Although we sincerely commemorate the "Baltic Road" every year, often our understanding of this historical event is limited only to what and how it happened here in Lithuania. In order not to get stuck in the illusion that we Lithuanians stood alone on the "Baltic Road", the International Vilnius Documentary Film Festival (VDFF) presents the program "Baltic Roads" this year. It unites six films created by film artists from all three Baltic countries. The organizers of the festival invite you to watch all the films in the program for free.
"These Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian filmmakers allow us to hear different testimonies of the political transformations that took place in the second half of the 9s. Their work invites you to walk the paths of freedom anxiously again, to see the cultural, social and political landscape of the Renaissance era of the Baltic States. In the "Baltic Roads" program, films belonging to history come to life. With them, history itself comes to life," says film researcher Anna Mikonis-Railienė. Together with her colleague Renata Šukaityta, she proposed to the VDFF organizers the idea of undertaking a program dedicated to the 2th anniversary of the "Baltic Road".
The directors of the three countries interpret the events of the same Renaissance in different ways.
"This is not a film about the event itself. This is a poem about a feeling that united thousands of people. The most important thing was to capture their emotion and state. The feeling of victory and love was overwhelming. Now we understand that our film and "Baltic Road" itself is like a minute of silence that was once forbidden for those who did not get a brighter tomorrow. I wonder how the film will sound 30 years from now, whether it will be possible to convey that feeling, that state," says film director Arūnas Matelis.
One of his first films "Baltic Road" (1990), created together with another famous Lithuanian documentarian A. Stonis, represents the Lithuanian line of the festival program. Another Lithuanian story will be shown in "Baltic Roads" - the poetic etude "The 23rd of August" (1989) co-directed by Juoz Matonis and Romuald Damulis. After 30 years of oblivion in the archive, the second premiere of this film will take place this year.
Latvia will be represented at the festival by the small everyday drama "Skersgatvis" (Ivars Seleckis, 1989) and the politically sharpened outline "Crossroads" (Juris Podnieks, 1990). For Estonia, there is the journalistically light chronicle "Baltic Road" (Peeter Simm, 1989) and "Year of the Dragon" (Andres Soot, 1988), full of ironic fragments of everyday life.
The audience will be able to see the film "Skersgatvis" by the Latvian director I. Seleckis already on August 23. – at the preliminary screening of the VDFF at the "Skalvija" cinema center. The director followed the life of the residents of a street in the suburbs of Riga for almost a year. This exciting story was such a great success that the filmed street was included in Latvian tourist guides.
In addition to "Baltic Roads", VDFF will present four more film programs this year. The main program dedicated to the search for today's most interesting documentarians will be complemented by "Portraits of Jonas Mekos", a retrospective of the work of the legendary Latvian film director Herz Franks and a competition program of films by students of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (LMTA) and the School of Film and Television (FAMU) of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. . The special screening "George: The Story of Jurgis Mačiūnas and Fluxus" is also on the festival calendar.
After opening with an advance screening on August 23, VDFF will return to cinemas again in the fall: September 19-29.
More at www.vdff.lt.
VDFF is the oldest international documentary film festival in the Baltic States. This year the festival will be held for the 16th time.
