On Thursday, November 14, the international Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival (IDFA), the most important documentary film forum in Europe, begins. The film “To Be Continued. Teenhood” will have its premiere at IDFA, as well two short films are included in the festival short film programme and one project will appear in the industry section.
IDFA has long become a serious brand in the professional environment of world documentary cinema, the festival is taking place for the 37th time this year (November 14 - 24) and annually gathers almost 250,000 spectators in cinema halls and almost 3000 professionals for the film industry events. This year, the works of Latvian film professionals have been selected for participation in both festival programs and project presentations at the IDFA Forum (November 17 - 20).
On November 18, the latest film To Be Continued. Teenhood / Turpinājums. Pieaugšana by master of Riga School of Poetic Documentaries Ivars Seleckis and new generation director Armands Začs will have its international premiere. Film will have altogether five screenings and is a part of a special IDFA program, Signed, which selects "works by today's most original authors that showcase unique artistic handwriting outside of canons."
Two short films by Latvian directors have been selected for the IDFA Competition for Short Documentary. Amongst competition of 16, is the latest work by Viesturs Kairišs and Vitaly Mansky. Iron / Dzelzs by Vitaly Mansky will have its world premiere - the film with scenes of shattered Russian tanks in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, and continues in other countries of Europe and the former USSR, showing the iron of war techniques as speechless witnesses of past or still ongoing military conflicts.
Director Viesturs Kairišs' short film Cohabitants / Līdziedzīvotāji represents Estonia in this IDFA competition, as it was created as one of eight short films in the Arts for Survival cycle, organised by the Tartu – European Capital of Culture programme and financially supported by the Estonian Film Institute. In this cycle, films about Southern Estonia were made by four Estonian and four foreign directors. Cohabitants, produced by the Estonian studio Nafta Films tells the story of a peculiar phenomenon in Estonian geography and society – the small island of Piirissaar in Lake Peipus where for several generations Estonians have been living with the Russian Old Believer community.
This year Viesturs Kairišs is also participating in the IDFA Forum with the project of the upcoming feature film (studio Mistrus Media) Emptiness / Tukšums. Film will tell a story about places in Latvia, Italy, Germany, Romania and UK, where, as a result of spatial changes in global capitalism, regions are losing human resources, schools, services and infrastructures.