As always perfectly organised by the team at the National Film Centre of Latvia, and supported by the EU MEDIA Programme, the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries was held in Riga September 7-12. There was a festival programme of new films (previously mentioned here), very well attended and with the presence of filmmakers to meet the audience. And there was the presentation of 21 projects to a panel of commissioning editors from tv stations in Europe: ETV (Estonian TV), ZDF/ARTE, DR (Denmark), SVT Sweden, YLE Finland, LTV Lithuania, Arte France, LTV Latvia, Lichtpunt Belgium –and the American based film funds ITV and Sundance, the Jan Vrijman Fund attached to the festival in Amsterdam idfa, and a representative from the sales company Autlook in Austria. Finally the documentary expert Grigory Libergal from Russia contributed positively giving advise on festivals and channels. Libergal was happy to announce that the prestigious Moscow International Film festival next year will include a competitive documentary section and that the channel Kultura will go for the acquisition of creative documentaries.

The panel responded to the projects presented, asked questions, agreed in general on a high quality… and reflected on a whole, covering different parts of the European broadcasting landscape, that there is a crisis for (creative documentary) financing. A decade ago the tv representatives would take risks and enter into pre-buys on occasions like this (”I like it, I take it”), this does not happen any longer. The talent is there, the good projects as well – but the message is clear: it will take time before we are able to commit. The producers need to develop more, have more material to show, pitch in other places, make coproductions that can open the national film funds. That is why the Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries is such an important place to go and meet the market reality, have colleagues to comment on your project and get ready for a long journey. The EU MEDIA programme, through its financing, plays a central role for making projects and films cross borders. Photo: Rada Sesic, filmmaker, expert in Indian films, tutor at the Baltic Sea Forum for many years as well as representative for the Jan Vrijman Fund that has been a very important supporter of documentaries from the Eastern part of Europe.

The Baltic Sea Forum 2010 was very much a place for new talent to present their ideas at the same time as it was refreshing to see an old master like Ivars Seleckis, in this mid seventies, come forward with his proposal for a sequel to the two previous documentaries from Skersiela, the Crossroad Street in Riga. See below.

Davis Simanis brings something new to Latvian documentary. His film about the setting up of Wagner’s Valkyrie proved already the playfulness of the director, who is also an editor. Together with Gints Grube, who for many years worked in television but now comes out as a very skilled documentarian, Simanis has made a film, ”Sounds under the Sun”, that has its international premiere at the upcoming DOKLeipzig. And finally, the Forum saw Simanis launch his new project, ”Born in Riga”, which is a story about two geniuses who went each their own way: Isaiah Berlin and Sergey Eisenstein. They met in Albert Street in 1914 and in St. Petersburg in 1945. Simanis wants to tell their stories in a kind of film noir style where he  creates/reenacts the non-existing archives!

From Lithuania two female directors with the same first name, Giedre, brought forward their proposals with a strong proof that in Lithuania they spell film with a capital F. Giedre Beinoriute (photo from her previous film Vulkanovka) had a wonderful clip with children talking about existential questions: She had – contrary to many documentary directors today – a clear idea of narrative style wanting to film the kids on an empty background with two cameras building the story as an essay. Giedre Zickyte presented a powerful clip on the late Lithuanian photographer Luckus, who killed a man and himself in 1987, being more or less banned from his own country. His widow, lifving in the US, has opened the archive for the director to tell the touching story of their life and giving evidence of the bohemian artist scene in Moscow in the USSR in the 60’es and 70’es. 

Alina Rudnitskaya has previously been praised on this site – for her fine films ”Civil Status” and ”Bitch Academy” that have travelled the world festival circuit with success making her name mentioned as a big talent. Last year she pitched a project about people at both ends of the blood donation business in the St. Petersburg region; it is now being developed with German producer Heino Deckert. This year the director was represented by producer Anastasia Lobanova and script writer Mila Kudryashova who told the panelists that they wanted to make a follow-up of the ”Bitch Academy” to see how life is for the girls 3 years after they were trained to seduce. They pitched with humour and stressed that the film will not point fingers at the girls but treat them with respect.

Another couple was convincing in their presentation – the Ukranian Ramon Bondarchuk and Dar’ya Averchenko. Their subject was the rock singer Igor, who is making a career in Moscow fighting not to lose his roots in the Ukranian town of Kerson. The Ukranian filmmakers were supported by experienced Latvian producer Uldis Cekulis, who met them during the preparation of the project ”15 Young by Young” (mentioned on this site), where they are to make a film about chldren playing Dixie music.

