A local filmmaker is bringing a documentary that features the frontlines of the Russo-Ukrainian war home to B.C.
This month, Ukrainian-Canadian Maxim Khomenko says he will screen his war documentary “Standing Free” as a fundraiser in collaboration with the BCIT Ukrainian Student Club (USC).
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The movie, according to Khomenko, is an intimate look at how different generations of Ukrainians remain resilient through the war.
Khomenko, who is a Vancouver Film School graduate, says he was in school when the war broke out.
Born in Vancouver but feeling connected to his homeland, Khomenko visited his childhood home in Kyiv every year, before it was destroyed by Russian missile strikes in 2022.
“That truly motivated me to want to connect with the Ukrainians’ experience — more because I felt like being in Ukraine and experiencing this hardship, it made me more Ukrainian,” Khomenko said.
He said his film features several demographics from his homeland, ranging from children and parents to soldiers and elders.
“Not only did I experience the chaos and war itself, but I also understood how Ukrainians overcome,” said Khomenko.
While in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Pokrovsk, Kupiansk, and Kherson areas in Ukraine, Khomenko says he filmed alongside military brigades.
The filmmaker donated medical and tactical equipment, such as tourniquets, drones, and first aid kits, to the 3rd Assault, the 1st Presidential, and other brigades.
Profit from the upcoming screening, Khomenko says, will be donated to the Ukrainian Armed Forces and Maple Hope Foundation, a local Ukrainian non-profit.
At the screening, Khomenko says he will also auction off artifacts from the war, such as tank shells, used ammunition, shrapnel, and signed flags.
Anastasiia Dubyna, the president of BCIT USC and a recent immigrant to Canada, says she felt transported while watching Standing Free.
“I forgot that I’m in Vancouver safely. I completely transitioned into those lives of those heroes,” said Dubyna.
She says the film made everyone at the premiere tear up.
“I think this movie can bring awareness because it’s not just about the political side of things or the military, but it also shows how people feel… [The] emotional part is very appealing to both Ukrainian and non-Ukrainian students.”
Standing Free will be screened at Telus Theatre on BCIT’s Burnaby Campus at 5:30 p.m. on Feb. 24, 2026.
