{"id":543066,"date":"2026-05-16T23:37:59","date_gmt":"2026-05-16T20:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/reform.news\/?p=543066"},"modified":"2026-05-17T07:10:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T04:10:49","slug":"belarusian-documentary-filmmaker-maksim-shved-planned-to-present-a-project-about-johnny-cosmic-in-montenegro-here-is-what-the-film-is-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/belarusian-documentary-filmmaker-maksim-shved-planned-to-present-a-project-about-johnny-cosmic-in-montenegro-here-is-what-the-film-is-about","title":{"rendered":"Belarusian Documentary Filmmaker Maksim Shved Planned to Present a Project About Johnny Cosmic in Montenegro. Here Is What the Film Is About"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This week, screenings of works by documentary filmmaker Maksim Shved were supposed to take place in Budva. However, due to what was described as overcaution by Ryanair, which did not accept<\/a> the Polish travel document of the Belarusian filmmaker, the cultural event was canceled, and the director had to abandon his trip to Montenegro.<\/p>\n

The incident prompted Reform.news to learn more about the new project by the author of \u201cPure Art,\u201d which is currently in production.<\/p>\n

Maksim Shved<\/b> is now working on a documentary film about Johnny Cosmic<\/b> (Ivan Smaliar<\/b>), a Belarusian photographer whose name \u201cmade waves\u201d<\/a> earlier this year thanks to an exhibition in Warsaw. The event was organized by the Belarusian cultural community as a birthday gift for the artist. Everything about this story is captivating: a secret chat with almost 200 participants, 2,000 photographs collected by friends to showcase Johnny\u2019s work, and the fact that he entered photography almost like Don Quixote.<\/p>\n

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Maksim Shved at the presentation of the future film in Warsaw. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Background<\/h3>\n

Johnny Cosmic\u2019s method can be described as a pilgrimage into photography as presence. For years in Minsk, the artist took photographs of people at parties only to later give the pictures to them absolutely free of charge. This practice continued in exile, in Warsaw, where he relocated. Calling him Don Quixote refers not to \u201cfighting windmills,\u201d but rather to a certain idealism \u2014 the author stubbornly maintains that photography is communication, not craft.<\/p>\n

\u201cA strange guy appeared on the streets and at parties, approaching you with a photograph and handing it over \u2014 and it was you in the picture. (And you don\u2019t even remember being photographed),\u201d<\/i> his friends say about him. \u201cAt first it felt unsettling: he wanted nothing in return (which felt creepy), not everyone liked themselves in the photos, but over time, as Belarusians do, people got used to it. Vanya became an inseparable part of the entire cultural and party scene; people began recognizing him and learning to love themselves in his pictures.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

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Johnny Cosmic during the party held in his honor. February 2026, Warsaw. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The strange \u2014 though perhaps inevitable \u2014 idea came to Johnny\u2019s friends precisely in exile: to congratulate Cosmic on his birthday in a grand way by organizing an exhibition of his work.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought: what if we gathered all those photographs we carried across the border or received in our new homes and created a collective exhibition curated by ourselves? Because Vanya had been creating an archive of Belarusian happiness all these years, and all we had to do was assemble it,\u201d<\/i> the project\u2019s organizers recall.<\/p>\n

The result became a major event. A huge secret chat involving nearly 200 people, two Warsaw venues serving as celebration spaces, buymeacoffee links to help organize everything properly, celebrity guests, curatorial work \u2014 and finally an exhibition that astonished not only the main \u201chero of the occasion,\u201d but inspired the Belarusian community on both sides of the border.<\/p>\n

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Johnny Cosmic during the opening of the exhibition held in his honor. February 2026, Warsaw. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All Belarusian independent media wrote about how Belarusians had united to organize an event \u201cfor one photographer\u201d that effectively grew into a small festival. The emotions and excitement of Vanya himself, captured in photographs and videos, proved so powerful that everyone wanted to join the celebration \u2014 there was so much kindness and joy in the event that it hit people hard.<\/p>\n

No wonder Maksim Shved himself was drawn into the story, especially since he had directly contributed to organizing the surprise. The author of the film \u201cRoute Rebuilt\u201d shot a congratulatory video from friends that was shown during the celebration.<\/p>\n

After that, he could no longer step away from the story.<\/p>\n

So What About the New Film?<\/strong><\/h3>\n

A Reform.news columnist managed to watch a rough cut serving as the foundation for the future documentary. Maksim Shved\u2019s film is titled \u201cThe Johnny Cosmic Effect,\u201d and the filmmaker captured all the key moments of the \u201chappiness party\u201d organized for Ivan Smaliar \u2014 and much more.<\/p>\n

