The Russian Woodpecker
Filmfest 2015

A Ukrainian victim of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster discovers a dark secret and must decide whether to risk his life by revealing it, amid growing clouds of revolution and war.

"In the summer of 2013, I was working on a play in Kiev when our set designer, Fedor Alexandrovich, whispered to me about the 'Russian woodpecker', a Cold War radio signal that many Americans believed was a Soviet mind-control device. For Fedor, the antenna represented a very personal mystery, and he was determined to confront it despite the fact that it stood in an off-limits military facility in the middle of the radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Despite never having made a film, I agreed to make a ten-minute documentary about this Cold War weapon.
Chad Gracia

2015 Sundance Grand Jury Prize Winner – World Documentary.