Pushing Boundaries
Where sport meets art & aid
Lesia Kordonets’ award-winning 2021 documentary film PUSHING BOUNDARIES is a testament to the human spirit and a reminder that Russia began its full-fledged war in Ukraine in 2014.
The documentary film, now available on video through Vimeo, follows athletes from Ukraine’s Paralympic National Team after their training base in Crimea was annexed by Russia in 2014. The film looks at how the athletes’ personal and professional lives have been overturned by the annexation, and how the loss of their training centre affects their ability to qualify for the upcoming 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES is now available online and you can help Mriya Aid and Ukrainian athletes by renting or purchasing the film and making a donation !
The dynamic Blindflug Game Studio, an ongoing supporter of Mriya Aid, joins the Swiss film production company Dschoint Ventschr in promoting Lesia Kordonets’ film PUSHING BOUNDARIES while helping raise funds for Mriya Aid and The National Sport Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine.
The fundraising campaign was launched on Wed 8 Feb and will run until Wed 22 Feb 2023.
PUSHING BOUNDARIES can be rented or purchased on the video platform Vimeo with a donation option for those who wish to support the two organisations.
Watch the film trailer here. 80% of the proceeds of the first two weeks will be donated to Mriya Aid and to the National Sport Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine.
This campaign is where sport, art & aid intersect.
Mriya Aid friends can support Mriya Aid, the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine, and the work of filmmaker Lesia Kordonets, and learn more about the human tragedy and the impact of geopolitics and the Russian invasion of Ukraine on athletes.
When Moscow invaded & annexed Ukrainian Crimea & Donbas in 2014, the world felt powerless. The human tragedy of occupied and annexed Ukrainian lands was hidden from view by the Kremlin. Most people in the West knew nothing of the lives of those affected by the annexation and knew as little about Ukraine as they had about Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, & Syria. PUSHING BOUNDARIES “shows people who grow beyond their physical limits on a daily basis while political boundaries around them are pushed back and forth and the country they represent at international competitions is rendered invalid by the amputation of its territories.”1
Mriya Aid supporters will not allow the world to forget about and turn away from Ukraine’s monumental struggle. Annexation is not only illegal and not only about stealing land. It is also robbing the people of that land of their lives, their livelihood, and peace. It is the forced amputation of Ukraine.
Helping Ukraine means being informed & active in defending it against all aggression and speaking out against the destruction and genocide being perpetrated by Russia. As the 2024 Olympics and Paralympics are being planned, Ukrainian athletes accuse the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of “rewarding Putin’s aggression while the death and destruction of his victims are being ignored” and they criticise the claim that the games unite the world through peaceful competition when is in actual fact it is “ ‘a utopian view that disregards the way sport is routinely used as a tool of authoritarian states’ ”.2
See video message of Ukrainian athlete O. Usyk to the IOC
PUSHING BOUNDARIES can be rented or purchased on the video platform Vimeo with a donation option for those who wish to support Mriya Aid & the National Sport Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine
The fundraising campaign will run until Wed Feb 22.
The campaign was organised by Blindflug Studios - an award-winning Swiss, Polish & Ukrainian game studio known for its games such as First Strike, played by over 11M players, and its business through gaming programs. See Blindflug’s projects supporting Ukraine here.
You can also donate directly to Mriya Aid here.
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Official film synopsis, Dschoint Ventschr film production company, Switzerland
The Guardian, 9 Feb 2023, ‘Wrong side of history’: Ukraine athletes accuse IOC of ‘kowtowing’ to Russia
Home page photo, the National Sports Committee for the Disabled of Ukraine