Yan Lelyuk

Ukrainian director of photography, film editor, and technical director of the OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival.

 

Yan was born on February 21, 1972, in Bershad town, Vinnytsia oblast. In 1989, he graduated from the local school, which is now known as Anatoliy Matvienko Lyceum No 1. 

 

He has always been interested in information technology and engineering. So, in 2000, he entered the National Aerospace University “Kharkiv Aviation Institute” from which he graduated in 2006 with a degree in software engineering.

 

He became interested in video production in 2010. Since then, he has been actively developing his skills in this field.

 

In 2013, he received a degree in film editing at the Kyiv-based specialized educational institution INTERSCHOOL. There he completed a training course on television and video production.

 

In 2018, he became a co-founder of PowerFilm Production, a video studio in Kyiv that produces films, commercials, corporate and promotional videos, as well as music videos. Yan also worked as a director of photography, drone (quadcopter) operator, and film editor during the projects' implementation.

 

One of these projects was the feature-length documentary about the village of Krynychne (Chushmelii), Place of Power (103 minutes), directed by Tetiana Stanieva in 2018. Yan was the technical director, director of photography, film editor, and subtitler. 

 

In 2019-2020, he worked with Tetiana on her documentary short Chamur (28 minutes) which was also filmed in Krynychne.

 

Since the first edition of the OKO International Ethnographic Film Festival in 2020, he has been its technical director. 

 

In 2021, he joined the creation of the feature-length documentary Easter Reconstruction (100 minutes) as a technical director, director of photography, film editor, subtitler, and colorist. 

 

Also in 2021, he took part in the creation of a series of 12 documentaries called Disappearing Villages (each episode is 26 minutes long), commissioned by the Ukrainian public broadcaster UA: Suspilne. In this project, he worked as a technical director, director of photography, film editor, subtitler, and colorist.

 

Since August 2022, after the start of the russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has been working on the feature documentary film She (a diary of military wives). The filming process is not over yet.

 

Yan is constantly in the process of development, and you can see his works here: https://youtu.be/Ya8ckIf4jfw.