07-12-2008

Six Lithuanian documentary premieres at Vilnius Documentary Film Festival

By Aukse Kancereviciute
    The fifth edition of the Vilnius Documentary Film Festival (December 5-14 2008) will host six Lithuanian documentary premieres.

    The festival opened with director Audrius Stonys' new documentary Four Steps, about the metamorphosis of Lithuanian wedding traditions. The 42-minute film was produced by Arunas Stoskus and Kestutis Petrulis of film studio Studija 2.

    Script author and director Oksana Buraja presents a two-part experimental film exploring the nature of creation, Confession. The first part, Crete Island, was made as a separate film in 2007. It is a story about Kestas' ludicrous attempts to fulfil his dream of going to Crete. The second part is a sort of reversal of the first part, revealing the reality behind the camera and the sometimes brutal processes of creation that can lead to coercion. The film was produced by Kestutis Petrulis, Arunas Matelis, and Lukas Trimonis of "Studija 2" and Nominum (www.nominum.lt ).

    Making Preparations for the Film "Margiris" is a behind-the-scenes look at the preparations for the shooting of Sarunas Bartas' historical film Margiris. The film explores the history of the Great Duchy of Lithuania, its fights with Teutonic and Livonia orders, and ancient Lithuanian lifestyles and manners. The film was directed by Valdas Misevicius, with a script by Sarunas Bartas and Rimas Bruzas. The film was produced by Alma Venckute at studio Kinema (www.kinema.lt).

    Other premieres include Algirdas Tarvydas' Nida's Expression, made at Algirdo Tarvydo studija; Dovile Gasiunaite's Northern Spring about piano teacher Gintaras (Studio Uljana Kim); Tomas Brucas reflection on life in pre-war Georgia, 100 Days to the Olympics (producing comapany: www.easy-pictures.com); and Silvija Vilkaite's at Weekend, Inevitably on three good friends spending their weekends partying.

    The closing film, The Bug Trainer, recounts the personality of the first Lithuanian puppet animation creator Vladislav Starevic (1882-1965). The directors are Linas Augutis, Donatas Ulvydas, Marek Skrobecki, Rasa Miskinyte. The film is produced by Era Film Ltd www.erafilm.lt (Lithuania), in co-production with SE-MA-FOR Film Production www.se-ma-for.com (Poland), NHK (Japan), AVRO(The Netherlands), YLE Co-productions (Finland) and LRT (Lithuania).