Next month, Ukrainians will trudge to voting booths yet again to vote for parliamentary candidates. It will be the nation’s fourth national ballot in less than three years. Polls reveal the masses believe the vote may do little to resolve the nation’s seemingly intractable political crisis.

In Poland this week, political turmoil intensified as ex-government ministers accused Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s right-wing Law and Justice Administration of using the Secret Services and political arms of the state to discredit political rivals. Parliament will vote September 7th on a motion to dissolve itself which could spark an October general election.

Poland’s “Solidarity Movement” and the “Orange Revolution” in Ukraine brought personal freedom and free market capitalism to millions. But millions still were left behind in their respective countries. Issues of identity, personal freedom and the role of the State, are but a few of the many issues Poles and Ukrainians grapple with today.

This weekend the Chopin Theatre here in Chicago will host a film festival with films that center around the Post-revolution lives of these Slavic peoples. The festival is called the Post Revolution Blues: Polish-Ukrainian Film Festival.

Yuri Shevchuk is Lecturer in Ukrainian Language and Culture at Columbia University and Founder of the Ukrainian Film Club of Columbia University (UFCCU) and Zygmunt Dyrkacz is Artistic Director of the Chopin Theatre here in Chicago.

Jerome began with Yuri and asked him to tell us how the idea for the Post-Revolution Blues Film Festival came about…