When things like what's happening in Ukraine hit our television screens, we want to help, but we don't know how. It just seems so terrible, so overwhelming, so...big, that we don't know where to even begin.

The trick is to think smaller. Yes, some people will go into the heart of the Ukrainian war to adopt children. But others will host rallies on college campuses, or they'll teach classes about Ukrainian traditions, or they'll do what WyoMovies is doing.

Beginning on Friday, WyoMovies will be showing the Ukrainian film 'The Guide,' with subtitles. It will run from March 18 through March 24 and all proceeds will go directly to Ukrainian relief.

"The Human and Civil Rights Organizations of America are managing a Ukraine Relief Fund," said Ben Smith, General Manager of WyoMovies. "The president of their board actually owns movie theaters up in Boston, so he was one of the first ones to run the film. He played it first, and now the distributors are all working to get this movie to everybody for free. All the theaters that are playing it are giving a hundred percent of their proceeds to that Ukraine Relief Fund."

Smith said that once the owners of the Wyoming-based theaters heard about this, they immediately jumped on the idea.

"We always try to play anything that we can," Smith said. "Part of what we like to do is show movies that aren't always available to people everywhere. Obviously we wanted to help with the war efforts too. Movie theaters don't usually have a lot of opportunity to help with worldwide issues like this, so whenever we get an opportunity like that, we'll jump on it."

So, they did.

'The Guide' will be showing at various times in the late morning, early afternoon at Studio City East. Tickets will be the same as any other show and each and every dollar earned will go towards helping Ukraine.

'The Guide,' according to the WyoMovies website, is a film that takes place in the early 1930's.

"Peter is a ten-year-old boy in the midst of turbulent Soviet Ukraine," the website stated. "His father, an American engineer, is killed for obtaining secret documents about the repressions, which now are hidden in Peter's book. The boy flees from the police with a blind kobzar (Ukrainian folk minstrel), Ivan Kocherga. Ivan does everything to help his young guide to grow up and survive with a kind and clear soul that will not be hardened by what his eyes have seen. He tells his young guide elaborate stories that make him believe there can be a different reality from what he sees around him. We are challenged to admit the blind kobzar may see the world with greater clarity than those with perfect eyes."

And if ever there were a time where all of us would benefit from seeing things a little clearer, or seeing things from different perspectives, now would be that time.

The atrocities happening across the world in Ukraine are devastating, but they are nothing new. Countries have been waging wars against each other since the beginning of time. That will never change until we, as human beings, can look at the world around us and realize that, as cliché as it sounds (thanks COVID-19 commercials), we really are all in this together. The problems come when world leaders decide that they know best, that they need more. The problems come when human lives lose their sanctity and just become collateral damage.

So, as those leaders start wars that the rest of us have to fight, we do our best to help how we can. In this case, all we have to do is watch a movie.

"This country is having such a rough time," Smith said. "And there's not much of an easier way to help a situation like this than to just buy a movie ticket and watch a movie for a couple hours."

Smith noted that the director and writer of the film, Oles Sanin, is currently locked down in Kyiv, as many Ukrainians are.

Oftentimes, when faced things that we can barely comprehend, much less lend a hand to, we have no idea how to help. This simple thing, buying a ticket, seeing a movie, will help. Maybe it will help a little, maybe it will help a lot, but it's a way for every single Casper resident to offer assistance to a country that is burning. Go see a movie. Get lost in the story. And when you find yourself again, when you come out of the darkness of the theater and back into the light of the outside world, you'll know that you did something that made a difference.

Rally in Denver Supporting Ukraine

A rally in Denver, Colorado in support of Ukraine in their war with Russia.

 

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