In the third year of the IDFF Artdocfest/Riga in Latvia, it’s time for us to expand and think about an out-of-competition programme. Considering that the name of our festival contains the word “Art”, we decided to present our audience with a programme of the brightest and perhaps the most unexpected manifestations of creative documentaries from around the world.

These include video installations with one’s own body in the Swedish film The Body of the War and borderline genres like in the Sex Relish film which combines animation and documentary. We also included several films about art in the “ArtDoc & ProArt” programme. These are films about artists, directors, and creative personalities in the broadest sense of the word. For example, the Ukrainian film about the actress Larisa Kadochnikova who became the star of a movie made by Paradzhanov – Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors. Or the American film A Life on the Farm about a mysterious amateur director who filmed real horror films on his farm.

The programme will be shown at the Art Center Zuzeum. The closing film of this programme will be a more than relevant German film Music Under the Swastika about collaboration between an artist and dictatorship. If the audience likes the new programme, we will make it an annual event. So, it all depends on you. Welcome to the festival!

Vitaly Mansky