Standing Up Against The Sky
Boston, Massachusetts | Film Short
Documentary
With more than 500,000 wounded servicemembers since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022, our team shines a light on mental health recovery and reintegration through the story of one Ukrainian soldier in a film on resilience, service...and how ballet and the arts reflect Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
Standing Up Against The Sky
Boston, Massachusetts | Film Short
Documentary
1 Campaigns | Massachusetts, United States
Green Light
This campaign raised $18,705 for post-production. Follow the filmmaker to receive future updates on this project.
87 supporters | followers
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With more than 500,000 wounded servicemembers since Ukraine was invaded in February 2022, our team shines a light on mental health recovery and reintegration through the story of one Ukrainian soldier in a film on resilience, service...and how ballet and the arts reflect Ukraine’s fight for freedom.
About The Project
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
*AS OF AUGUST 29TH, WE ARE AT 100% OF OUR INITIAL GOAL!*
Here’s What We Still Need...
Stretch Goal #1: Drone Scene Animation = $2500
Stretch Goal #2: Film Festival Expenses = $2500
Stretch Goal #3: Final Edit with Advanced Sound Design = $2000
__________________________________________
This documentary short is dedicated to the men
and women who serve in Ukraine for freedom,
and to the thousands who have been lost
in this fight. Slava Ukraini!
My great grandfather was from a town just west of Kyiv. When I traveled in March to Ukraine to meet hospital colleagues, I felt a deep connection to the place and to the people and realized more than ever - my fortunate American life. We met incredible soldiers at the hospital - standing up - to protect the culture and people of Ukraine. The minute I met Sasha, a 40-year-old Army scout trying to get back to the frontline, I knew his story needed to be told.
-Ron Hirschberg, Director
WHAT IS THIS FILM ABOUT?
Standing Up Against The Sky is a documentary about one man, Sasha, who leaves a career as principal ballet dancer to join the Ukrainian Army after the Full-Scale Russian Invasion in February 2022. Sasha struggles, following an incident when he is hunted down by a small drone - He gets the help he needs - And becomes stronger and even more resilient.
WHY ARE WE MAKING THIS FILM... AND WHY NOW?
Drone injury and anxiety are the “IED blast-injuries” of 2025. This film will highlight the 100s of 1000s of people experiencing trauma and the desperate need for best care for these signature invisible wounds. With 500 casualties a day and 70% from drones, this warfare is no longer the future, and will surely impact US troops, potentially right at home. We are making this film because it is more than a movie - It’s an opportunity to engage and build a community in solidarity for the people who Stand Up to preserve freedom, culture, and family.
WHERE ARE WE CURRENTLY IN THE PROJECT?
We have secured footage and interviews in Kyiv, Ukraine in June 2025, and post-production has just begun … We are looking to crowdfund a significant part of this process, raising $15,000, necessary for Editing, Sound Design, Mixing, Music, Transcription, and Animation. Our team is assembled including Director of Photography Lee Harrington, Documentary Film Mentor Christine O'Malley, Editor Aaron Daniel Annas, Film Advisor Jeff Hirschberg, Composer Vadim Neselovskyi, Ukraine Liaison Anastasiia Levchenko, and Production Assistant Abby Hirschberg. Film premiere is slated for Winter 2026, and we are in the process of seeking Film Festival submissions.
This documentary is just a part of the story...
Our longer run goal is to build a community around this film to mobilize action for the extraordinary needs of Ukrainian soldiers and their families in mental health, in collaboration with the great work of two partnering organizations intimately involved in a shared mission of identifying and treating current and future invisible wounds of war: Home Base Program, and Global Response Medicine.
We are thrilled for you to join us, as we build the foundation
of a great film and make an impact together!
Sasha is a Ukrainian soldier who experiences a battle with his own mental health during the Ukrainian-Russian Big War. We learn about Sasha’s pre-military career as a professional ballet dancer in the Kyiv City Ballet, his passion for teaching dance, and family. He is in Paris the day before the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24th, 2022, and hearing the news he is overcome a strong sense of service to his country. He joins the Army, becoming a scout.
