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/

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Tue Steen Müller
Tue Steen Müller

Müller, Tue Steen
Documentary Consultant and Critic, DENMARK

Worked with documentary films for more than 20 years at the Danish Film Board, as press officer, festival representative and film consultant/commissioner. Co-founder of Balticum Film and TV Festival, Filmkontakt Nord, Documentary of the EU and EDN (European Documentary Network).
Awards: 2004 the Danish Roos Prize for his contribution to the Danish and European documentary culture. 2006 an award for promoting Portuguese documentaries. 2014 he received the EDN Award “for an outstanding contribution to the development of the European documentary culture”. 2016 The Cross of the Knight of the Order for Merits to Lithuania. 2019 a Big Stamp at the 15th edition of ZagrebDox. 2021 receipt of the highest state decoration, Order of the Three Stars, Fourth Class, for the significant contribution to the development and promotion of Latvian documentary cinema outside Latvia. In 2022 he received an honorary award at DocsBarcelona’s 25th edition having served as organizer and programmer since the start of the festival.
From 1996 until 2005 he was the first director of EDN (European Documentary Network). From 2006 a freelance consultant and teacher in workshops like Ex Oriente, DocsBarcelona, Archidoc, Documentary Campus, Storydoc, Baltic Sea Forum, Black Sea DocStories, Caucadoc, CinéDOC Tbilisi, Docudays Kiev, Dealing With the Past Sarajevo FF as well as programme consultant for the festivals Magnificent7 in Belgrade, DOCSBarcelona, Verzio Budapest, Message2Man in St. Petersburg and DOKLeipzig. Teaches at the Zelig Documentary School in Bolzano Italy.

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