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Maksim Shved at the presentation of the future film in Warsaw. The new project is titled \u201cThe Johnny Cosmic Effect.\u201d Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Part of the project consists of stories from friends and acquaintances about the Johnny phenomenon. But the film truly comes alive when the director begins capturing real action \u2014 the live reactions of the protagonist and those around him \u2014 placing himself at the center and in the flow of the event itself.<\/p>\n

Maksim Shved calls his cinema \u201cfractal documentary filmmaking,\u201d meaning it multiplies into several realities: cinema as a point of connection and transformation, and cinema as witness to what is happening. The director filmed preparations for the birthday, the culmination itself, and what will follow afterward \u2014 the camera acts both as an observational tool and as a performer in its own right.<\/p>\n

In this context, it is worth recalling Shved\u2019s famous work \u201cPure Art,\u201d in which artist Zachar Kudzin<\/b> painted in public urban spaces, provoking reactions from passersby while Shved\u2019s camera documented it all. \u201cThe Johnny Cosmic Effect\u201d allows Johnny himself to provoke his own space of culture and meaning.<\/p>\n

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Johnny distributes his photographs. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is also important to pay attention to the project\u2019s title \u2014 \u201cThe Johnny Cosmic Effect.\u201d The film does not follow the traditional path of an artist portrait documentary; instead, it attempts to identify or even create a phenomenon. Johnny has spent ten years doing something for others, and finally the community responded with an explosion of gratitude and attention. What happens next? Will it collapse? Dissolve? Or lead to a new point of energetic explosion?<\/p>\n

One observation: while watching the footage, you catch yourself asking, \u201cWhy Ivan specifically?\u201d and \u201cWill this interest anyone besides Belarusians?\u201d But after a while you realize that in the project\u2019s concept, eccentric Johnny is not a typical \u201cstory of a popular Belarusian artist.\u201d Johnny represents one of us \u2014 one of the \u201cbeaten-down\u201d and \u201cunrecognized pilots\u201d \u2014 and each of us wants to be loved and seen.<\/p>\n

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During the presentation of the future film in Warsaw. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWhat else is the Johnny Cosmic Effect capable of? How will it affect Vanya himself and all of us? Is this an exclusively Belarusian phenomenon or a universal story? How will Vanya use the new capital he won in the karmic lottery? We will spend the whole year looking for answers \u2014 until Vanya\u2019s next birthday,\u201d<\/i> the film crew says about the project, whose shape is still changing in real time.<\/p>\n

The team describes the current stage as development. In addition to Maksim Shved, the group includes professional filmmakers preparing pitch projects for foundations and festivals while continuing to \u201cfollow, film and edit Vanya\u2019s new adventures and our own alongside him.\u201d<\/i> Another presentation of the film was supposed to take place in Budva, and even the fact that it was canceled has now become part of the project. As has this text itself, which may or may not influence the film and support for it.<\/p>\n

In a project like this, the community becomes another protagonist. On the Gronka<\/a> website, the filmmakers have launched a special fundraiser aimed at involving the community in the film. People can support the project in many ways: by donating a certain amount, one can receive a cozy postcard from Johnny or even order a photo session from him.<\/p>\n

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The community is one of the protagonists of the project. The creators therefore hope for support in making the film. Photo: Ruslan Seradziuk.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Maksim Shved also speaks about Ivan Smaliar\u2019s archives, which were gifted to him, and says this material may also influence the future direction of the film.<\/p>\n

Asked whether he is afraid of becoming the protagonist of a documentary, Johnny Cosmic replies that he is not, because the experience strongly motivates him. He already intends to publish his own photo book by his next birthday.<\/p>\n

Finally, it is interesting to reflect on the subject matter of the photographer\u2019s work: will his method as an artist change? His circle of inspiration? If previously most of his subjects came from the Belarusian creative class community, then who will come next? The space of photography is limitless, and it too offers vast possibilities.<\/p>\n

You can support the project here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Reform.news cultural news<\/a> on Telegram<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, screenings of works by documentary filmmaker Maksim Shved were supposed to take place in Budva. However, due to what was described as overcaution by Ryanair, which did not accept the Polish travel document of the Belarusian filmmaker, the cultural event was canceled, and the director had to abandon his trip to Montenegro. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":543065,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sharing_image":{"poster":"https:\/\/reform.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/6a093fccd78c9.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"template":"691142dd","mode":"auto"},"_sharing_image_fieldset":{"dTVKfmI95PYT":"Belarusian Documentary Filmmaker Maksim Shved Planned to Present a Project About Johnny Cosmic in Montenegro. Here Is What the Film Is About"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[142375,142338],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-543066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","category-news"],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543066\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reform.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}