On duty one day, he positions himself in a tree near the frontline and is spotted by a first-person view (FPV) drone, the cheap and overwhelming newer technology driving death and destruction in modern combat. Escaping to a trench filled with corpses, Sasha waits for the drone to stop hunting him. In time, he makes it back to his unit, but upon returning from the frontline, dread and anxiety follow him, much as the drone did. Like thousands of fellow soldiers, he is admitted to a mental health hospital for rehabilitation so he can once again capture the strength he needs to return to his unit.
Standing Up Against The Sky is a story of what it is to be pushed to the edge of sanity by modern warfare and the invisible cost of defending your country’s freedom. An artist transforms into a fighter – Can that fighter return to the grace and balance that once defined him?
Through interviews, archival footage, and footage from the battlefield to Kyiv, the film captures the deep patriotism and call to service that leads a principal dancer to leave the stage in Paris and join the frontline. The juxtaposition of Sasha - the dancer and the scout - will be demonstrated with the beauty and emotion of his performance footage versus the dehumanized, video-game-like footage of drone targeting on the battlefield.
The signature, high-pitched drone buzzing plays a central role in contrast to the music of the ballet – to some, the “lawn mower” sound may be simply annoying, yet for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, it is spine-chilling. During the re-creation of a pivotal conflict, the audience will feel the anticipation of a chasing drone while also experiencing the resolve and self-control that Sasha feels in the moments of the hunt - and the relief of the escape.
Director Ron Hirschberg was interviewed in Psychology Today by Mitzi Purdue
on April 6th 2025 about this emerging phenomenon.
Central to the Three Act structure will be in-person interviews with Sasha and supporting characters, including his physician, his student, and psychologist-scientists from both Home Base and Kyiv. The film includes B-Roll and interviews with camera partner Lee Harrington shooting in Kyiv. Music composition by Odesa’s Vadim Neselovskyi will drive emotion towards conflict, climax, and reintegration. Film mentoring for the project is with prolific documentarian/producer Christine O’Malley.
A year ago, I got a call from a colleague at Mass General who asked to bring a group of Ukrainian doctors to Home Base to discuss veteran mental health and rehabilitation. Their visit to Boston was an exchange of best practices on treating acute wounds – literally stopping the bleeding, but it was clear that the future would bring hundreds of thousands of injured soldiers needing mental health treatment and reintegration. So, we set up a US/UA plan to tackle these Ukrainian invisible wounds, together.
Since February 2022 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 500,000 servicemembers have been injured, including 80,000 with amputated limbs. To best understand how we could help, we needed to know more about a new era of warfare. Drone attacks now dominate casualties, and about 70% of injuries are from small, cheap, first-person-view (FPV) drones. These are the same drones flying over a wedding ceremony or sporting event, but these drones have been transformed into killing machines - dropping grenades or hunting individual soldiers. FPV drone-related injuries have become the signature wounds akin to the Iraq War IED blast, 20 years ago.
We planned a trip to Kyiv in early March 2025, and it was more than just a “medical mission,” but one of solidarity, trust, and a shared vision with the Ukrainian people.
As a physician with a storytelling and cultural anthropology background, and as an American great-grandson of proud Ukrainians, I am making this film for an audience that needs to know about the current war’s effect on the mental health of people just like you and me. This film will shine a light on service of country, protecting art that defines resilience, and describe a new drone warfare that is forever changing the future of conflict throughout the world.
Stay up to date:
[email protected]
@deermountainpictures @standingup_dmpictures
Thank you! / дякую! dyakuyu!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
3-D Animation Segment for Film
Costs $750
This will be an impactful 2-4min segment of the film that looks back at a key conflict: A small drone hunts the main character who survives.
Footage Editing
Costs $8,000
This cost is for the editing of the existing footage for the documentary short. The short is estimate to be between 30 and 39 minutes long.
Sound Design
Costs $1,000
The sound of drones can be trigger for anxiety and stress. To do this appropr while remaining artistic is a creative challenge.
