I do not need to describe to you the atrocities that Putin’s war on Ukraine has caused. You have seen this in the media. But what you may not have seen is a deeply personal testimonial from a middle-aged woman surviving the front lines, outside of social media filters and breathless declarations from western news. Sharing Olena Astasieva's story is paramount to me at this moment. Since the first moment I read her powerful accounts, I have been incredibly moved by her words: the frankness, the unfiltered processing of emotion, and most of all, how she was able to make audiences understand that the sudden war in Ukraine was happening to people just like you and me. People who, when they hear bombs falling outside their windows, turn to google to find out what they are supposed to do. I was deeply honored to be invited to perform her words in NYC several times last year (as an actor) as part of theatre benefit performances to raise funds for Ukraine. I couldn’t seem to shake the power of her testimonials, and so I reached out to Olena to introduce myself and share some of the personal responses and reactions that I received after performing her piece each night in NYC. Many of these responses were from Ukrainians, but many were from New Yorkers who were incredibly moved by this new understanding of what was actually happening in Ukraine. Olena and I began a long conversation back and forth (thank you, Google Translate!) where I learned even more from her. In our conversations, I asked her one day ‘What do you need? What can I do for you? For your family? Please let me know’ and her response: ‘Right now, the thing that I need the most is for Dictionary of Emotions to be heard by as many people as possible in the United States and beyond. I would like Americans and Europeans to know the truth first hand. The truth about Russia’s aggression, and the truth of the Ukrainian experience.’ Within two weeks, I had begun production on the short film Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War.

Leah Loftin is an American filmmaker and actor whose work was named “fearless” by the NEW YORK TIMES. She was recently named an “emerging director to discover” by SHOOT Magazine as part of their New Directors Showcase, and her films have premiered at the OSCAR-qualifying DOC NYC Festival, the BAFTA-qualifying Aesthetica Film Festival (UK), FLICKERS’ Rhode Island and Shorts on Tap (London), and Anthology Film Archives (NYC), winning awards at film festivals in Berlin, Toronto, Austin, and Bucharest. Loftin's experimental film work was a recent finalist for the 2022 Aesthetica Art Prize. With a deep background working in avant-garde theatre, Loftin was formally trained with the Moscow Art Theatre at MXAT and has performed theatrically Off-Broadway and regionally throughout the US, Canada, and Eastern Europe. Also a working actor in film and television, she recently guest starred on NBC’s The Blacklist and New Amsterdam, and will appear next in the limited series The Green Veil, starring John Leguizamo.