When Russia invaded Ukraine, filmmaker Maciek Hamela got a van and started transporting refugees into his native Poland — sometimes at great personal risk. Then he decided to film his passengers as they made the journey to safety, but he kept his priorities straight.
“It really didn't change much in the way I was operating. And — this was very clear for me from the beginning — ‘I'm not going to alter what I was doing before. I'm going to keep on driving.’ And the film has to be done in the meantime,” Hamela says.
The Warsaw-based filmmaker tells us about being one of thousands of Polish citizens who rushed to the aid of Ukrainian families fleeing in the midst of the ongoing invasion. He shares why he decided to turn the camera away from graphic images of destruction and focus on the stories of the refugees in his van. And he explains how he is using proceeds from the film to help finance ongoing support for Ukraine.