Ukraine Language Transcription - Translation
Costs $750
When people speak, in-person translation is needed for general content, however there is KEY need for work-for-word exact transcription.
Music: Arrangement-Edit
Costs $1,250
Prof Vadim Neselovskyi, from Odesa, Ukraine - upcoming album post-2022 invasion. Will be used for this doc - Need for sound-edit-arrangement
Marketing for Film / Impact Campaign
Costs $500
The community foundation for awareness of current issues in mental health and recovery in Ukraine is directly related to the film's impact.
Festival Fees
Costs $1,250
We are looking to premiere in FEB 2026. The festival fees add up and we want to share widely to several groups and audiences.
Sound Mixing
Costs $750
Narration, Interviews, Music, Effects...etc. for pro audio to ensure that sound complements beauty - and not-so-beauty of conflict and war.
Colorist for Color correction/grading
Costs $750
Footage from Kyiv trips, past ballet and other archival video and photos and interviews come together in edit with need for smooth pro color
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Ron Hirschberg - Director, Producer
Ron Hirschberg is a physician in neurological and polytrauma rehabilitation, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and currently Medical Director of Brain Health at the Home Base Program. An advocate for arts in medicine, he founded the Arts and Neuroscience division at ACRM.org and has collaborated with renowned musicians and neuroscientists. He co-founded the podcast Above The Basement in 2016 and is host and producer of Home Base Nation since 2019 on mental health and military service. A lifelong musician, Ron continues to perform and write music.
Aaron Daniel Annas - Editor, Associate Producer
Currently Professor of Film at Catawba College, AD started his professional career as a stage performer, and after spending years on the stage, became interested in the art of storytelling through film and television. He received his MFA in Independent Film and Digital Imaging from Governors State University. AD is known for There's No Such Thing As Ghosts, Maelstrom, and Inside World War II.
Christine O’Malley - Film Advisor
Christine O'Malley has created more than 20 documentaries for film and television as a writer and producer. O'Malley served as associate producer on the Academy-Award nominated documentary film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2004). She is known for If You Build It, Wordplay, and Miss Americana: The Taylor Swift Story.
Andrea Murphy Leiner - Associate Producer
Andrea Murphy Leiner is Deputy Director of Global Response Medicine, a nonprofit delivering medical care and training in conflict zones, and a Nurse Practitioner. Andrea began her career at Bad Boy Records as a publicist for the label’s artists, and then General Manager of a boutique production company that produced over 100 music videos for artists including Kanye West, LL Cool J, Nas, Lil' Kim, and others. Her producing credits include several documentary features and series.
Lee Harrington - Director of Photography
Lee Harrington is a communications professional with a Bachelor of Science focused in Audio & Media Technology from The New England Institute of Art. Harrington has produced countless stories for live television (ABC Boston) and has developed an extensive understanding of working alone in remote locations while doing what he loves - hearing people's stories.
Vadim Neselovskyi - Music Composition
Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in Boston. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music. He has collaborated and toured with Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, John Scofield, Terence Blanchard, Benny Golson and many more. He has worked extensively with 6-time Grammy winner Gary Burton, and longtime mentee of John Zorn.
Jeffrey Hirschberg - Film Advisor, Associate Producer
A graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Jeffrey Hirschberg is a writer, professor and founding director of the Television and Film Arts program at SUNY Buffalo State University, which he launched in 2006. Hirschberg is a winner of the WGA Screenplay Reading Series and directed the WGA's TV Pilots Resurrected program at Lincoln Center. His debut novel, COMPLETELY INCOMPLETE, arrives next year.
Anastasiia Levchenko - Ukraine Liaison
Anastasiia is a journalist basin Kyiv, Ukraine who has worked in local news prior to the full-scale invasion in 2022. She works for the BBC in the Kyiv Bureau currently and is the owner of Ballet Is dance studio.
Abby Hirschberg - Production Assistant
Abby is a rising senior in high school in Acton, MA who created and hosted the podcast Lights In The Tunnel during Covid, and is currently working on her passion project Responsible Recipes, which is an effort focusing on climate conscious cooking. She is in her 5th year on the rowing team and enjoys music, cooking and all things creative.
