TODAY: Bette’s Happy Hour with Zarina Zabrisky, with Monique Camarra Co-Hosting
War correspondent, author, filmmaker Zarina Zabrisky is back with us reporting on an explosive new UN report confirming Russian war crimes in Kherson. Plus, updates on her film: Kherson: Human Safari
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***This event begins in an hour.***
Bette members: Please join Bette’s Happy Hour today, Tuesday June 3 at noon Pacific with Zarina Zabrisky reporting on two new reports from the UN and Human Rights Watch. The UN report was released on Wednesday and Human Rights Watch report came out today. The reports confirm her reporting that Russians hunting civilians in Kherson with drones are war crimes. She will also update us on her film Kherson: Human Safari, and we’ll watch the final version of the film trailer.
A man running with a Ukrainian flag during a protest in the first days of occupation in Kherson (March 2022). Photo credit: Oleskandr Kornyakov.
We will be joined by Monique Camarra of EuroFile, who will be co-hosting the event with me today.
Here is the press release that was sent to global media on Thursday about Zabrisky’s film and the UN report:
For Immediate Release: May 29, 2025
In a Terrifying New Era of Drone Warfare, the
New Documentary, Kherson: Human Safari,
Is a Searing Convergence of Art and Frontline Journalism
From U.S. War Correspondent Embedded in Ukraine’s Most Dangerous City
Private Screening Link for Members of the Press Available on June 3, 2025
In breaking news, a United Nations commission determined that Russia’s systematic drone attacks on the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson constitute crimes against humanity and war crimes. War correspondent and author Zarina Zabrisky, the first journalist to break the story about the “human safari” in Kherson, has documented these atrocities and more in Kherson: Human Safari—a groundbreaking blend of visual poetry and frontline reportage. See the film's trailer on YouTube:
Both a record of atrocity and an artwork of resistance, Zabrisky’s 80-minute documentary traces the full three-year arc of Kherson’s brutal wartime history. Each chapter of Kherson’s modern tragedy—Invasion, Occupation, Liberation, Flood, Human Safari—is framed by a choreographed modern dance, filmed during shelling. Every step is defiance. Every movement is a memory held in the body. The film’s six-part cinematic narrative also combines exclusive footage, archival materials, interviews with survivors, and intercepted videos of Russian drone operators.
From 2023 to 2025, Zabrisky documented the survival and resistance of Kherson. Living next to the Dnipro River, she was the only foreign journalist based in Kherson for a year and a half. “This is no longer a war zone,” says Zabrisky. “It’s a laboratory of fear. Kherson is the Kremlin’s testing ground for future warfare—and the world must see it.”The film begins in March 2022 with the fall of Kherson and captures the courage of civilians who resisted the regime of torture and repression, risking their lives to defy Russian control. Kherson: Human Safari follows the city’s euphoric liberation in November 2022, exposing what Russian troops left behind: looted homes and museums, mass graves, mined roads, and bombed infrastructure.
Then came environmental devastation: the deliberate destruction of the Dnipro’s Nova Kakhovka dam in June 2023 flooded villages and triggered a slow-motion ecocide. But Kherson’s story did not end with liberation or flood. It has now entered its most sinister chapter: the human safari. Russian forces began deploying drones to stalk residents, dropping grenades and setting fire to homes, hunting people in open view. Daily life—shopping, gardening, walking—became deadly.
When the body becomes a witness, and every movement a form of survival.
Produced under missile attacks and drone hunts, the film merges war reporting with modern dance, archival testimony, and experimental form. Embroidery, dance, and music—symbols of Ukrainian identity—become acts of survival. A dancer, the soul of the film, never stops soaring as drones are targeting the crew from the skies. A 16-year-old girl sings through the scream of the air raid siren. A yoga studio becomes a torture chamber—and a performance space. The original score was composed by a Khersonian musician who joined the resistance during the occupation. The film’s cinematographer had his home seized and looted by Russian forces.
The film reframes war not as spectacle, but as a personal, intimate battle for survival. Kherson: Human Safari tells that story in movement, color, and sound.
Zabrisky - Director
An award-winning author of five books, Zarina Zabrisky is a U.S. journalist reporting from the frontlines in Ukraine as a war correspondent for Byline Times (UK). She has contributed to BBC News, CBC Radio, Voice of America, TVP World, The Sunday Post, Times of India, and more. In 2023, she co-produced and starred in the award-winning documentary Under the Deadly Skies, exposing Russian war crimes. Her literary work has appeared in The Paris Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, Longreads, Guernica, Rumpus, and other publications, earning honors such as the 2013 Acker Award. She is a member of Pen America. Born in the USSR and having spent most of her life in San Francisco, she moved to Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion.
Oleksandr Andrushchenko - Director of Photography
Oleksandr Andrushchenko is a distinguished Ukrainian photojournalist with over 30 years of experience and a staff photojournalist at Vgoru.Kherson. A founder and director of the Kherson School of Photography, he has played a key role in mentoring generations of photographers in southern Ukraine. Andrushchenko documented the Russian occupation from inside the occupied city, continuing his work under extreme conditions.
Artem Tsynskyi - Editor
Artem Tsynskyi is a Ukrainian editor and filmmaker, working as both a news editor and film editor for Suspilne Odesa and previously for the Ukrainian Information Service, one of the country’s leading online platforms. Tsynskyi’s documentary work includes widely viewed projects such as Odesa Is Not a Russian City, Our People, Warriors of the Three Elements, By Will and Iron, and Used Until… The Story of Odesa’s Twin Estuaries.
Jason N. Parkinson - Color Grading & Upscaling
Jason N. Parkinson is a UK-based video journalist with 20 years of experience covering the rise of the far right, the refugee crisis, and conflict in 16 countries, including five assignments in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, a Rory Peck Award finalist for coverage of the Egyptian Revolution and London Riots, and runner-up for Getty Images EMEA News Videographer of the Year 2024.
Yegor Irodov - Sound Engineer
Ukrainian composer and sound designer Yegor Irodov has over 20 years of experience in film and television, with more than 150 credits and 2,000 hours of screen time. Head of Sound at Star Media Group, Irodov is also a juror for the International Emmy Awards, a voting member of the Canadian Academy of Cinema & Television, and a respected figure in international film and music communities.
Heidi Siegmund Cuda - Executive Producer
Heidi Siegmund Cuda is an Emmy Award-winning investigative reporter, bestselling author, and columnist for Byline Supplement. She is co-host of the RADICALIZED Truth Survives podcast, producer/director of award-winning documentaries, and her Bette Dangerous Substack is read in 90 countries.
Oksana Taranenko - Executive Producer
Oksana Taranenko is an award-winning Ukrainian stage and screen director. She has created large-scale productions at major Ukrainian opera houses and has worked extensively as a director and producer for national television and film studios.
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For more information, photos, or to schedule an interview, please contact Green Galactic’s Lynn Tejada at lynn@greengalactic.com.
Thank you to all the Bette and RadPod members who supported Zabrisky on her journey to finish the film. By unfailingly reporting on the atrocities occurring in Kherson, the world is forced to pay attention.
Look forward to seeing many of you on today.
If you’re not yet a member of Bette Dangerous, please take advantage of my Birthday Weekend Special, which I extended for another 24 hours to those who wish to join us today. Your memberships support this work, and help me support other important work.
Image courtesy Zarina Zabrisky
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