Yulia Gorodetska: "After the victory, Ukraine will become the center of the world"

How do you turn anger after shelling into candles in the shape of a burning Kremlin, phalluses, and roses while raising money for the Ukrainian army? Yulia Gorodetska, a journalist and volunteer who has been living between New York and Odesa for 11 years, working on international cultural projects in support of Ukraine, knows the answer. We talked about the F#ck You, Not Odesa flash mob, media self-censorship during the war, the trauma of May 2, depression, and black humor. We also talked about America, which is increasingly resembling Putin's Russia, and about Odesa, which has every chance of becoming a new global cultural hub after the war.

SCREEN SHOT: Intent's YouTube

Yulia, how do you think Odesa journalism has changed after 2022?

Many editorial offices have closed. Now, to get coverage of a cultural event that you organize, you have to make superhuman efforts. It's sad. But not only Odesa journalism has changed, but also the journalism in Ukraine. We can no longer work the way we did before the war. You cannot criticize the government as much as you would like, because you realize that this can work in the enemy's favor. It's a difficult ethical choice - every time you weigh up how not to harm the country even more.

What's worse for a journalist today: censorship or self-censorship?

Self-censorship is always worse. You cut out of yourself what even a frightened editor might have left in. Now we see similar disturbing trends at the international level. For example, in the United States, with the advent of Trump, the atmosphere is becoming less and less comfortable for the press. But I look at my American colleagues and they are resisting. We also need to continue to criticize, because without it, the government degrades.

Is journalism about finding the truth or about fighting for attention?

It's both. People who need attention often go into public professions, and this is normal. They usually have a keen sense of justice. So this is a kind of two-in-one format.

Your photo album about May 2, 2014 in Odesa has become historic. What was the most important thing you managed to capture then?

The fact that everything happened situationally, in the moment. The Ukrainian side, which they later tried to accuse of a planned action, were just young people, girls, who were picking stones out of the pavement. People bought beer in stores and poured it out to make Molotov cocktails. It was a moment of defending the city with the tools at hand. There was no "punitive operation," as Russian propaganda says. It was a spontaneous resistance.

Is there anything you are ashamed of in your old projects?

I'm so happy that the first two years of my work have not been preserved in the archives. I worked at the Krug TV company, and there was a very specific atmosphere there: you weren't really taught and were allowed to air what you could. And when you are not trained, you can do strange things. It's a good thing that this hasn't survived.

SCREEN SHOT: Int'l YouTube

In general, I remember a change in my views. I wasn't always the same as I am now. And this change was a change in my whole life, in my view of my own life, the life of the country, the life of the planet.

What was the impetus for such a radical change in your views?

It was in 2009. I was studying at the Institute of Film and Television in Russia. A month later, I was returning to Odesa after going to a Boombox concert somewhere in St. Petersburg. I paid four times more for a ticket than it cost in Odesa, just to stay home and listen to Muscovites singing in Ukrainian. I mean, I knew exactly what I was doing then: "Flies are separate, cutlets are separate." Two different peoples, two different civilizations. And from the Maidan, I knew for sure that Ukraine is Ukraine and we have to fight for it.

Is there anything you haven't dared to write or film about yet?

There are a lot of things. I now live by the principle: if I can avoid saying it, I don't, because there is a lot of noise on the air. But because of this, I missed a lot of opportunities. For example, our mutual friend Vova Komarov, about whom I wanted to make something big. He didn't give up for a long time, then he did, but I couldn't do it. And I will never do it again.

You often film the aftermath of the 'arrivals' in Odesa. What exactly do you want to show the world?

The contrast between peaceful life and this horror. Recently, a plane hit the house where I lived as a child. Among the ruins and burnt-out cars, I saw the only thing that had survived - a music book. When I told about it in Estonia, people had tears in their eyes.

Your anger often turns to good. Tell us about your volunteer projects.