Current Team
Incentives
- The Story
- Wishlist
- Updates
- The Team
- Community
Mission Statement
The Story
*AS OF AUGUST 29TH, WE ARE AT 100% OF OUR INITIAL GOAL!*
Here’s What We Still Need...
Stretch Goal #1: Drone Scene Animation = $2500
Stretch Goal #2: Film Festival Expenses = $2500
Stretch Goal #3: Final Edit with Advanced Sound Design = $2000
__________________________________________
This documentary short is dedicated to the men
and women who serve in Ukraine for freedom,
and to the thousands who have been lost
in this fight. Slava Ukraini!
My great grandfather was from a town just west of Kyiv. When I traveled in March to Ukraine to meet hospital colleagues, I felt a deep connection to the place and to the people and realized more than ever - my fortunate American life. We met incredible soldiers at the hospital - standing up - to protect the culture and people of Ukraine. The minute I met Sasha, a 40-year-old Army scout trying to get back to the frontline, I knew his story needed to be told.
-Ron Hirschberg, Director
WHAT IS THIS FILM ABOUT?
Standing Up Against The Sky is a documentary about one man, Sasha, who leaves a career as principal ballet dancer to join the Ukrainian Army after the Full-Scale Russian Invasion in February 2022. Sasha struggles, following an incident when he is hunted down by a small drone - He gets the help he needs - And becomes stronger and even more resilient.
WHY ARE WE MAKING THIS FILM... AND WHY NOW?
Drone injury and anxiety are the “IED blast-injuries” of 2025. This film will highlight the 100s of 1000s of people experiencing trauma and the desperate need for best care for these signature invisible wounds. With 500 casualties a day and 70% from drones, this warfare is no longer the future, and will surely impact US troops, potentially right at home. We are making this film because it is more than a movie - It’s an opportunity to engage and build a community in solidarity for the people who Stand Up to preserve freedom, culture, and family.
WHERE ARE WE CURRENTLY IN THE PROJECT?
We have secured footage and interviews in Kyiv, Ukraine in June 2025, and post-production has just begun … We are looking to crowdfund a significant part of this process, raising $15,000, necessary for Editing, Sound Design, Mixing, Music, Transcription, and Animation. Our team is assembled including Director of Photography Lee Harrington, Documentary Film Mentor Christine O'Malley, Editor Aaron Daniel Annas, Film Advisor Jeff Hirschberg, Composer Vadim Neselovskyi, Ukraine Liaison Anastasiia Levchenko, and Production Assistant Abby Hirschberg. Film premiere is slated for Winter 2026, and we are in the process of seeking Film Festival submissions.
This documentary is just a part of the story...
Our longer run goal is to build a community around this film to mobilize action for the extraordinary needs of Ukrainian soldiers and their families in mental health, in collaboration with the great work of two partnering organizations intimately involved in a shared mission of identifying and treating current and future invisible wounds of war: Home Base Program, and Global Response Medicine.
We are thrilled for you to join us, as we build the foundation
of a great film and make an impact together!
Sasha is a Ukrainian soldier who experiences a battle with his own mental health during the Ukrainian-Russian Big War. We learn about Sasha’s pre-military career as a professional ballet dancer in the Kyiv City Ballet, his passion for teaching dance, and family. He is in Paris the day before the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24th, 2022, and hearing the news he is overcome a strong sense of service to his country. He joins the Army, becoming a scout.
On duty one day, he positions himself in a tree near the frontline and is spotted by a first-person view (FPV) drone, the cheap and overwhelming newer technology driving death and destruction in modern combat. Escaping to a trench filled with corpses, Sasha waits for the drone to stop hunting him. In time, he makes it back to his unit, but upon returning from the frontline, dread and anxiety follow him, much as the drone did. Like thousands of fellow soldiers, he is admitted to a mental health hospital for rehabilitation so he can once again capture the strength he needs to return to his unit.
