Craig Mazin, creator of HBO series Chernobyl, at the 16th YES Annual Meeting

Craig Mazin, creator of the HBO series Chernobyl, believes that Ukraine should more actively develop and support its own historic cinema. According to Mazin, it is not Americans like him but Ukrainians themselves who should be telling the stories, requiring Ukrainian society to take a greater interest in its own arts as a means of expression. By doing this, he argued, Ukraine can confront its own history from the 20th century from a clear and transparent point of view. Regarding happiness, Mazin stated that the essence is found in people’s ability to be self-critical and to acknowledge their own mistakes. He believes that this was absent on a societal level in Russia and this led to the situation when local media heavily criticize Chernobyl.