Lithuanian Classics
I write this in a summer house on Bornholm. On this island I met – for ten consecutive years – Henrikas Sablevicius, the godfather of the so-called poetic Lithuanian documentary. I never spoke directly to him (no English from his side, no Russian or Lithuanian from mine) but he was always there to defend the non-propagandistic documentary and his influence was enormous on the young filmmakers.
When in Vilnius a week ago I was given a dvd with four films, one of them by Sablevicius ”Trip throught a Brume Meadow” (1973, 10 mins.), an earlier one by R. Verba ”A hundred-Year-Old-Desires” (1969, 20 mins.) and two by the students of Sablevicius – ”Ten Minutes before the Flight of Ikaros” by Arunas Matelis (1990, 10 mins.) and ”World of the Blind” by Audrius Stonys (1992, 24 mins).
The two first films include some text that is not translated, the film of Matelis has subtitles, Stonys film is (almost) wordless.
All four films describe – in stunning 35 images and with composed music and with masterly use of sound – people and landscapes in that spiritual language that is Lithuanian documentary.
Sablevicius died a couple of years ago. He also introduced me to 999. Thanks.
www.documentary.lt Photo: Henrikas Sablevicius.