Standing Up Against The Sky is a story of what it is to be pushed to the edge of sanity by modern warfare and the invisible cost of defending your country’s freedom. An artist transforms into a fighter – Can that fighter return to the grace and balance that once defined him?
Through interviews, archival footage, and footage from the battlefield to Kyiv, the film captures the deep patriotism and call to service that leads a principal dancer to leave the stage in Paris and join the frontline. The juxtaposition of Sasha - the dancer and the scout - will be demonstrated with the beauty and emotion of his performance footage versus the dehumanized, video-game-like footage of drone targeting on the battlefield.
The signature, high-pitched drone buzzing plays a central role in contrast to the music of the ballet – to some, the “lawn mower” sound may be simply annoying, yet for Ukrainian soldiers and civilians, it is spine-chilling. During the re-creation of a pivotal conflict, the audience will feel the anticipation of a chasing drone while also experiencing the resolve and self-control that Sasha feels in the moments of the hunt - and the relief of the escape.
Director Ron Hirschberg was interviewed in Psychology Today by Mitzi Purdue
on April 6th 2025 about this emerging phenomenon.
Central to the Three Act structure will be in-person interviews with Sasha and supporting characters, including his physician, his student, and psychologist-scientists from both Home Base and Kyiv. The film includes B-Roll and interviews with camera partner Lee Harrington shooting in Kyiv. Music composition by Odesa’s Vadim Neselovskyi will drive emotion towards conflict, climax, and reintegration. Film mentoring for the project is with prolific documentarian/producer Christine O’Malley.
A year ago, I got a call from a colleague at Mass General who asked to bring a group of Ukrainian doctors to Home Base to discuss veteran mental health and rehabilitation. Their visit to Boston was an exchange of best practices on treating acute wounds – literally stopping the bleeding, but it was clear that the future would bring hundreds of thousands of injured soldiers needing mental health treatment and reintegration. So, we set up a US/UA plan to tackle these Ukrainian invisible wounds, together.
Since February 2022 and the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 500,000 servicemembers have been injured, including 80,000 with amputated limbs. To best understand how we could help, we needed to know more about a new era of warfare. Drone attacks now dominate casualties, and about 70% of injuries are from small, cheap, first-person-view (FPV) drones. These are the same drones flying over a wedding ceremony or sporting event, but these drones have been transformed into killing machines - dropping grenades or hunting individual soldiers. FPV drone-related injuries have become the signature wounds akin to the Iraq War IED blast, 20 years ago.
We planned a trip to Kyiv in early March 2025, and it was more than just a “medical mission,” but one of solidarity, trust, and a shared vision with the Ukrainian people.
As a physician with a storytelling and cultural anthropology background, and as an American great-grandson of proud Ukrainians, I am making this film for an audience that needs to know about the current war’s effect on the mental health of people just like you and me. This film will shine a light on service of country, protecting art that defines resilience, and describe a new drone warfare that is forever changing the future of conflict throughout the world.
Stay up to date:
[email protected]
@deermountainpictures @standingup_dmpictures
Thank you! / дякую! dyakuyu!
Wishlist
Use the WishList to Pledge cash and Loan items - or - Make a pledge by selecting an Incentive directly.
3-D Animation Segment for Film
Costs $750
This will be an impactful 2-4min segment of the film that looks back at a key conflict: A small drone hunts the main character who survives.
Footage Editing
Costs $8,000
This cost is for the editing of the existing footage for the documentary short. The short is estimate to be between 30 and 39 minutes long.
Sound Design
Costs $1,000
The sound of drones can be trigger for anxiety and stress. To do this appropr while remaining artistic is a creative challenge.
Ukraine Language Transcription - Translation
Costs $750
When people speak, in-person translation is needed for general content, however there is KEY need for work-for-word exact transcription.
Music: Arrangement-Edit
Costs $1,250
Prof Vadim Neselovskyi, from Odesa, Ukraine - upcoming album post-2022 invasion. Will be used for this doc - Need for sound-edit-arrangement
Marketing for Film / Impact Campaign
Costs $500
The community foundation for awareness of current issues in mental health and recovery in Ukraine is directly related to the film's impact.
