Latvian experimental cinema is a relatively little-mastered field, but looking at it reveals strong and unusual works that are made outside the big cinema system and speak a different language of cinema. They are stored in the State Archive of Film and Photophono Documents, as well as in private archives and collections, and sometimes only in memories and stories. The authors of these films are currently well-known filmmakers, artists and other creative industries, as well as lesser-known amateur amateurs.
The screening will feature early films by authors who have gone through very different paths, made in equally different circumstances between the 1970s and the 1990s: Ivars Skanstiņa Twilight toy with a mirror (1972), Andra Grinberga Self-portrait (1972), Arnis Rītups and Haralds Elcera Interruption (1989), Andrejs Ēķa Mission in Kabul (1989), Jānis Putniņa Sisyphus (1992) and Jura Poškus Sunday Morning (1994). All movies will be shown in their original 16mm and 8mm formats.
The films of Juris Poškus and Jānis Putniņš were created while both directors were studying cinema in the USA, and in comparison with previous and later Latvian experimental films, American avant-garde cinema has left a significant impression on them. Andrejs Ēķa Mission in Kabul made in the Folk Film Studio of the Academy of Sciences, which has been known since the end of the 1970s as a place open to various cinematic searches and unconventional expressions. The main and only role is played by Juris Poškus. The work of the time of change is also an abstract film by Arnis Rītup (during the making of the film – Redovičs) and Harald Elcer – it was created without a camera, acting directly on the film emulsion with photochemistry. Originally called Coitus, it has remained in an abbreviated, but probably no less bright version Interruption.
The films of Ivars Skanstiņš and Andris Grinbergs are the only ones left from the experimental theater group Office self-portrait film series. They are considered to be the first radical avant-garde films in Latvia. Twilight toy with a mirror has also been published in the LVKFFDA project this year Parallel cinema, while Self-portrait The copy is housed in the New York Anthology Film Archive, which its creator, Lithuanian filmmaker Jon Mex, has called it “one of the most transgressive films ever made.”
After the screening, there will be a conversation with the authors of some films, where it will be possible to learn more about them.
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