Film Programmes

19 August 17.00 K. Suns

Retrospection: Austrian Avant-garde

Curator, lector: Jānis Putniņš

When experimental cinema classics are screened, it is common that works from North America are prevalent. However, this time there is an exception – we are showing various important films, made during the 60’s and 70’s in Europe, Austria. But a certain link between American experimental cinema and Austrian filmmakers presented in this programme can not be denied. Peter Kubelka was a close friend of the legendary Jonas Mekas and he often visited New York to screen his films, and Kurt Kren spent more than twenty years in his later life in the US. Yet, while connections with the modernist manifestations of American radical cinema undoubtedly can be seen, the works of Austrian experimental filmmakers have their own distinctiveness and originality, rooted in both post-war Austrian history and in the close ties with such extreme 20th Century art phenomena as Viennese Actionism.

This programme consists of six works by four filmmakers, employing different stylistics and a rich arsenal of means of expression characteristic to experimental film. From an unusual documentary “Unsere Afrikareise” by Kubelka - a witty play with elements of cinema, to the masterful demonstrations of structural cinema in “3/60 Bäume im Herbst” and “ 7/64 Leda und der Schwan” by Kren. The diversity in approaches to cinema are most clearly revealed in two very different documentations of performances by Viennese actionist Otto Muehl, where Schmidt’s poetic observation (“Bodybuilding”) starkly contrasts with the fragmented nature of  Kren’s “7/64 Leda und der Schwan” which is constructed by metric cinema principles. While the influence of Viennese Actionists can also be seen in “Remote... Remote...” by Export, it differs radically from them with its distinctively feminine perspective and largely marks a paradigm shift in experimental cinema.

19 August 20.00 Nurme Brewery

The World’s Aperture

Curator: Tommaso Isabella

Every world comes with a view and, of course, with an end. Every idea of the world entails an opening, as well as border lines: it envelops and includes as much as it restricts and separates. So does every shot and every frame in a film. While we're surrounded by systemic crises that may suggest adopting apocalyptic views about the end of times, I tried to focus on a concept of ‘the end’ that does not concern collective expectations or apprehensions, but rather subjective perceptions and experiences: ‘the end’ as a delimitation, a constant field of forces shaping and containing our existence.

The programme starts with the horizon and ends in a canyon. These films, each one in its own way, probe existential and physical boundaries, they investigate contained spaces or explore deep historical perspectives, they show bodies that confront their own limits, and encounter architectures that restrain or enshrine. Cinema as the art of finding an aperture and measuring a distance, of establishing and testing the limits of a world.

1. Another Horizon / Stephanie Barber
USA / 2020 / colour / sound / 9' / 16mm >> digital 

2. Something to Touch That Is Not Corruption or Ashes or Dust / Mike Stoltz
USA / 2020 / Colour & b/w / sound / 6’45” / 16mm >> digital 

3. In and Out a Window / Richard Tuohy
Australia / 2021 / b/w / digital sound / 12’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

4. Là est la maison / Here is the House / Lo Thivolle, Victor De Las Heras
France / 2017 / b/w / optical sound / 13’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

5. Rost / Rust / Friedl vom Gröller
Austria / 2019 / b/w / silent / 6' / 16mm >> 16mm 

6. mtDNA 1Ce hg / Carlos Vásquez Méndez
Spain / 2020 / colour / digital sound / 12’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

7. Requerimiento / Andrea Bordoli
Switzerland / 2020 / colour and b/w / sound / 8’10” / 16mm >> digital 

8. The Canyon / Zachary Epcar
USA / 2021 / colour / sound / 15’45” / 16mm >> digital

1. Unsere Afrikareise / Our Trip to Africa / Peter Kubelka
Austria / 1966 / colour / optical sound / 13’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

2. 3/60 Bäume im Herbst / 3/60 Trees in Autumn / Kurt Kren
Austria / 1960 / b/w / optical sound / 5’ / 16mm >> 16mm

3. 7/64 Leda und der Schwan / 7/64 Leda and the Swan
Kurt Kren
Austria / 1964 / colour / silent / 3’ / 16mm >> 16mm

4. P.R.A.T.E.R. / Ernst Schmidt Jr.
Austria / 1963-1966 / b/w / optical sound / 21’ / 16mm >> 16mm

5. Bodybuilding / Ernst Schmidt Jr.
Austria / 1965 / colour / silent / 9’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

6. Remote... Remote… / VALIE EXPORT
Austria / 1973 / colour / optical sound / 10’ / 16mm >> 16mm

7. Unsere Afrikareise / Our Trip to Africa / Peter Kubelka
Austria / 1966 / colour / optical sound / 13’ / 16mm >> 16mm

20 August 18.00 Nurme Brewery

Baltic Experimental

Curator: Ieva Balode

Each year the Baltic programme unites the latest films by authors from the region. It includes works by long-term experimental filmmakers, who shoot their films on 16mm and 8mm film formats, as well as the ever growing numbers of new authors. This year new authors are especially dominant thanks to the BAL film school that started last autumn, as well as the experimental film course at the LKA National film school. Many films in the programme, either directly or metaphorically, reflect on the experiences that we all met during the pandemic. This reveals itself through in-depth self-reflection, anxiety and, in the end, self acceptance.

