Ukraine’s film-makers can’t pick up guns, but their cameras are vital weapons | Darya Bassel

Our film festival has had to move online, but our film-makers have gone behind the headlines to document the reality of life for Ukrainians

• Watch excerpts of three films here in a collaboration with Guardian Documentaries

Ukraine's Maidan revolution of 2014, or as we call it, the revolution of dignity", coincided with the 11th year of a documentary film festival which takes place annually in Kyiv.

The 2014 edition of Docudays UA started just as the revolution ended, so the main visual used throughout our programming was a burning heart. Our audience of thousands had just come through a heartbreaking chapter, recently burying 100 of our fellow citizens killed on Maidan square, fighting for our country's freedom. Our main festival venue, the Kyiv cinema house, was packed out, with an atmosphere I'll never forget.

Darya Bassel is a film producer, programmer and head of industry at Docudays UA, the Ukrainian international human rights film festival.

Guardian Documentaries latest release is dedicated to the rich and vibrant world of Ukrainian cinema, showing excerpts of three award-winning Ukrainian films. This project is presented in collaboration with Kyiv-based film festival Docudays UA. Two out of the three films can be seen in their entirety at DocHouse Cinema London, on 5 and 6 April as part of a project called Stand with Docudays", produced by One World Media, Bertha Dochouse and Guardian Documentaries. Profits from the screenings will go to Docuhelp, a fund set up to support Ukrainian film-makers. Click here for tickets to screenings.