Projects of the Participants of the Artdocfest / Riga Pitch Session 2019 in cooperation with Baltic Sea Forum for Documentaries
Homeless man with a movie camera
Russia
Director Vladislav Bakhanovich, Maxim Lukyanets, Producer Yulia Zharuk

Homeless director Igor Konovalov had made more than 70 films before staying in the street. When Igor sold his apartment, he made several films with the raised money, which didn’t bring him success. Since then he’s a homeless person - lives in the street, eats at a food bank. But he doesn’t even think about stopping the filmmaking. The next is the jubilee 80th film. Would Igor’s service to «the Goddess of the cinema» bring the profit this time?

The Nameless
Russia, Estonia / Marx Film
Director Nadya Zakharova, Producer Maria Gavrilova, Max Tuula

Each nameless person has to get their name. There’s no place where you can get such an acute feeling of the world and life as in a small neglected town on the edge of the earth. We collect intimate and genuine stories of the nameless people living between the wild northern taiga and an old Gulag prison, which still casts its grim shade on their joys and griefs.

Eternal life
Russia
Director / producer Mergen Irgit

Dedicated to the memory of the Udmurt public and religious figure Albert Alekseevich Razin. On September 10, 2019, he committed an act of self-immolation in front of the parliament building of Udmurtia. He expressed his protest against the adoption of the law on free learning of the national languages of small nations. The film is based on the facts of his biography, interviews with relatives, political and public figures, video archives materials, personal archives of the heroes of the film.

Second life
Russia
Director Anastasia Kozhevnikova

Anton lost his wife in an accident and Anton cryonised her brain. Alexey has cryopreserved his mother and came to sign a contract for himself. Dima’s wife argues with him about the need of cryocontact for himself. Kriorus is a russian company that freezes people after death to give them a chance for a second life. Personal conflicts between Kriorus co-founders jeopardize client’s hopes and trust.

Winner
What if I don’t die?
Russia / Kinoartel LLC
Director Elena Laskari, Producer Evgeny Kokusev

The word ‘hospice’ is usually frightening, but… “Hospice is about LIVING!” says Nastya, an inpatient in a children’s hospice. She likes travelling, she’s learning languages, loves drawing anime, she sings and plays the ukulele, writes short stories and does theatre in the hospice studio…The main goal of the hospice, should the child’s condition significantly deteriorate, is to provide the opportunity to die well, without pain and with parents. Will Nastya's mom agree? Or will she choose calling the emergency, reanimation – hoping for a miracle? The parents have to choose how their child will be dying, however frightful that may sound. Nastya’s mom is ready.

Ghost train
Russia / Magic Mountain
Director / producer Darya Khrenova, co-producer Linda Matern

 «Ghost Train» is a Russian film director’s personal investigation of the post-war era of Berlin and Moscow. It begins with the mysterious death of Soviet cinematographer Ilya Trauberg, a successful apprentice of great Sergey Eisenstein. Ilya was appointed by USSR as soviet manager of DEFA film studio in Berlin, where he died under unexplained circumstances in 1948.  Darya Khrenova, documentalist and granddaughter of Ilya Trauberg  is unravelling a detective story.  Having one single photograph, Darya starts the investigation fearing to discover that her grandfather was a spy or the State security agent. Darya goes to Berlin and tests one shocking hypothesis after another. Skeletons fall out of the family cupboards, leading to the discovery of sinister secrets of the Soviet empire.

Gray
Russia
Director Darya Lihaya

Nowadays Ivan, his 18-year-old daughter Sasha and the Wolf Gray live in a one-room apartment in Volgograd. But 18 years ago, in 2000, everything was different – this film is a jump through the years — a Russian documentary fairy-tale with a Wolf about time, dreams, plans of a small family and the piercing unpredictability of life.

Shaman VS Putin
Russia / Ethnofund Film Company
Director Beata Bubenets, Producer Vlad Ketkovich

Alexander Gabyshev, a Siberian shaman, set off a mission across Russia from Yakutsk to Moscow to exorcise “Putin the Devil” from Kremlin. As his popularity grows up, authorities sent him to madhouse. When others try to free him, a theater collective sets up a play about his journey in Moscow.

Expedition 49
Ukraine, France / Trueman Production&East Roads Films
Director Alisa Kovalenko, Producer Valery Kalmykov, Alexey Kobelev, co-producer Stephane Siohan

Five teenagers are suffocating in the middle of a never-ending war in Eastern Ukraine, while the coal mines around are collapsing. Andriy and his friends are in need of oxygen, they want something to happen in their lives! One day, an old adventurer invites them on a great expedition: a therapy experience, to heal their wounds and allow them to break free. Destination: the Himalayas…