Conversation with Darya Tsymbalyuk and and Ursula K.Heise.

From Kyiv to Los Angeles, we have witnessed how environmental destruction has dramatically altered our understanding of home, place and belonging. To trace ways in which ecological grief is echoed and reckoned with across these different contexts, the Thomas Mann House- which recently reopened after the devastating Palisades Fire- presents a conversation between Darya Tsymbalyuk (University of Chicago) and Ursula Heise (UCLA). The conversation will open with Tsymbalyuk briefly introducing her recent book Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (Polity, 2025) and sharing poignant accounts of witnessing ecocide in her homeland of Ukraine. Drawing connections between Ukrainian experiences, the scarred lands of the Pacific Palisades, and beyond, Tsymbalyuk and Heise will discuss the loss of cherished places and examine the role of storytelling and cultural imaginations in ways of inhabiting the damaged Earth.

Darya Tsymbalyuk is an interdisciplinary researcher whose work lies at the intersection of environmental humanities and artistic research. She serves as an Assistant Professor at the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Committee on Environment, Geography, and Urbanization (CEGU), University of Chicago and is the author of the book Ecocide in Ukraine: The Environmental Cost of Russia’s War (Polity, 2025). Her scholarly texts have been published by Nature Human Behaviour, Narrative Culture, Antennae: Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, and her public-facing writing appeared in BBC Future Planet, openDemocracy, The Funambulist, KAJET, amongst others. In addition to writing, Tsymbalyuk works with images through drawing, painting, collage, and film essays.

Ursula K. Heise is Distinguished Professor in the Department of English and the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, and co-founder of the Lab for Environmental Narrative Strategies (LENS). Her research and teaching focus on the environmental humanities; contemporary environmental literature, arts, and cultures in the Americas, Germany, Japan, Spain, and Vietnam; literature and science; science fiction; and narrative theory. Her most recent book, a co-edited essay collection on Environment and Narrative in Vietnam, was published in 2024. She is currently at work on a book entitled “Reclaiming Ecotopia: Science Fiction and Environmental Futures.”

Join Mykola Ridnyi at the e-flux Screening Room on Tuesday, October 1 for The Kharkiv Trilogy, a screening of recent works featuring Regular Places (2015), NO! NO! NO! (2017), The District (2023), and the earlier work No Regrets (2011/2016). The screening will be followed by an in-person conversation with the artist.

Filmforum partners with Kyiv to LA to present The Past, Present a selection of works by Mykola Ridnyi that explore collective and personal histories. Ridnyi’s video work finds powerful and widely-varying approaches to explore the impact of wars in Ukraine, from the distant past to the invasions of 2014 and today. 

For the first time in New York, artist and DJ Nikolay Karabinovych brings his collection of 45s to Bar Laika. A long journey through time and territories from the shores of the Black Sea to the Scheldt River.

Join artists Nikolay Karabinovych, Teta Tsybulnyk, and Elias Parvulesco for a communal dinner and screening of 6 short films, followed by a conversation with all three artists. We encourage guests to bring food and drinks to share in the spirit of communal gathering and solidarity. Homemade вареники (perogy) will be served!

Screening and conversation with Darya Tsymbalyuk to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion, with the House of Ukraine.

Screening and conversation with Zhanna Kadyrova to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion, with the House of Ukraine.

Outdoor screening with Zhanna Ozirna featuring Encounter (2016), The Adult (2019), Grace (2017), and current work in progress, Ground Zero. Hosted by artist and writer Julia Tcharfas, this event celebrates the culmination of Kyiv to LA’s 2023 programming.

Art historian and researcher Asia Bazdyrieva will speak about resourcification, extractivist policies, and the sociotechnical imaginaries of the future as a follow-up to her 2022 e-flux article, No Milk, No Love.

Screening and lecture with art historian and researcher Asia Bazdyrieva. Bazdyrieva will address key questions which sit at the core of Geocinema — a documentary-led research project that reframes Earth sensing and imaging processes.

Screening and conversation with VATMH Distinguished Visitor, filmmaker Dana Kavelina featuring two films: Letter to Turtledove (2020) and her most recent work, It can't be that nothing can be returned (2022), a science fiction video set in post-war Ukraine.

Screening of Infinity According to Florian with filmmaker Oleksiy Radynski and producer Lyuba Knorozok. This film explores the legendary figure of Kyiv-based architect Florian Yuriev and recounts why capitalism is a thing of the past, and what happens when you divide one by infinity.

Discussion with art historian Asia Bazdyrieva and filmmaker Oleksiy Radynski as they expand the territory of decolonial discourse by examining Ukraine’s anti-imperial war against Russia. Moderated by sociocultural anthropologist Laurie Kain Hart.

New York premiere of Oleksiy Radynski’s Infinity According to Florian followed by a discussion with the filmmaker.

Screening and conversation with Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk about their most recent film featuring the looting of the Kherson Museum of Local Lore.

Reconstructing creativity at times of war: Conversation and book sale with the founders of Theater of Hopes and Expectations and fundraising publication Oberih.

Class lecture and screening with Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk. Open to the public.

Screening and conversation with Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk to commemorate the one-year anniversary of the full-scale invasion, with the House of Ukraine.

Potluck dinner and screening with artist Yarema Malashchuk.