At the beginning of the invasion, I collected 50 bulletproof vests for the navy orchestra. Then, in '23, after the shelling of the center of Odesa, I launched a flash mob called "F#ck you, not Odesa." It was intuitive: "I will not give anything away, I will stand to the last." Later, candles appeared. I am a man of culture, but now I have a "f#cking reputation" in the literal sense - I make candles in the shape of phalluses, the burning Kremlin, and now roses. In America, "f#cks" are not allowed in churches or at fairs (laughs - ed.), so I sell roses there. We have already repaired so many cars for the front with these candles!

SCREEN SHOT: Intent's YouTube

If you imagine Odesa as a person, what is its psychological state now?

In a traumatic shock, while not fully realizing the tragedy. Because people continue to live in this tragedy every day. Full understanding will come when everything is over. You know, there are such traumatic reactions: hit, run, freeze, or love your aggressor. We are now in a state of "fight-flight". And in this drive, we do not feel how much we have lost. And then we will feel everything. Unfortunately.

You say that today's America reminds you somewhat of Putin's Russia. Why?

It's very sad, because I adore America as a world of freedom. But now there is an atmosphere of fear among expats there. The Trump administration and people like J.D. Vance are boasting that they have stopped helping Ukraine. Ukrainians who came on assistance programs are now in limbo. They can be detained, imprisoned, and deported-sometimes even US citizens are deported by mistake. My children have become afraid. This feeling of unfreedom reminds me a lot of Russia.

Odesa often lives by myths about itself. Which myth annoys you the most?

I hated the myth in the style of "Liquidation". I'm happy that it's gone from the agenda because it was untrue. But it seems to me that we are being very careless now with the whole history of Odesa. Last year, during the renaming process, a teacher called me: "Yulia, we have been trying for a long time to get one of the streets renamed in honor of Apollo Skalkovsky, the Odesa Herodotus of the Northern Black Sea region. And now this street no longer exists." I think it is important that streets are named after heroes who gave their lives. But the people who do this need to love Odesa. Why do we need all the same cities? We are all different, and this is our wealth.

How has Odesa changed for you during the war?

I can't walk at night anymore - it really hit me hard. You can't plan anything. Tragedy is at arm's length. You walk through the city, see a hole in a house, and you get PTSD. This is probably with us forever. But at the same time, you can go to the New Market and listen to people joking about everything, including arrivals. Black humor helps you survive. It has remained.

How do you see Odesa after the war?

I don't think we need to look for a new identity. We need to return to the one we had before the beginning of the twentieth century. Odesa has always been a kind of New York, where different peoples spoke their own languages, but everyone was Odessans. After the victory , Ukraine will become the center of the world. We are flexible, we are inventive. I know many foreign artists who are waiting for the war to end to come here and create powerful cultural projects.

SCREEN SHOT: Intent's YouTube

Why do you love Odesa and what do you hate?

I love it for the feeling of home, for the people, for the food, and for the right to be yourself. In Odesa, you can always say, "Go to hell" if you don't like something. I don't like our political elite, who still don't realize that everything is serious. When balconies fall down in the city and historic buildings are demolished, I want to scream. We are losing Odesa every day because of their indifference.

What keeps you in New York the most?

Only family and culture. Museums, Broadway. It's a shame to spend money on other entertainment, and culture is like an investment in yourself, so that you can give a better result for your home. In Odesa, everything is different. There is a sense of family here in a broader sense: friends, people who are close in spirit.

What is your "battery" now?

Odesa. It's hard for my family in the US to accept this, they worry about me every time I arrive. But they realize that only in Odesa am I me. When I see my cameramen friends who are now on the frontline, I lose any desire to complain.

If you could give advice to yourself before you went full-blown, what would you say?

Travel while you can. And learn useful things: tactical medicine, languages. I took courses, but only formally, and I forgot everything. Now I don't have the internal resources to go again because I can't see blood. I can film for work, but not for myself.

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