director of the film ‘Traces’
Alisa Kovalenko is a Ukrainian award-winning documentary director, based in Kyiv. She studied at the National University of Cinema in Kyiv and the Wajda School in Warsaw. Her films Alisa in Warland (IDFA 2015) and Home Games (Sheffield Doc/Fest 2018) won multiple awards. We Will Not Fade Away, a teenage adventure documentary set in war-torn Donbas, premiered at the Berlinale 2023, won 20 awards and was named Best Ukrainian Documentary 2023 by the Ukrainian Film Academy. After Russia’s invasion, she volunteered to fight on the front line before returning to filmmaking with a personal documentary My Dear Theo (CPH:DOX 2025). A former captive and survivor of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV), Kovalenko is a member of SEMA Ukraine and an active human rights advocate. Her personal experience and human rights activism led her to work on the documentary film Traces.
Selected filmography: MY DEAR THEO (2025), WE WILL NOT FADE AWAY (2023), HOME GAMES (2018), ALISA IN WARLAND (2015)
