alessandro Monsutti, a professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva, Switzerland.
Their help, expertise, kindness and support both in Geneva and in Prague were essential and indispensable.
STUDENTS AND THEIR TEAMS
Bilbao, Spain
Nichole Kim
Edris Yawar
Daria Yermolova
Grenoble, France
Masoma Alipur
Anne Gorayeb
Olena Horlach
(Hermine Fontan)
Hamburg, Germany
Karishma Koofi
Lea Obermüller
Vadym Naiko
Istanbul, Turkey
Hadia Ahmadi
Shizah Kashif
Yelyzaveta Zolotarova
Leeds, UK
Jonathan Breibart
Diana Kimak
Ahmad Ershad Sediqi
Prague, Czech Republic
Oleksandr Chermnykh
Mahdiya Erfani
Katie McKenna
Warsaw, Poland
Negina Lodin
Diana Sobolieva
WHO ELSE WORKED
WITH US?
We are very grateful to the many people who worked with us on the project and on the film.
We are mainly thankful to our fantastic students. They managed to capture footage that absolutely amazed us. Although they had never made a film before, they brought back shots that were powerful, well-shot, and full of emotions and stories.
They also assisted us with editing and translating the materials. These 20 students are the true creators of the film – we would have no footage to work with if it wasn't for them!
It has been said before, but without Victoria Fontan and Alessandro Monsutti's knowledge, support, and help, we would hardly be where we are. Thank you!
Huge thanks go to sound designer Martin Styblo, who is a magician when it comes to sounds, and thanks to whom the film came properly alive. He was also extremely patient with us and tolerated all the changes we kept doing.
Our associate producers, Kerry Fairs, Shawn Rosenheim and Gregory Whitmore, advised us during the editing process and helped us find the right way whenever we got lost.
Enormous thanks go to Ludek Broz, who not only massively helped us in Prague, arranged a wonderful dinner for our students, and allowed us to use his office for editing several times, but also introduced us (David and Alzbeta) in the first place and, by doing so, made this whole thing happen!
And, of course, this film and project would not be possible without the help and support of several institutions – and, of course, people who work there. We are truly thankful to Williams College, the American University of Afghanistan, Central European University, the Open Society Network, the Graduate Institute in Geneva and the Institute of Ethnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. You can see who these are in more detail just below!
We want to thank many more people - our colleagues, friends, and families - who encouraged us, tirelessly watched fifty-eight versions of the film, understood the various difficulties we faced, gave us support, gave us feedback and gave us the space and time to work on it.
Associate Program Directors:
Associate Producers:
Sound Designer:
Post-Production Assistants:
Geneva footage filmed by:
Special thanks for their
contributions to our film:
Personal thanks for their support:
Victoria Fontan
Alessandro Monsutti
Kerry Fairs
Shawn Rosenheim
Gregory Whitmore
Martin Styblo
Masoma Alipur
Oleksandr Chermnykh
Mahdiya Erfani
Karim Karimi
Diana Kimak
Karishma Koofi
Mihr Khoda Mehrzad
Diana Sobolieva
Edris Yawar
Yelyzaveta Zolotarova
Zikmund Bartonicek
Marcel Benes
Ludek Broz
Cathy Carapella
Tamra Hjermstad
Jonathan Leamon
Dukes Love
Leslie Schweitzer
Chris Winters
Nancy E. Wolff
Marketa Rulikova Edwards
Vilem Edwards
Tobik Edwards
Zikmund Bartonicek
Kristian Broz
S & J & O & M Kovandovi
Natalia Mazaniuk
Veronika Renkova
BIO Films Rental
John Seigne
and many others!
THANK YOU!
WHO MADE
THIS POSSIBLE?
We are grateful to several institutions. Without their support and help,
we wouldn't have been able to do such a project and film.
Our huge thanks go to...
WILLIAMS COLLEGE
which provided indispensable financial support
for the program, film production and post-production.
We would especially like to thank:
Lynn Chick
Antonia Foias
Lisa Gazaille
John Gerry
Patrick Gray
Laura Gura
Katya King
Joel Lee
Cheryl Shanks
Tina Stoiciu
Phi Su
AMERICAN UNIVERSITY OF AFGHANISTAN
We would especially like to thank:
Ian Bickford
Victoria Fontan
CENTRAL EUROPEAN UNIVERSITY and OPEN SOCIETY UNIVERSITY NETWORK
which provided financial support to program participants.
We would especially like to thank:
Jonathan Becker
Leon Botstein
Zoltan Hajdu
Agnes Leyrer
Oleksandr Shtokvych
Anita Tarnai
GRADUATE INSTITUTE, GENEVA
which provided classrooms, housing, meals, and logistical support
during the training portion of the program.
We would especially like to thank:
Marie-Laure Salles
Alessandro Monsutti
Eve Hopkins
Nathalie Bauer
Bruno Chatagnat
Vincent Chetail
David Gaymard
THE INSTITUTE OF ETHNOLOGY,
THE CZECH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
which provided classrooms and logistical support during the debriefing
and preliminary editing portion of the program.
We would especially like to thank:
Ludek Broz
Jiri Woitsch
Maria Malkova
Anna Salakova
STUDIO BYSTROUŠKA
which let us use their postproduction studio.
We would especially like to thank:
Petr Novak