Estonian Jaak Kilmi is at the Forum every year. This is where he presented ”Disco and the Atomic War” (mentioned on this site) that selles well internationally. This year he had just come back from research in Siberia on a film named ”Jesus of Siberia” on the notorious guru, Vissarion. Observational, he says that the film will be, but it would be a surprise me if the humourous touch of Kilmi will not be visible and hearable!

Humour there was in a film project from Georgia, that does not deal with war or Sakashvili! ”Auto-Tour” is the title of the project that – presented by producer Tinatin Kajrishvili –  follows the life of a couple of Georgian men who travel to Germany to find, buy and take back cars to their country – to try to sell them. It is a life style for them, they don’t get a lot out of it, financially speaking!

There is a street in Riga. A quite extraordinary street inhabited by ordinary people like you and me. I know them very well. Through films, of course. Actually I have known them for more than 20 years. Skersiela is the Latvian name for the street. Crossroad Street it is called in English. Grand old man in Latvian documentary film, Ivars Seleckis, and his script writer Talivaldis Margevics, who lives in the street, have made it and its inhabitants world famous. In 1988 they made the first film, in the late 90’es they made number two, titled ”New Times at Crossroad Street” and now they seek funding to make ”Capitalism at Crossroad Street”. Seleckis and Margevics pitched the project at the Baltic Sea Forum in Riga with a wonderful teaser that demonstrated that the old master had not lost his human and humourous observational touch for magical moments. The clip introduced one of the characters, Oris, who ten years ago lived with his mother, who died but lies at the cemetery where ”there is also a place waiting for me”. A little group of  Forum guests went to the street, took a walk around, saw the house of the gypsy on the corner and the unifinished tower house of Alvis, who wants to build high so he can see the centre of Riga. Never mind that he through that will shadow for the house of Daiga, one of the darlings of the first films! The generous sightseeing ended at Margevics place with vodka and salted cucumbers and small snacks on the wonderful black bread of Latvia.

Seleckis and his wife Maya, editor of most of her husband’s films, as well as editor for Juris Podnieks and Herz Frank, published last year a book, ”100 Yeras of Film” – referring to their being in the film business, each of them, for 50 years. I cant read the Latvian language book but the illustrations of loads of masterpieces confirm to me that Latvia was the documentary capital in the USSR… and with a lot lower volume due to crisis, still has a strong role to play today in this genre. The first of the films can be watched online – see below.

http://www.onlinefilm.org/-/film/31017

http://latviansonline.com/reviews/article/2098/

http://www.latfilma.lv/c/seleckis/indexLAT.html

Today the audiovisual trade magazine Realscreen brings an article that informs about a new documentary coming out about Danish environmentalist Bjørn Lomborg, a controversial character in Denmark – though one of former prime minister Anders Fogh’s experts – but a man, who seems to be taken seriously outside his own country. The film, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, is directed by Ondi Timoner (photo), who in the article constantly refers to “An inconvenient Truth” with and by Al Gore.

Lomborg: This is not about the idea of the world being doomed; we can actually fix global warming,” says Lomborg. “Global warming is a real problem but we can fix it and that’s the main difference, if you will, between the Gore version of global warming and what we’re trying to present with Cool It.

Timoner:  Initially, Lomborg was hesitant to open up, but eventually trusted the director’s instincts. Cool It begins with a short bio, delving into the media controversy surrounding his first book The Skeptical Environmentalist, his trial before a Danish panel on scientific dishonesty and his eventual exoneration, as well as a few personal tidbits, such as his relationship with his mother who suffers for Alzheimers.

“I have very poor taste,” says Lomborg. “I can see if I like stuff but I’m not able to put on clothes and see if they look well or buy a sofa and see whether it’ll fit into my apartment. I happily leave that to other people – people that I trust. So in that sense, I [thought], ‘Yeah, OK, if Ondi and everybody else is saying we need to hear about [me], we need to hear about me.”

…Timoner admits she probably would’ve used a similar approach if she had helmed An Inconvenient Truth, but says that now it’s time for the public attention to move on from that film and on to more realistic solutions. “We’re like the follow-up more than the anti-Inconvenient Truth,” she says. “It’s time for the next step.”

http://www.realscreen.com/articles/news/20100913/coolit.html?__b=yes&