Vita Maria Drygas

Born 17/04/1984 in Vilnius.

Education:

Department of Radio and Television. Krzysztof Kieslowski in Katowice, Department of Cinematography
University of Warsaw, French Philology
State Higher School of Film, Television and Theatre in Lodz, Photography

Work Experience:

2009 - Artistic Director Caucasian Review of movies within Transkaukazja
2010 - "White and black in color ''solo exhibition at the gallery Black Butterfly in Warsaw

Filmography:

2011 – "Niedziela" ("Sunday") - short film, cinematographer
2012 – "Tylko dla jego oczu" ("Only for his eyes") - short film, cinematographer
2013 – "Homeless World Cup" - a documentary film, co-author of picture
2013 – "Nóż w wozie" ("Knife in the car"), a short film documentary director and cinematographer; Polish participation in the competition at the 54th Krakow Film Festival (2014); participation in the Contest 33 Koszalin Debut Film Festival "Youth and Film" (2014)
2013 – "Qudsiya Zaher" advertising operas, director and cinematographer
2013 – "Directing Qudsiya Zaher" a documentary cinematographer
2014 – "Szkoła dla wzrosłych" ("School for uplifted") a documentary cinematographer

„Piano”

The first piano appeared on the Maidan on the sixth of December. Student of conservatory Antonetta Mischenko saw three men carrying the piano to the barricades. In the possibility of shots the piano would effectively protect those men from the bullets. For the young pianist, this instrument is sacred, she had to defend him. She promised to come every day to the Maidan to play Chopin and anthem of Ukraine and in this way save the piano.

The teacher of the Conservatory, worldwide known pianist Professor Lyudmila Chichuk regardless of her fragile hands of a pianist she helped to build the barricades. When she met her student Antonette she joined her. Since then, despite of -20 degrees Celsius and frozen piano keys they began to give a concerts for the people gathered on the Maidan. Singing the anthem and national songs uplifted people, unite them and encouraged to fight.

The piano began to move. Where something important has happened, piano appeared there. Piano was set to the Parliament before armed police squadron. Now Chopin was played for the "enemy". The authority responded by playing very loud the Russian pop music. In this way, authority drowned the sounds of piano.

When the first victims began to die the instrument resounded even louder. The piano was set on provisional stage. Shortly after there appeared man in bulletproof vest and balaclava. Bohdan fought on the Maidan with a gun in his hand. As a child he hated playing the piano. He played on the Maidan with frostbitten fingers and holding a cigarette in his mouth. Then he was playing every day after returning from the "war zone".

Pianos become a symbol of resistance to authority. Suddenly, pianos in public places began to appear throughout the country. Bohdan, Antonetta and Lyudmila, was playing on pianos exposed to the street, playing these songs which ignited the protesters to fight on the Maidan. Police called them the'' piano extremists”. Many of pianos were broken by a police.

Dozens of hours of archival material from the revolution of the Maidan inspired me to track the fate of the three heroes. Despite the tragic situation in Ukraine, I will continue to ride around the country in order to express my opposition by playing the piano and by supporting the people.