1. Material Aspects /  Paul Kuimet 
Estonia / 2020 / colour / optical sound / 9’15” / 16mm >> 16mm 

2. Center Fugue / Roberts Vanags
Latvia / 2021/ b/w / sound / 3’20’’ / 16mm >> digital 

3. Bonds Of Time / Henrijs Laķis
Latvia / 2021 / colour / sound / 16’ / 16mm >> digital 

4. Père au ciel / Father In Heaven / Kei Sendak
Latvia / 2021 / colour & b/w / sound / 4’30’’ / 16mm >> digital\ 

5. The Bearers of Memories / Miglė Križinauskaitė-Bernotienė
Lithuania / 2020 / colour / sound / 13’20” / 16mm >> digital 

6. Compos Mentis / Linda Lindenberga
Latvia / 2021 / colour & b/w / sound / 6’ / 16mm >> digital 

7. Notes from the underground / Eglė Razumaitė
Lithuania, France / 2020 / colour / sound / 18’30’’ / Super 16mm >> digital 

8. ? / Betija Zvejniece
Latvia / 2021 / colour / digital sound / 2’41’’ / 16mm >> digital 

9. Factory of Collision / Ieva Balode
Latvia / 2021 / b/w / digital sound / 4’ / 16mm 

10.The Silva Method / Mersedes Margoite
Latvia / 2021 / colour & b/w / digital sound / 5’ 25’’ / 16mm 

11. Wildflower Solstice / Ieva S. Aleksa
Latvia / 2020 / colour / sound / 5’ / Super 8 >> Super 8 

12. ReaLitis / Sintija Andersone
Latvia / 2021 / colour / sound / 4’20” / 16mm >> 16mm

20 August 20.00 Nurme Brewery

Nonstop Transport

Curator: Lāsma Bērtule

A dozen films that each in their own way deal with ‘unending’. Brave fights, strange journeys, uncontrollable agents, suspicious mixtures. Burning in sun, love and curiosity; trying not to drown in sadness and liquids; diving into unstoppable images. With the help of electrical light and a marvelous mechanism, they will ceaselessly take us from here to some unknown place, providing comfort and disquiet along the way.

1. Ark / Todd Fraser
Canada / 2020 / b/w / optical sound / 3’30” / Super 8 >> 16mm 

2. Futuro, un film griego-argentino / Future, a Greek-Argentinian Film / Melina Pafundi
Germany / 2019 / colour / sound / 7’45” / 16mm >> 16mm 

3. Re:exposure / Vicky Smith
UK / 2020 / b/w / optical sound / 10’20” / 16mm >> 16mm 

4. absences / ∅
France / 2016-2018 / b&w / optical sound / 5’ / Super 8 >> 16mm 

5. Vanities / Laurent Reyes
France / 2020 / b&w / silent / 5’45” / 16mm >> 16mm 

6. Take a Picture / Josh Weissbach
USA / 2021 / colour / optical sound / 3’ / Super 8 >> 16mm’ 

7. 鳴鳳堂 / Meihōdō / Jorge Suárez-Quiñones Rivas
Spain / 2021 / colour / silent / 10’30” / Super 8 >> Super 8 

8. How Much Longer (on Balloons) / Matt Whitman
USA / 2019 / colour / silent / 2’30” / Super 8 >> 16mm 

9. Infusion No. 1 / Lauren Henschel
USA / 2020 / colour / silent / 3’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

10. Self Portrait with Bag / Dianna Barrie
Australia / 2020 / colour / sound / 6’ / Super 8 >> 16mm 

11. L.o.v.e.s.o.n.g / Tetsuya Maruyama
Brazil / 2019 / colour / magnetic sound / 2’50” / Super 8 >> Super 8 

12. How a Sprig of Fir Would Replace a Feather / Anna Kipervaser
USA / 2020 / colour / silent / 7'30” / 16mm >> 16mm

21 August 17.00 K. Suns

Avant-garde of Latvian Amateurs

Curator: Lāsma Bērtule

Since the end of the 1950’s the amateur filmmakers of Soviet Latvia, mainly working in amateur film studios organized and supported, yet not entirely controlled, by the state, created a huge body of work that is still not a wholly recognized part of local cinema history. This programme shows some of the films made in the 1980’s whose authors can truly be called amateurs in the literal meaning of the word. As passionate lovers of film, they gave themselves each to their own freedom, concerns, skills and unconditional enthusiasm, while wading ahead in little groups into the sea of cinema. Born outside of the industry, yet inside the empire, these “small” cinema films of the 1980’s provide us with a perspective on facing an order that slowly ceases to seem eternal.

22 August 17.00 Nurme Brewery

Remains to Be Seen

Curator: Erwin van ‘t Hart

What makes us human, and what remains when we’re not here anymore?

