VILLAGE OF MANLIUS – The Manlius Art Cinema will be screening a film July 3 to support humanitarian efforts for Ukraine.
Scheduled for 7 p.m., the fundraising event will center around a showing of Ukrainian director Oles Sanin’s 2014 drama “The Guide” as part of the Stand With Ukraine Through Film project, an international charitable campaign that has raised over $100,000 across 600-plus venues since its start in Salem, Massachusetts.
“I thought it was something the cinema’s patrons would get behind,” said Nat Tobin, who has operated the theater on East Seneca Street in Manlius for 30 years. “It’s a feather in our cap that we’re doing this.”
Tobin called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year “extremely unjust” and said the upcoming event will be the 103-year-old cinema’s way of symbolically and practically assisting a “worthy cause.”
Lisa Vucelich, a spokesperson for the touring philanthropic project, said she and her colleagues are proud to collaborate with the local theater.
“We are delighted about our partnership with the Manlius Art Cinema during these extraordinary times,” she said. “Its historic nature, combined with the significant Ukrainian population in the Syracuse area, creates the perfect backdrop for this film.”
Running at about two hours in duration, “The Guide” is set in the 1930s amidst attempts by the Soviet Union to subjugate Ukraine and starve its citizens. It was the Eastern European country’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film category at the 87th Academy Awards.
“We are honored that so many cinemas across the United States and in other countries are showing ‘The Guide,’” said Marshall Strauss, an organizer of Stand With Ukraine Through Film.
Strauss said that Ukrainians “deeply appreciate” the support being provided at the governmental and personal levels.
“Our event on Capitol Hill on June 22 brought together Ukrainians and Americans to see a film that captures the tragedy of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—by telling the story of a young American caught up in Soviet efforts to kill millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s,” he said.
All ticket sales from the July 3 screening of the film will be administered by the Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America and sent to the Ukraine Relief Fund.
Tickets are $11 at the door for adults and $10 for military personnel, seniors ages 60 and over, students attending public school or college, and any other children 12 or younger. The theater only accepts cash, but an ATM is located on the premises.
Checks can also be made out to the relief fund and mailed to Human & Civil Rights Organizations of America, P.O. Box 2052, Salem, MA 01970.
A full list of groups that receive financial contributions and the amount of funding transferred is being published on www.standwithukrainethroughfilm.org under “How We Handle the Money.”
