Valeriya is a Ukrainian filmmaker based in Wellington. She gained her first experience in photography and journalism covering the ongoing war with Russia for Ukraine’s English language newspaper KyivPost. Later she acquired hands-on experience in filmmaking during her studies at New York University Abu Dhabi as she started directing her own short documentaries and assisting film producers in New York.

Valeriya also served as a film tutor at NYU Abu Dhabi for courses with regional seminar trips, coordinating students and ensure their effective collaboration with local artists on short documentaries and animation projects. Her creative interest lies in the intersection of photography, writing and documentary based projects that reveal personal narratives and complicate official stories with fixed perspectives. Valeriya has directed short documentaries and video installations, and worked as a cinematographer on more than a dozen narrative and documentary shorts.

In 2020, Valeriya completed her MFA in Film at Victoria University of Wellington.