"History Online"

We decided to take a little look back at the past. Twenty years ago, inspired by the events of the Orange Revolution, Ivan Kanivets and Volodymyr Kashtanov set out to create a project that would remind our citizens of various interesting facts from our history—things we should have learned in school but either didn’t or have since forgotten.

In a short entertainment format, we saw an opportunity to simultaneously arouse interest in the past and encourage viewers to visit museums.

We developed a plan for about 20 episodes and eagerly got to work. For some reason, I thought TV channels would gladly embrace the project. But things didn’t go as hoped. We didn’t see enthusiasm anywhere—some negotiations dragged on and eventually faded, while others offered us airtime only if we paid between $1,000 and $5,000 per broadcast. Yet we had hoped not only to cover our expenses but also to earn something…

Before we ran out of resources, we managed to make 3 episodes. Later, in a slightly modified form, they were included in our Ukrainian Episodes project.

In general, creating historical projects at one's own expense is a curse that hangs over our entire artistic industry. Films "Neptune's Trident", "Ukrainian Revolution, memories of Vseolod Petriv", "Generation of freedom", restoration of Ukrainian archive reels from 1917 and many other things we did the same way. Over the 27 years that we have been doing this, it has become clear that these are not individual deviations, but a well-thought-out policy. It hasn't changed, only been justified in different ways. While in the early 2000s we were told that we had to create our own business to cover our expenses for historical film projects, in 2016 the Ukrainian State Film Agency said that in a few years we could use the studio's funds to finance the creation of a documentary about battle new station Kruty in 1918. But this is a topic for a separate article.

"Mammoth Hunters"

But let's get back to History Online, which we decided to revive and put on our YouTube channel. Of course, a lot of new content on Ukrainian history has appeared since then, but you can never have too much (or even enough) of it. Moreover, the film itself has already become a document of its time. Want to see an independent documentary from 2005? Welcome to our program! For the online premiere, we have enhanced the image and converted it to HD. Ukrainian and English subtitles have been added to the film. This is the first episode “Mammoth Hunters”.