Meeting / Documentary

Roles: Art Direction, Ilustration, Animation
Director: Natalia Kim
Concept and story: Olga Krivovyaz

I was invited to develop the visual language and identity for the independent documentary Meeting. My role encompassed art direction and the creation of the film’s graphic identity — including its visual treatment, typography, screen graphics, title sequence and other on-screen elements — as well as a visual guide for post-production. I also worked as an illustrator and animator, bringing to life parts of the story for which no footage existed, transforming memories from the past preserved only as voice recordings into illustrated animated sequences.

Family Memory as a Path to the Self
“A person without a past is like a tree without roots.”

Family memory is not simply an archive of facts, but a living fabric woven from silences, losses and discoveries. As Maurice Halbwachs wrote, collective memory exists only through the prism of individual memories, with the family becoming its primary keeper. In an era of globalisation, when identity is increasingly dissolved into universal templates, turning towards one’s roots becomes an act of resistance to oblivion. The story of the Krivovyaz family is the story of thousands of people whose lives were shattered by Soviet repressions in the 20th century. But it is also a story of healing.

Visual identity and graphic elements

This documentary offers the viewer not a linear chronicle, but a multilayered journey. It unfolds at the intersection of Pierre Nora’s concept of “sites of memory”, Svetlana Boym’s ideas of nostalgia as a dialogue with what has been lost, and Margaret Homans’ theory of trauma transmitted across generations. The protagonists are searching not only for facts, but for meaning: how does the pain of the past shape their values today? Is it possible to reconcile oneself with history without betraying oneself? How can we preserve the invisible thread connecting generations when a family’s history contains not only joy, but also pain?

Meeting is a documentary about the Krivovyaz family, whose history became a mirror of the historical tragedies of the 20th century. It is a story of the search for lost truth, of discoveries and encounters with living witnesses of bygone eras, and of an inner journey towards self-understanding. The film shows how personal tragedy can become a universal human experience, and how archival documents, family photographs, old recordings and memories can become powerful symbols of overcoming and renewal.