WE are an independent Ukrainian art group. We create multidisciplinary projects on the basis of our original documentary research. We work at the intersection of post-documentary theater, reportage and documentary cinema.
Current socio-political processes, peripheral reality, the social order of closed or remote communities and the existential dimension of a person who faces the challenges of modernity are in the focus of our attention.
We experiment with artistic forms, use them as a tool to research, understand and structure both our own experience and the experience of others. It is our way to interact with the extreme and chaotic reality we are living in.
The projects of dramatist and director Sashko Brama foreran the creation of the We: Media Theater. He has been initiating and creating documentary theater and interdisciplinary projects in the non governmental sector since 2012. He researched the surrounding reality using documentaries and tested various performative forms of processing the collected materials. Sashko Brama, when collaborating in his interdisciplinary projects with various artists and experts, utilized verbatim theater, puppet theater, new metal concert, arthouse opera and various other possible ways of working with media/audio/video formats. These became overarching for all his projects. For Sashko Brama immersing himself in local contexts and personal experiences through lasting field research is an important foundation for work. He spoke to education system problems (“Diploma”), addressed life in a retirement home (“Fall on Pluto”), works on the war in Ukraine related themes ("R+J", "Call Sign Rama") and also renders socio-political polarization through poetic imagery of an ancient myth (“Orpheus UA”). The pandemic began in late 2019, so it became necessary to search for new forms of communication with the audience. A cycle of reports about COVID-19 appeared as a product of the reorientation towards video documentaries. In parallel to this the work on the first documentary film “WE” commenced (completed in 2023). That’s when a permanent team was formed, which included Mariia Yasinska (producer, director, playwright), Lyuda Batalova (cultural manager, producer) and Sashko Brama (director, cameraman). In 2022 WE: media theater became not only a center for artistic pursuits and documentary research, but also a legal entity.
The group acquired new priority with the start of russia’s full-scale invasion. Now it also works with the Ukrainian and foreign media. This allows to apply its documentary experience when documenting and comprehending the testimonies of the Russian-Ukrainian war. This work also permits to tell a wide international audience about the events in Ukraine through art. WE: media theater team works on documentaries and video reports for various media: Hromadske Television, OKO.press (Poland), NZZ Format (Switzerland), EURACTIV, SME.SK (Slovakia), MNews (Taiwan), 4 Channel and Lyfta (Great Britain).
