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First prize for “Makarenko from Mariupol”

The short movie"Makarenko from Mariupol"made by the accosiation "Emmanuel" has got the first prize at one of the most prestigious All Ukrainian contests of movie makers "Reveal Ukraine". The main character of th emovie, pastor, president of the charity fund " Pilgrim", a founder of the center of children's rehabilitation "Republic Pilgrim" Gennadiy Mokhnenko was given by the executive committee of the festival with the certificate of gratitude for the active life position.

The film is about life of street kids who were found in canalization sewages, basements and drug dens by the protestant pastor.

Tatyana Navina, the director of the movie ” Makarenko from Mariupol” shares that at the begining she just wanted to make a short narration about a pastor who picks up street kids and teach them to give up using drugs, snuffing glue and helps to start a new life: ” But the more I got to know about Gennadiy Mokhnenko the more astonished I got by his feat. After the filming we had 3 short movies about street kids and pastor Gennadiy”.

The first movie tells about Gennadiy Mokhnenko himself, his life story and how he made th edecision to help homeless children. He started gathering them in his own appartment but the more months passed the more teens showed up, they stopped using drugs, started learning to read and write, got to know about God and didn’t want to go back to their former life. In 2000 the rehab center for children “Republic Pilgrim” was opened by the pastor. Since then over 3000 teens passed through the center. 30 kids are under the guardianship of pastor Gennadiy and 3 foster homes are basedat the Charity Fund ” Pilgrim”, one of those foster home is specialized – for the kids with HIV positive status.

Amazing stories of life of the pastor and his kids are the theme of the second short film under the title ” Makarenko from Mariupol” and this is the one which took part in the festival.

The third movie ” The Guards” – narrates about the life stories of the children from ” Republic Pilgrim”.

The head of jury, director, professor and honored artist Roman Shirman was rewarding the winner of the festival: ” I myself was interested in the movie a lot both as a spectator and as a professional and other memebrs of the jury, serious folks, shuddered while watching”.

The movie “Makarenko from Mariupol” also got the fifth prize at the cinematographic festival “Discover Ukraine”as the best program about children and got additional award for the bright fiction solution from the National society of cinematography.

( note from the translater: Makarenko is the most famous Soviet pedagogue)