The 4th International Documentary Film Festival "Artdocfest/Riga" which will be held from March 1 to 8 announces its traditional competition program "Baltic Focus", showcasing documentaries from the Baltic Sea countries, excluding Russia.
This year, the Baltic Sea documentarian's lenses bring the audience closer to the frames of
individual and common fate, in which the life and death of every person are locked – Western dreams against the reality of Nepal, breaking tough taboo topics, the everyday life of morgue workers, gravediggers in Latvian burial culture, an intimate and sadly shocking portrait of a Swedish artist, a Latvian documentarian Juris Podnieks as a witness of his time, a young Lithuanian woman as a bright representative of the generation born in the mid-nineties of the last century, integration into society with attention deficit and hyperactivity syndrome, as well as the desire to celebrate one’s existence until old age.
The nine selected works will compete for the prize named after the legendary documentarian and publicist Hertz Frank, honoring the legendary man who, together with his associates, laid the foundations for the so-called Riga School of Poetic Documentary Cinema. An international jury will decide the fate of the films selected for the competition – film director Giedrė Žickytė (Lithuania), film critic and US Golden Globe award jury member Dmytro Desiateryk (Ukraine) and TV journalist, theater critic and screenwriter Henrieta Verhoustinska (Latvia).
More about the Baltic Focus films: Artdocfest — Baltic Focus
“Artdocfest/Riga" will present its screenings in the traditional venues – at the cinema "Splendid Palace" and the Zuzeum Art Center.