Black Sunflowers
A kinetic, kaleidoscopic portrait of Ukrainian youth, alive with movement, color, and music, where dance floors become spaces of connection, release, and resistance as war threatens to consume their nation.
Description
In Black Sunflowers, James Marcus Haney drops us into the underground culture of a generation living through wartime Ukraine. Over four years, he follows artists, drifters, soldiers, and friends as they gather in warehouses, fall in love, debate their futures, and find pockets of freedom amid mounting uncertainty. Working with a crew of Ukrainian producers, Haney crafts a kinetic, kaleidoscopic film alive with movement, color, and music. The soundtrack pulses through every frame, turning dance floors into spaces of connection, release, and resistance. Haney’s camera moves with intimacy, capturing the euphoria of collective experience and the violence that threatens to pull these lives apart. The result is an immersive portrait of youth refusing to surrender its vitality, even as the world around them is transformed. Black Sunflowers is a rush of music, movement, and life lived against the clock. —Jessie Fairbanks
Biographies
James Marcus Haney is an American photographer and filmmaker who was born in Upland, California. He was enrolled at USC’s School of Cinematic Arts but dropped out to document a Mumford & Sons tour. He has directed the feature documentaries No Cameras Allowed (2014), Austin to Boston (also 2014), and, with Ryan Gall, Louder Together (2017). Musician Gill Landry says about Haney, “[He’s] A Los Angeles native with a home on the road, he’s more likely to be found jumping fences, hanging from trees, or sneaking past security lines to document the human circus rather than following the rules of marching in it.”