2018 Digital Storytelling Contest, Innovative Storytelling, 3rd prize

There once lived...

An interactive animated web-documentary to help raise awareness on the matter of homelessness in Russia and bring people to understanding and empathizing with the homeless people.

This is a story of giving back the names to homeless people otherwise unknown and forgotten. We mostly just pass by when seeing homeless people in the street, paying no attention to them on purpose or subconsciously. For many, such a person - a person without a name - is a phantom unable to love, fight for life or make decisions. A person not worthy of compassion or respect. But Lilya, Roma, Esma, Raisa, and Zhenya - they loved, they fought, they suffered. They were human beings. And so we must remember them.

All the characters in the project are based on the recollections and memories of the volunteers of the Friends on the Street Foundation.

Production team

    Illustrator: Polya Plavinskaya
    Animator: Viktoriya Spiryagina
    Text: Alexandra Koksharova
    Sound: Alexander Khokhlov 
    Editor: Natalia Morozova
    Corrector: Tamara Eidelman 
    Translation/adaptation: Alexandra Balchugova
    Translation/adaptation: Joyce Kuaovi
    Design: Aksana Zinchenko 
    Video: Philip Zadorozhny 
    Web development: Igor Sheko
    Producer: Galina Mosalova 
    Project manager: Sergey Karpov