Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko

Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko is a Ukrainian filmmaker, writer, musician, and translator from Halychyna — a region suspended somewhere between Central Europe and historical amnesia. He is the author of the bestselling novel Nothing Is Under Control and one half of Ceramic Knives, the love child of a blues guitar and a haunted drum machine. As co-founder of OFF Laboratory, he publishes and translates voices silenced or distorted by war, exile, and censorship.

A recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) grant in collaboration with RealTime Arts and a grant from the Heinz Endowments, he is currently based in Pittsburgh, where he serves as Writer-in-Residence at City of Asylum and Research Scholar at the University of Pittsburgh and Chatham University.

As a filmmaker, Frazé-Frazénko is known for his poetic documentaries about major Ukrainian cultural figures, including Chubai (2014), The House on Seven Winds (2015), and An Aquarium in the Sea (2016). His films have been screened internationally and are recognized for their experimental style and literary depth.

His literary work spans more than two decades and includes numerous poetry collections, prose publications, and translations in both Ukrainian and English. He is the first translator of Jim Morrison’s poetry into Ukrainian, the book was sold out in one day. His English-language works — including the novel Nothing Is Under Control (2025) and the poetry collection FAQ Ukraine (2024) — reflect the raw, urgent voice of a country in crisis and transformation. His translation of Olena Boryshpolets’ collection Orpheus and Euridyce in New York was shortlisted for the Derek Walcott Prize for Poetry.

In music, he blends Ukrainian folk tradition with avant-garde and alternative sounds. He performs with his wife, Mari, in Ceramic Knives, reimagining folk songs through a stripped-down, emotionally charged lens that bridges generations and geographies.

In 2022, he remained in Ukraine during the full-scale invasion, contributing to volunteer efforts and collaborating with international media to document the war from within. Through OFF Laboratory, he continues to amplify Ukrainian voices — publishing books, releasing music, and curating cross-genre collaborations that speak to this historical moment.

Frazé-Frazénko appears as one of the featured voices in In Exile, a documentary by Ralph Vituccio and Reem Alghazzi that explores the lives of artists, writers, and activists forced to leave their homelands. Through intimate interviews and striking visual storytelling, the film reflects on displacement, cultural memory, and the role of art as a form of resistance. The film had its world premiere on November 7, 2025, at the Harris Theater in Pittsburgh.

In 2022, Japanese filmmaker and war journalist Yoshitaka Nitta released a documentary about Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko. The film offers a direct and in-depth interview that explores the mind and motivation of an artist, visionary, and cultural leader at a time of war. Filmed in western Ukraine, it follows Frazé-Frazénko as a poet and rapper using his voice to call for resistance against the Russian invasion—urging the world to pay closer attention to the unfolding reality in Ukraine.

UA Post TV covered the Chicago premiere of An Aquarium in the Sea, a feature documentary by Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko. The film tells the story of the New York Group of Poets—a collective of Ukrainian-language writers who, though raised in the English-speaking world of the 1950s, remained devoted to preserving and elevating Ukrainian culture on the global stage. The screening took place at the Ukrainian Institute of Modern Art in Chicago as part of the film’s North American Aquarium premiere tour in 2016.

In 2016, the Ukrainian digital broadcaster Hromadske TV produced a documentary on Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko’s film The House on the Seven Winds. The film explores themes of diaspora and displacement, which Frazé-Frazénko approaches with a persistent and nuanced perspective—highlighting the often-overlooked role of diaspora in post-Soviet Ukrainian identity.

The House unfolds through the life and work of poet Vasyl Makhno, offering a surreal, visually rich portrayal of a displaced neighborhood and the cultural tensions it embodies. Through this lens, the film becomes both personal and political—a meditation on belonging, loss, and the enduring pull of home.

This behind-the-scenes footage offers a rare glimpse into the working process of filmmaker Oleksandr Frazé-Frazénko, captured in Kyiv in 2019 during the shoot for the music video Machina by the Canadian-Ukrainian band Balaklava Blues. The video itself presents sharp political and social commentary through a dreamlike, satirical lens—blending striking visuals with layered symbolism. Watch the BTS footage and see how it all came together here.