Baltic Sea Forum 2012/ 3

Second and last day of the pitching forum in Riga, sunday, sunshine and good atmosphere from the very beginning where ”Babushki, Go, Go!” was the first project to be presented. Young director Maria Miro and producer Georgy Molodtsov showed a clip with the folk group Buranovskie Babushki, famous for their participation in the Eurovision Song Contest, where they came in as second. The Russians had made a documentary for Russian television and plan to use this material to make a documentary for an international audience including, what happened after the contest for the wonderful old grannies, who sing in udmurt  language.

Equally light in its approach was the Polish ”Maximum Pleasure” by Katarzina Trzaska, also about old women, this time with a focus on what they purchase of devices that can help their daily lives become easier – robot vacuum cleaners, confortable armchairs, you name it, they (the companies that sell the stuff in private homes through demonstrations) have it. As the Russian Babushki film, from the reactions from the panel, it seems to be a perfect buy for television.

Two Latvian projects were pitched. ”Invisible City” by opera and film director Viestur Kairish, supported by experienced producer Guntis Trekteris (”Flashback” by Herz Frank, among others), is to be a philosophical essay on the good life based on material shot in Tjernobyl and Lithuanian Visaginas and Ignalina, where power nuclear plants are and were. And Latvian Laila Pakalnina (photo), international renowned director, with an impressive filmography, is about to finish a film that is shot by herself while running a marathon, camera on her forehead, with her own breathing and clips to the spectators following the run in the streets of Riga. Pakalnina’s original, some would say crazy, project closed the 2012 Baltic Sea Forum.

http://www.mediadesklatvia.eu/baltic-sea-forum-for-documentaries-2012/