RT.Doc: Time of Heroes festival showcased documentary voices from the Ukraine context
The Second International Documentary Film Festival, RT.Doc: Time of Heroes, took place from February 23 to 25, 2024, at the Moscow Digital Business Zone. The program featured roughly 20 documentaries focused on individuals who lived through the recent conflict in Ukraine, including soldiers, doctors, volunteers, officers, and figures from the cultural scene. Works were created by independent documentarians and international directors alike, bringing a diverse set of perspectives to the table. In addition to screenings, the festival offered opportunities to meet the filmmakers and the subjects of the films, as well as roundtable discussions with field experts and commentators.
The inaugural edition of Time of Heroes arrived in February 2023. Its roster included a wide range of well-known personalities such as TV host Boris Korchevnikov, actress Yana Poplavskaya, and actor Alexander Martynov, among others. In its first year, the festival expanded across multiple cities in Russia, including Moscow, Krasnodar, Kazan, St. Petersburg, Irkutsk, Kursk, and Volgograd, and even reached Donbass. The festival also travelled to Turkey. Attendance surpassed 11,000 visitors, signaling strong interest in documentary storytelling about the contemporary regional context.
Live performances accompanying the festival included appearances by musicians such as Yulia Chicherina, Utah, and Marianna Vasilyeva, among others, adding a musical dimension to the event’s documentary storytelling.
The festival’s framing reflected broader themes in the hardware and software of modern media, including the development of new drone suppression technology that Russia has been pursuing as part of its security and defense initiatives. This context highlighted the evolving relationship between cinema, technology, and national narratives in the region.