{"id":5438,"date":"2026-08-17T15:36:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:36:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5438"},"modified":"2026-08-17T15:36:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T15:36:29","slug":"sean-penn-to-exec-produce-james-marcus-haneys-black-sunflowers-ukraine-war-doc-exclusive-first-look","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5438","title":{"rendered":"Sean Penn to Exec Produce James Marcus Haney\u2019s \u2018Black Sunflowers\u2019 Ukraine War Doc (Exclusive First Look)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n\tJames Marcus Haney made his name as a filmmaker sneaking into Coachella, Glastonbury and other top music festivals by posing as press to get exclusive footage of pop stars and their performances.<\/p>\n

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\n\tThat need to gate crash marquee festivals with his camera was captured in his 2014 feature documentary No Cameras Allowed.<\/em> Now Haney is headed to the Toronto Film Festival with Black Sunflowers,<\/em> a feature documentary about Ukrainian youth coming of age amid martial law as they move between underground raves and car racing on the home front and the brutal front lines of war against Russia.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd the American filmmaker has Sean Penn on board to executive produce, The Hollywood Reporter <\/em>has confirmed. Hollywood actor and activist Penn has put his name and face on the Ukrainian conflict before, especially in 2023 when he chronicled Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine on the ground in Kyiv with Superpower<\/em>. Co-directed with Aaron Kaufman, that war doc included interviews with President Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe first images for Black Sunflowers<\/em>, which will have a Sept. 11 world premiere in Toronto, has young Ukrainians facing tragedy and duty as soldiers on the front lines, while they find distraction on concert dance floors, in relationships or bonding at a local watering hole.<\/p>\n

\n\tWorking with a Ukrainian film crew, Haney captures an army truck driver who races his car down city streets back home; a young amputee soldier finding freedom on a high energy rave dance floor, despite a blade\u00a0prosthesis; a young woman turning from nature photography to war photography amid the ruins of war; and still another young woman being trained to shoot a rifle as a generation of youth face compulsory military service.<\/p>\n

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\n\tHaney, in a director\u2019s statement on the TIFF website, recalls first arriving in Ukraine as war reshaped everyday life: \u201cI was surprised to see how much normal life carried on, despite the war. I couldn\u2019t help but think that mainstream media is missing half of the story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHaney\u2019s film joins a slew of other Ukraine war documentaries, including Roman Liubyi and Volodymyr Tykhyy\u2019s Time Machine Maidan, which bowed at Sheffield, Oscar-winning filmmaker\u00a0Mstyslav Chernov\u2018s new film,\u00a02000 Meters to Andriivka<\/em>, and Militantropos<\/em>, from co-directors Alina Gorlova, Yelizaveta Smith and Simon Mozgovyi. <\/p>\n

\nBlack Sunflowers<\/em> is produced by Pedram Rezaee, Mikayla Jean Miller, Yevhenii Zdorovylo, Samy Mosher, Eric Maldin, Volodymyr Yatsenko and Anna Yatsenko.<\/p>\n

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No Cameras Allowed filmmaker James Marcus Haney captures a generation caught between youth and duty, life and death, during war with Russia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5437,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2646,657,269],"class_list":["post-5438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting","tag-tiff","tag-toronto-film-festival","tag-ukraine"],"yoast_head":"\nSean Penn to Exec Produce James Marcus Haney\u2019s \u2018Black Sunflowers\u2019 Ukraine War Doc (Exclusive First Look) - US Property Moves<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uspropertymoves.com\/?p=5438\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sean Penn to Exec Produce James Marcus Haney\u2019s \u2018Black Sunflowers\u2019 Ukraine War Doc (Exclusive First Look) - 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