Congratulations to LIIFE Alumnus TJ Collins’ on Your Film Being Long Listed for an Academy Award!!
TJ Collins bio
Mr. Collins is an award-winning filmmaker with over a dozen films produced including short and feature narratives. His debut feature “Willets Point” received the Audience Award at the Long Island International Film Expo and was theatrically released with positive reviews in the New York Times. Mr. Collins has served as a peer judge for the New York Emmy Awards and is a member of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, New York Chapter. He is a NALIP Producers Academy and Screenwriters Lab Fellow 2009. Additionally, his screenplay “The Driven” aka Eli Moran was one of ten nationally selected projects for the NALIP Screenwriters Lab sponsored by The Walt Disney Company, NBC Universal, FOX and HBO. Mr. Collins completed the narrative feature sports drama “The Driven” serving as writer, director, and producer. The film features veteran actor David Zayas (Dexter, The Expendables). “The Driven” held a World Premiere at the 25th Dances With Films Festival – NYC edition in 2022.
Since 2016 Mr. Collins has also worked on a feature documentary project about the war in Ukraine titled
“A Rising Fury” as a Producer and Co-Writer. The film reveals the true untold story of how the Russo-Ukrainian war began in 2014. This is a unique film that explains how we arrived at this point in history through events and personal accounts on the ground. The film team followed several people for nearly 10 years from the Revolution of Dignity in 2013 to the battlefields in Eastern Ukraine, and during the full-scale invasion in 2022. It’s a story about love, revolution, betrayal, and war told through intimate verité material. A Rising Fury premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film festival and screened at numerous international film festivals. The film is directed by Ukrainian American filmmaker Lesya Kalynska and Ukrainian filmmaker Ruslan Batytskyi. Film Threat gives A Rising Fury a perfect 5 stars and says it’s “A masterclass of documentary filmmaking… brilliant on every level. One of the best films of the year.” FILM INK gives it 4.5 stars and says it’s a “Wake up call… a powerful statement as to what the Ukrainians are fighting for. Filmmaker Magazine says it’s “A breathtakingly cinematic explainer of current events”.
The film was nominated for best documentary and other top awards in nine international film festivals including Stockholm IFF (Bronze Horse nominee), Warsaw IFF (Best Documentary nominee), Odesa IFF (Golden Duke nominee), Cleveland IFF (Greg Gund Standing Up award nominee), and won three top awards at the 2023 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival including the Supreme Jury Award.
A Rising Fury has been longlisted for the 2024 Academy Awards.
WEBSITE: https://arisingfury.com/
VIDEO: A RISING FURY / OFFICIAL TRAILER (2023) / ГАРТОВАНІ ГНІВОМ
‘A Rising Fury’: Ukrainian War Documentary held a limited theatrical release in New York City with celebrities and community support.
The critically acclaimed feature documentary A Rising Fury about the Russo-Ukrainian War had a limited theatrical release in New York City at Cinema Village from Oct 27th – Nov 2nd, 2023. This theatrical premiere commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Revolution of Dignity in Kyiv, Ukraine. The opening night screening was a full house and included Oscar winning film director Carol Dysinger as the Q&A moderator. Nataliia Musiienko from the Consulate General of Ukraine NY introduced the film. Fima Chupakhin, a Brooklyn based Ukrainian jazz pianist and composer performed along with his other band members during the premiere afterparty at the speakeasy Blind Barber. Other notable attendees throughout the week included Sergiy Kyslytsya Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations, a Q&A with Professor Timothy Snyder and an intimate performance by Eugene Hütz (Gogol Bordello).
A Rising Fury premiered at the 2022 Tribeca Film festival and screened at numerous international film festivals. The film is directed by Ukrainian American filmmaker Lesya Kalynska and Ukrainian filmmaker Ruslan Batytskyi. They produced it along with TJ Collins (USA) and Jonathan Borge Lie (Norway). The film was nominated for best documentary and other top awards in nine international film festivals including Stockholm IFF (Bronze Horse nominee), Warsaw IFF (Best Documentary nominee), Odesa IFF (Golden Duke nominee), Cleveland IFF (Greg Gund Standing Up award nominee), and won three top awards at the 2023 Melbourne Documentary Film Festival including the Supreme Jury Award. A Rising Fury has qualified for the 2024 Academy Awards.
As of 12/07/2023 the film is at 100% Rotten Tomatoes based on (9 film critics)
Film Threat gives A Rising Fury 5 stars and says it’s “A masterclass of documentary filmmaking… brilliant on every level. One of the best films of the year.” FILM INK gives it 4.5 stars and says it’s a “Wake up call… a powerful statement as to what the Ukrainians are fighting for. Filmmaker Magazine says it’s “A breathtakingly cinematic explainer of current events”.
A Rising Fury reveals the true untold story of how the Russo-Ukrainian war began in 2014 and proves that it was prepared as far back as 2007. This is a unique film that explains how we arrived at this point in history through events and personal accounts on the ground.
The film team followed several people for nearly 10 years from the Revolution of Dignity in 2013 to the battlefields in Eastern Ukraine, and during the full-scale invasion in 2022. It’s a story about love, revolution, betrayal, and war told through intimate verité material. It required multiple expeditions to the front lines and extensive filming in Kyiv.
A RISING FURY: Ukraine, 2022, 82 min. In English/Ukrainian. Directed by Lesya Kalynska & Ruslan Batytskyi; Producers: Lesya Kalynska, Ruslan Batytskyi, TJ Collins, Jonathan Borge Lie; Screenwriters: Lesya Kalynska, TJ Collins; Director of Photography: Ruslan Batytskyi; Editors: Araby Kelley, Lesya Kalynska, Ruslan Batytskyi; Composer: Emiliano Mazzenga. Pomegranate Studios in co-production with Batytskyi production and UpNorth Film.
About the Directors:
Lesya Kalynska is a Ukrainian-American NYC based award-winning director, producer, and screenwriter. Born and raised in Kyiv, Ukraine, she holds a PhD in Literature and an MFA in film writing and directing from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts. Lesya then worked in Kyiv as a director of a docuseries about World War II “Level of Secrecy 18”. After completing several award-winning short films Kalynska wrote, directed, and produced the feature documentary “A Rising Fury” about the Russo-Ukrainian war that was filmed for nearly 10 years. The World Premiere took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2022. It was the winner of several awards including the Supreme Jury Award and the Best International Director Award at the Melbourne Documentary Film Festival. The film was nominated for the Bronze Horse Award at the Stockholm FF, Best Documentary at the Warsaw IFF and the Golden Duke Award at the Odessa IFF.
Ruslan Batytskyi was born in the Dnipropetrovs’k region of Eastern Ukraine on Aug 3rd, 1986. After finishing school in 2003 he entered Dnipropetrovs’k National University where he received a Master’s degree in cybernetics and management. In 2009 he began studying cinema at the Kyiv National University of Theater, Cinema, and Television. His several short films “Lethargy”, “Reed” and “Ukrainian Lessons” were presented at international festivals and received several awards. In 2016-2018 he created a short documentary series “The least part of the work”. The series told the stories of people with neurosurgical diseases, how it changed their lives and their spirit going through many challenges. Ruslan has worked alongside Lesya Kalynska to debut “A Rising Fury”. The film is about the war in Ukraine and has been filming nearly 10 years. The World Premiere of “A Rising Fury” took place at the Tribeca Film Festival in June of 2022.
