The Cabinet of Ministers supported the “reorganization” of the Dovzhenko Center
A response to the petition to cancel the reorganization of the Dovzhenko Center appeared on the website of the Cabinet of Ministers.
The Cabinet of Ministers actually supported the State Cinema’s order to transfer the film collection and property of the Dovzhenko Center to the “Scientific Center of Cinematography of Ukraine”.
The Government stated that the Dovzhenko Center is not a film archive, so its film fund will be transferred to another structure.
“The statute of the Center establishes that the film fund is state property and is transferred to the Center for safekeeping. The collection of films and other film materials of the film fund is not part of the property that is reflected in the Center’s independent balance sheet,” the Cabinet of Ministers replied.
It is also indicated that the only state film archive in Ukraine is the Central State Film-Photo-Phono Archive of Ukraine named after Pshenychny.
According to the Cabinet of Ministers, the activities of the Dovzhenko Center are unprofitable:
“The negative dynamics of all indicators indicate the unprofitable use of assets, state property and amounts of state support, as well as the loss of financial stability.
The operating costs incurred by the Center are not covered by income from economic activity, which leads to losses.”
The state enterprise “Ukrainian Animation Studio” will be the legal successor of the property and non-property rights and obligations of the Center.
The Cabinet of Ministers also added that it instructed the State Cinema to further work out the issues outlined in the petition.
The Dovzhenko Center has already responded to the Cabinet’s response.
“We are very surprised why the Cabinet of Ministers delayed responding to the petition for so long, if in its response it repeated, in some places literally copying, all the manipulative theses of Derzhkino.
Such a response to the petition is a frank and cynical spit in the face of the Ukrainian public, the film community, and our international partners,” the Center’s representatives replied.
In their opinion, the State Cinema and the Cabinet of Ministers want to transfer all powers regarding the archiving of Ukrainian cinematographic heritage to “a dormant institution without a staff, practical experience and understandable activity, which has not worked for 10 years, and now will take over and “work”.
“We have emphasized dozens of times and we repeat again: this is the destruction of the Dovzhenko Center, this is a threat to the national cultural heritage.
Now we can add that the flagrant incompetence of Derzhkino borders on the betrayal of national interests during the Russian aggression,” the Dovzhenko Center says.
Reluctance to enter into a dialogue with the professional community and closing comments on social networks will not be able to hide “incompetence”, they add.
Derzhkino’s actions are called “targeted destruction” of the Center.
“During several months of direct management by Derzhkino, NO actions have been taken to support the Dovzhenko Center: improving its financial and economic indicators, bringing the legislative framework into line, assisting in the preservation and popularization of wartime cinematographic heritage.