Barber’s documentary work in Ukraine hair-raising experience

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This article was published 04/04/2024 (783 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg barber Jeremy Regan didn’t cut much hair when he was in Ukraine, but he did style a documentary.

Regan, founder of the Broadway barbershop Hunter and Gunn, was in the eastern European country last week conducting interviews for an upcoming documentary film.

It’s the haircut equivalent of food-based shows like Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations or Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy.

As part of it, Regan spoke to fellow barbers, but also politicians, soldiers and everyone in between to tell their stories and get a feeling for the country, its culture and the war it is fighting since Russia invaded more than two years ago.

“The idea has been sitting there for eight years,” Regan said Thursday.

“We’ll be going elsewhere, but the first stop was Ukraine. I picked it because my great-grandfather moved from there to Manitoba in 1913.”

Regan said one of the people he spoke with was Igor Novikov, who was formerly in charge of U.S. affairs for Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Novikov was in the room when then-president Donald Trump called Zelenskyy to request an investigation of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, which later sparked Trump impeachment trials.

Back in 2017, Regan was part of a pilot created by Winnipeg’s Farpoint Films broadcast on MTS TV. It showed him talking to barbers and customers in Neepawa and Brandon. The hope at the time was the pilot would be a launchpad to another project with Regan travelling the world.

When completed, the film will be shown on Super Channel and Prime Video.

“The next one will probably be a lighter one — we will go to Rotterdam (Netherlands),” he said. “Then we’re looking at going to northern Canada where there is Indigenous hair. We’ve also talked about going to Jamaica with Rastafarian hair. Ukraine is just one story of three or of four.”

While Regan is a barber by profession, when in Ukraine, he only pulled out his scissors once.

“It was for a soldier in a bunker — that’s the only time I used my scissors,” Regan said.

While there was little hair cut by him, there were hair-raising experiences.

“When I spoke to Novikov there was constant background noise of warnings about bombs being launched or drones,” Regan said. “It was one of the busiest weeks for bombs being launched during the entire war. It was a very active time. We were in the basement of hotels and in the subways in Kyiv.

“There were 82 in the air at one time at one point.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca