It’s such a great photo, this one, taken by Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis. I stole it from his FB page, where he had this accompanying line:

“There always is The Moment when analog and digital film cut meets…”

Roman Bondarchuk is the contemplating director in the editing room, the film to finish is “Ukranian Sheriffs”, that Cekulis produces and that Bondarchuk makes with his spouse and scriptwriter Dar´ya Avershenko, a talented film couple who is part of the team behind the festival DocuDays in Kiev, who was part of the team behind “Euromaidan Rough Cut” and made one part of the “15 Young by Young” series, produced by Ilona Bicevska.

Precisely that part of the series, about kids playing jazz music and the relationship to their teacher, has been made into a feature documentary, named ”Dixieland”, that premieres in Riga tonight. I have seen a more than rough cut of the work and there is no justice if it is does not travel to festivals all over!

… back to the photo, yes, the moment of reflection, not touching the buttons, not touching the yellow note papers, thinking thinking: did I find my film, the one I wanted to make, the one I had in my head for so long, he is not the only one who has experienced that crucial moment. 

A place for new talent, definitely, is Baltic Sea Docs, demonstrated again at this 2015 edition. The first step for many – ”here we are, we have an interesting project, what do you think of it?” Does it have an international potential? Is it for cinema and/or television? Or for some new platforms?

And the networking aspect – can we co-produce? For someone who has been part of the event since it started on the island of Bornholm in Denmark in the last century (!), it is a great pleasure to see how the Baltic countries have created structures to develop the art of cinema, including the documentary. In the hosting country Latvia you have the National Film Centre to give development, research and production money, the same goes for the newer Lithuanian Film Centre set up in 2012 and the Estonian Film Institute. So the future of the creative documentary, or call it the artistic, is very much linked to well functioning state support mechanisms – and internationally knowledgeable production companies with producers who can take care of both the established and the new talents. This year you also saw several projects being financially supported up-front by two of or even all three Baltic countries.

Like the co-production between Latvian Uldis Cekulis (VFS Films) and Estonian Marianna Kaat (Baltic Film Production) with Kaat as

the director of ”!4 Cases”, a very timely film on the cultural problems that come from the fact that many non-Estonian speaking families ”consider Estonia their motherland, but nevertheless feel that they are not qualified to be full members of Estonian society because of some cultural disconnect and a lack of language”. A film with a focus on the children who grow up in this ”Babylon of Identities” – it was well received at the Forum.

As Kaat, Alina Rudnitskaya has a strong international track record. The director from St. Petersburg is to direct a film with the title ”Fatei and the Sea” backed by the company that produces films with Aleksander Sokurov, Proline Film. The location is Rikord Island, situated at the South-East coast of Russia, the protagonist is a sea farmer, whose profession after the fall of USSR is threatened as he has no support from the state any longer at the same time as poachers are harvesting on his territory. Rudnitskaya is to film there next year from May to October, she has not yet been there and the trailer did not reflect the style of the director. So the pitch was one of those where you ”pitch the director” – trusting that she can do something good again.

The same, ”pitching the director”, was meant to be the case with the well known producer Guntis Trekteris and talented Davis Simanis, whose ”Escaping Riga” and ”Chronicle of the Last Temple” (about the new National Library in Riga, a masterpiece in architecture) are some of the most remarkable films in newer Latvian documentary – to be added that Simanis has been an editor and editing consultant for a long range of films. It was more or less how I introduced the two of them, praising also Trekteris for his producing work of Herz Frank’s last film ”Beyond Fear”. It was the last film at the forum, ”D is for Division” with this synopsis text in the catalogue: ”Four terrifying historical photos mark four places of crime. Four places still have to live with its horrid past. A documentary exploring how some of the darkest moments of the 20th century manifest themselves through particular people and places caught on film, and how these “crime moments” strangely but still intensely affect the life in these places today”.

It did not work, not at all, was it because I overestimated the knowledge of the panelists, probably most of them had never heard of Simanis, or was it because the people around the table did not understand what Simanis – with his trailer – wants to do. Or was it because the project was pitched too early, as it was suggested by Russian Grigory Libergal in the panel. Anyway, the reactions were filled with question marks and even some doses of aggression to “what is the purpose of this project”. Conclusion, the two got some spanking, which of course sometimes can be good and encouraging for filmmakers!

On the website of the forum: www.balticseadocs.lv you will find wonderful photos from the days of pitching and from the cinema, taken by Agnese Zeltina. The one on this post is with Uldis Cekulis and Marianna Kaat, Latvia and Estonia, project “14 Cases”.

Sunday in Riga, second day of the Baltic Sea Docs 2015. I am sitting in the lounge of the 11th floor, where the individual meetings are taking place after the remaining 10 projects of the 23 were pitched to the panel this morning. Good atmosphere, good pitches, good but also cautious comments from a panel, where the television editors are hesitating, whenever there is a project that does not fit slots and profiles. Personally, I like it, was a comment that came from the panel in these two days followed by ”but it is not for our audience”. One even said, ”it is too poetic for our audience”! There is nothing new in this, it has been like that for many years. In general public broadcasting has no space for documentaries with a high artistic and experimental ambition… must be difficult to have a job like that! Don’t envy them!

Nevertheless it was a pleasure to experience how the first project pitched this morning, ”Krucification” by Latvian Ivars Tontegode

was positively received. Knuts Skujenieks is the man behind the title, poet and philosopher, who spent 7 years in a gulag: ” While in the Soviet prison camp, Knuts starts to lose any sense of importance of the surrounding world, and instead – he finds himself. Poetry becomes Knuts,and Knuts becomes poetry; he becomes his own words, creating his own world. In its absurdity, the prison camp, instead of being a rehabilitation facility, has turned out to be a factory producing unique and strong personalities. The weakness in Soviet power is revealed, as the camp’s purpose – to destroy its ideological opponents – instead empowers them…” (quote from the catalogue). The clip presented was a fast pace visualization of Knut Skujenieks words including a rapping constructed from his words. The director has found his inspiration in the film “Black Sun” by Gary Tarn from 2005, who firstly recorded the words of the man, who got blinded and then made the pictures and composed the music. A very promising project that could also come out in different versions. Put the clip on Youtube, was my suggestion.

Also very strong and impressive was the Polish “I Would Like to tell you Everything” (photo) presented by producer Maria Krauss and director Zvika Portnoy, who had filmed three prison inmates after consultations with them – or rather had let them film themselves. They had made videoletters to their children, very moving, and having seen an 18 minutes edit made by the director I have no doubt that this will be another strong Polish documentary about the – to put it a bit tabloid – human side of a the beast.

Baltic Sea Docs has become a place for new talent to be discovered and developed, and it was lovely (just one example) to see a totally charming pitch of the Lithuanian young women Giedre Burokaité and Aiste Zegulyte, producer and director, who took everyone by surprise with their clip (and talk) of “People, Animals and Things” about taxidermists to compete on a European level! Just out of film school the two demonstrated that they know what they are doing, and that documentaries should have several layers. “I love surrealism”, as said Grigory Libergal in the panel. Indeed, there is something special about documentaries from Lithuania.

Tomorrow a final report from the Riga event, the 19^th edition of Baltic Sea Docs, for the 10^th time in Riga.  

http://balticseadocs.lv/