The Tamesis
War photographer Anastasia Taylor-Lind and director Paolina Stefani discuss “You Think This Can’t Happen to You,” a short film about Anastasia’s coverage of the war in Ukraine.
The film pays tribute to intimacy and empathy amid violence through the frontline friendship between Anastasia and Ukrainian writer Alisa Sopova. It crosses multiple layers of authorship and distance to become a story about women witnessing war, forging friendships under fire, and what it means to tell the stories of those who tell them.
From Anastasia’s first-hand experiences to Paulina’s attempts to tell Anastasia and Alisa’s story, the group reflected on women’s support of each other in acts of war reporting and witnessing.
Moderated by filmmaker and producer Alice Aedy, the conversation deepened through a shared history of collaboration and the three women’s lineage of mentorship that continues to support each other on their storytelling journeys.
About Anastasia Taylor-Lind
Anastasia Taylor-Lind is a British/Swedish photojournalist and poet.
For the past ten years, Anastasia has been working with Alisa Sopova, a journalist and anthropologist from the city of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. In 2023, she won the Canon Female Photojournalist Award for her long-term reporting in eastern Ukraine, and more than 100,000 people visited her exhibition “Ukraine: Photos from the Front” at the Imperial War Museum.
Anastasia is a National Geographic Society Explorer, TED Fellow, and a 2016 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University. her first book Maidan – Portrait of the Black Square, An article on the 2014 Ukrainian revolution was published in the same year. her first collection of poetry a language Published 2022 by Smith|Doorstop.
Anastasia holds an MA in photojournalism and poetry.
About Alice Eadie
Alice Aedy is an award-winning documentary filmmaker and activist. Alice is co-founder and CEO of Earthrise, an impact-driven climate media company. Drawing on years of experience telling the most important human stories, Earthrise harnesses the power of innovative multimedia storytelling to transform climate, culture and consciousness. In 2023, Alice was named to Forbes’ list of 30 social influencers under 30.
About Paulina Stefani
Paolina Stefani is a London-based director and video editor working on poetry and film storytelling. Her work takes an intersectional approach, focusing specifically on women’s stories and exploring language, identity, gender, art, music and social justice, often interweaving intimate narratives with broader political and cultural themes.