A programme about life and traces of existence, about our culture and heritage. From fleeting gestures and lost words to the notion of life shaped into images and forms, these films propose ideas and directions for making us remember who we are.

1. Flowers Blooming in our Throats / Eva Giolo
Belgium / 2020 / colour / sound / 8’40” / 16mm >> digital 

2. Una revuelta sin Imágenes / A Revolt Without Images / Pilar Monsell
Spain / 2020 / colour / sound / 14’ / 16mm >> digital 

3. Gießen in die verlorene Form / Casted in the Lost Mould / Josef Graßl
Germany / 2021 / colour / optical sound / 14’ / 16mm >> 16mm 

4. Kitikaka / Florian Maricourt, Calypso Debrot
France, Italy / 2021 / colour / magnetic sound / 14’50” / 16mm >> 6mm 

5. TO forGET / Lydia Nsiah
Austria / 2021 / colour / sound / 17’ / 16mm, Super 8 >> digital 

6. E-Ticket / Simon Liu
Hong Kong / 2019 / colour / sound / 13’ / 35mm, Super 8, SD video >> digital

22 August 20.00 Nurme Brewery

Autumnal Sleeps (75 mins) 35mm-4K

Michael Higgins

In a remote rural estate house, a woman sleeps, she is alone. It’s a time not far from the dawn of the moving image, the obsessed and wealthy Dr. Epstein engineers a number of scientific experiments. He subjects his adopted children, Pete and Re-Pete, along with his darling flapper, Baby Dee, to his various scientific tasks. Things take a decidedly strange turn when Epstein makes a deal with some shifty-looking vagabonds. On doing so he opens a door to the unknown, ruptures the fabric of time and unleashes a shadow-like character bent on reducing all those he encounters to dust.

Special Events

18 August, 20:00 Nurme Brewery

Festival Opening

Performance with BAL and Elvijs Endelis

14-15 August, Baltic Analog Lab

By Other Means for Other Ends

Expanded cinema workshop with Ojoboca (DE)

This expanded cinema workshop is a special event before the festival that aims to teach and produce a new performance that will be performed at the opening ceremony of the festival.

In this workshop we will explore analog techniques for moving beyond the limits of the frame, the screen, and the projection space. We’ll begin by looking at the projector not as a passive device for the reproduction of coupled images and sounds but as a playable instrument. We will explore ways of transforming the quality of the light through the use of an external shutter. We’ll also consider the effects of screen placement and the use of different projection surfaces.

Then we’ll examine the use of sound and methods for incorporating noise, music and narration to live performance. We’ll look at how optical sound can be manipulated using external effect gear such as guitar pedals and synthesizers. To further interact with the mechanical properties of the machine, participants will build contact microphones to manipulate sound through touch. 

To conclude we will go over techniques in the darkroom for creating images that lend themselves to live performance. We’ll make direct positive prints from found or original footage to create loops of various lengths, which workshop participants, individually or in groups, will perform with single or multiple projectors and live sound.

22 August 15.00 Baltic Analog Lab

Discussion. At the End of the World

With: Erwin van ‘t Hart (NL), Michael Higgins (IE), Juan David González Monroy (CO/DE), Anja Dornieden (DE), František Týmal (CZ), Ieva Balode (LV), Lāsma Bērtule (LV)

Moderator: Tommaso Isabella (IT/DE)

In view of the shock brought about by the pandemic, over the past year many of us have been talking a lot about the desirable end of several harmful and unjust things that probably won't leave us anytime soon. On the other hand, one good thing that has been talked about as dead for quite some time and instead is still with us, is analogue cinema. But what are its chances of survival? And under what conditions can it endure and/or mutate in an environment where digital contents and online presentations prevail? Is online streaming more an opportunity to gain a wider audience or rather a surrogate that impoverishes the works and the very idea of a festival as a communal gathering? How cinema in itself may help us bring into focus and interrogate this unsettling present? Grounded in an ethos that rests on coping with scarcity and limitations as well as on pursuing one’s own passions against the odds, the analogue film community has probably much to say about all this.

21 August 23.00 Nurme Brewery

Samopal Sound System

DJ set

After the “Process Expanded” programme on the 21st August in the yard of Nurme Brewery, Lithuanian music group “Samopal Sound System” will perform. Since 2017 they have been organizing underground music events in various uncommon places: abandoned sport stadiums, manors, tunnels, beaches and industrial buildings. The musicians use self-made amplifiers that are specially customized for the genres played by the band: electronics, dub, experimental, reggae and hip hop. Its members, Vytautas Juozenas, Matas Jurginis and Migle Kraučunaite,  make their own music and play vinyl records of works by other musicians.

21 August, 20:00 Nurme Brewery

Process Expanded

The programme aims to showcase contemporary expanded cinema works by artists who are interested in projection as live, spatial and audio-visual experience, encouraging the viewer to expand their notions of film making, showing and viewing. This year’s selected works each in its own way also help to expand the idea of the end of the world,  inviting us to think of time, life, death and otherness.