Oleksiy-Nestor Naumenko

Oleksiy Naumenko was born in Kyiv, Ukraine. After completing his technical education as a television engineer at the Kyiv Polytechnic Institute, he continued his studies at the Ivan Karpenko-Karyi Kyiv National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television, graduating in 2000 with a degree in film and television directing.

Naumenko began his professional career in the mid-1990s as an assistant director and video editor for Ukrainian television. He later transitioned to independent filmmaking, working across a variety of genres and formats. His films explore themes including social inequality,^[4] ecology,^[5] cultural heritage preservation,^[6][7] and the psychological dimensions of human experience.^[8]

His body of work includes more than 50 films ranging from documentary, chronicle,^[9] ethnographic and music films^[10] to short fiction, experimental works,^[11] photo films, and arthouse. He creates films in several languages, including Ukrainian, English, and Spanish.

Among Naumenko's experimental films is 50 Horizons (2023), a full-length documentary exploring minimalist and absurdist aesthetics. The film was presented at the Molodist International Film Festival and is described as being inspired by the creative methods of James Joyce and James Benning.^[12] Other projects include the travel essay films Year of Volcanoes (2018),^[13] Sunny Island (2021),^[14] Caribbean Trilogy (2020),^[15] a documentary essay about Japan The Butterfly Way (2014), and a series titled Nestor's Travel ABC, which began in 2022.

Naumenko has filmed in locations across the globe. Year of Volcanoes was shot on four European volcanoes: Vesuvius and Etna (Italy), Teide (Spain), and Santorini (Greece). Caribbean Trilogy, which includes Walls of Santo Domingo, Flower in the Mist and 47, was filmed in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. Sunny Island was filmed in 11 countries on four continents. 50 Horizons^[16] includes footage from 21 countries, such as Ukraine, Panama, Japan, Iceland, Egypt, Germany, Switzerland, Montenegro, Norway, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, etc.

Most of Naumenko's films have been produced through his independent studio Nestor Film.

In addition to filmmaking, Naumenko is a photographer^[17] and a curator of art exhibitions and performative projects.^[18]

As a publicist, Oleksiy-Nestor Naumenko collaborates with various media outlets,^[19] including cinema journals.^[20] He is recognized for his research on the life and work of film director Andrei Tarkovsky,^[21][22] and Ukrainian actors Boryslav Brondukov^[23] and Ivan Mykolaichuk.^[24][25]