Documentaries in Riga

It has for years been a good tradition that the Baltic Sea Pitching Forum runs a parallel film programme for the Riga citizens. You could call it a mini film festival and there is indeed high quality and in many cases filmmakers present to discuss with the audience.

The opening (september 4, goes on until the 8th) is 158 mins. of ”The Act of Killing” by Joshua Oppenheimer, who will be represented for the Q&A by the producer, Danish Signe Byrge Sørensen. I am curious to see if the Cinema K. Suns is big enough for what I will expect to be a huge audience!

Another international hit is ”Winter Go Away” about the political opposition in Russia made by film students from the studio of Marina Razbezhkina, and it is only fair and right that neighbouring Lithuania has two strong films in the programme: ”Father” by Marat Sargsyan and ”Conversations on Serious Topics” (photo) by Giedre Beinoriute. Both films come with international awards from European competition festivals.

The director of ”Conversations…” (Giedre B.) and the producer Jurga Gluskiniene will be there for Q&A, ”Father” will be covered by producer Dagne Vildziunaite.

And a good choice is also ”I am Breathing” by Scottish Emma Davie and Morag McKinnon, a film that (like ”The Act of Killing”) now runs in theatres in USA.

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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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