Festival Fees
Costs $1,250
We are looking to premiere in FEB 2026. The festival fees add up and we want to share widely to several groups and audiences.
Sound Mixing
Costs $750
Narration, Interviews, Music, Effects...etc. for pro audio to ensure that sound complements beauty - and not-so-beauty of conflict and war.
Colorist for Color correction/grading
Costs $750
Footage from Kyiv trips, past ballet and other archival video and photos and interviews come together in edit with need for smooth pro color
Cash Pledge
Costs $0
Direct link:
Share this update!
About This Team
Ron Hirschberg - Director, Producer
Ron Hirschberg is a physician in neurological and polytrauma rehabilitation, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and currently Medical Director of Brain Health at the Home Base Program. An advocate for arts in medicine, he founded the Arts and Neuroscience division at ACRM.org and has collaborated with renowned musicians and neuroscientists. He co-founded the podcast Above The Basement in 2016 and is host and producer of Home Base Nation since 2019 on mental health and military service. A lifelong musician, Ron continues to perform and write music.
Aaron Daniel Annas - Editor, Associate Producer
Currently Professor of Film at Catawba College, AD started his professional career as a stage performer, and after spending years on the stage, became interested in the art of storytelling through film and television. He received his MFA in Independent Film and Digital Imaging from Governors State University. AD is known for There's No Such Thing As Ghosts, Maelstrom, and Inside World War II.
Christine O’Malley - Film Advisor
Christine O'Malley has created more than 20 documentaries for film and television as a writer and producer. O'Malley served as associate producer on the Academy-Award nominated documentary film Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2004). She is known for If You Build It, Wordplay, and Miss Americana: The Taylor Swift Story.
Andrea Murphy Leiner - Associate Producer
Andrea Murphy Leiner is Deputy Director of Global Response Medicine, a nonprofit delivering medical care and training in conflict zones, and a Nurse Practitioner. Andrea began her career at Bad Boy Records as a publicist for the label’s artists, and then General Manager of a boutique production company that produced over 100 music videos for artists including Kanye West, LL Cool J, Nas, Lil' Kim, and others. Her producing credits include several documentary features and series.
Lee Harrington - Director of Photography
Lee Harrington is a communications professional with a Bachelor of Science focused in Audio & Media Technology from The New England Institute of Art. Harrington has produced countless stories for live television (ABC Boston) and has developed an extensive understanding of working alone in remote locations while doing what he loves - hearing people's stories.
Vadim Neselovskyi - Music Composition
Vadim Neselovskyi is a Ukrainian pianist and composer based in Boston. He currently serves as a professor of jazz piano at the Berklee College of Music. He has collaborated and toured with Herbie Hancock, Chaka Khan, John Scofield, Terence Blanchard, Benny Golson and many more. He has worked extensively with 6-time Grammy winner Gary Burton, and longtime mentee of John Zorn.
Jeffrey Hirschberg - Film Advisor, Associate Producer
A graduate of Syracuse University's Newhouse School, Jeffrey Hirschberg is a writer, professor and founding director of the Television and Film Arts program at SUNY Buffalo State University, which he launched in 2006. Hirschberg is a winner of the WGA Screenplay Reading Series and directed the WGA's TV Pilots Resurrected program at Lincoln Center. His debut novel, COMPLETELY INCOMPLETE, arrives next year.
Anastasiia Levchenko - Ukraine Liaison
Anastasiia is a journalist basin Kyiv, Ukraine who has worked in local news prior to the full-scale invasion in 2022. She works for the BBC in the Kyiv Bureau currently and is the owner of Ballet Is dance studio.
Abby Hirschberg - Production Assistant
Abby is a rising senior in high school in Acton, MA who created and hosted the podcast Lights In The Tunnel during Covid, and is currently working on her passion project Responsible Recipes, which is an effort focusing on climate conscious cooking. She is in her 5th year on the rowing team and enjoys music, cooking and all things creative.