When Slavko Nowytski came to America, he says he wanted to be a cowboy. When he learned that wasn’t possible, he decided he wanted to be an actor who played cowboys. He’s settled for a career as a filmmaker.
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“He can put Ukrainian culture on a world level,” says Oryna Hrushetsky of Ukrainian Media Services, which is also sponsoring the event. “He can take the Ukrainian Easter egg and present it in such a way that now the whole world can understand what a pysanka is.”
Not all of Nowytski’s films deal with Ukrainian subjects. As head of his own film company in Minnesota, Nowytski has directed films about kite flying, the fur trade, and the southern praying-mantis style of kung fu. “I’m interested in culture, history, art, and religion,” says Nowytski. “Those are the topics I really go after.”
Nowytski moved around a lot as a child. After fleeing the Ukraine with his family, he wound up in Germany, where he developed two loves: cowboys and Margaret O’Brien.
Nowytski, who will attend the festival on June 4, hopes it will raise some money for a documentary he plans to film, if all goes well, next spring. It will be the first, he says, to view icons from the historical, theological, and artistic perspectives.
